Current Project: I'm a Lawn Guy

Yeah, it's been a while. I have been trying to think of what is worthwhile content for this blog. I am not interested in telling everyone what I am doing all of the time and I am sure most people don't care how many people I shot at the last paintball practice. Besides...you can keep up with my paintball activities at blogspot.rcarmy.com. So, I was thinking what's worth posting. What do I do consistently that's going to give me content for this thing? Projects & Hobbies. I am a collector of hobbies and I am always getting into a new project. The current project is the lawn.

For the record, I am really only looking to be a "casual" lawn junkie. I want to do the least amount of work for the most amount of benefit. It's surprisingly difficult to find clear and concise lawn care information online. I think it's because it's quite geographically dependent. I managed to find some good information at www.southernstates.com. They have a 10-step lawn care program that's quite informative without trying to sell a particular suite of products.

The first step for me was to rent an aerator and pull thousands of little plugs out of my lawn. Just getting the aerator to and from the rental place was a process all its own. I won't go into the details there.

The latest step was the soil test. I took about a dozen plugs of soil and had them sent off to the Virginia Tech Soil Lab. It was $15 through Southern States. Here are the results of the soil test.

It's a pretty thorough report. It gives a breakdown of all of the relevant nutrients in the soil and recommendations for quantity and composition of fertilizers. It even recommends a fertilizer schedule.

The next post will have some pics of the current lawn...stay tuned.