I recently purchased the Snow Joe SJ620 electric snow blower for use at home. Long story short: I love it!

This snow blower is not made for commercial use, but for the regular homeowner needing an economical (under $200) way to clear their driveway that requires no maintenance and doesn’t give off nasty fumes, this is a great choice. Here is my review below.

Snow Joe electric snow blower review

You guys know that I am not an extremist who hates anything and everything If you are buying “off-the-shelf” lawn fertilizers that come in a 4 or 5 step ‘system’ then chances are you are getting ammonium sulfate as your primary nitrogen source. Ammonium nitrate, ammonium sulfate (sulphate) and urea are all very common forms of quick release or immediate release nitrogen fertilizers. They are quick release because the N becomes available for plant use (in this case turf) as soon as water dissolves it. This is why you are told to “water in” your fertilizer…  But are they good or bad and is there a better way to get a nice green nitrogen enriched lawn?

Positive Results From Using Ammonium Sulfate On Your Lawn

Ammonium sulfate (NH₄)₂SO₄ provides the very best and fastest greenup possible from a synthetic blend fertilizer. I’ve used them all (urea, sulfur coated urea, ammonium nitrate) and none can perform as well. The nitrogen is immediately available for plant use once water contacts it and it absorbs into soils well with little loss due to evaporation. All of this assumes application rates in accordance with labeling of course.

in addition, Ammonium Sulfate tends to provide a much longer sustained blue-green color in Kentucky Bluegrass, Perennial Rye and Turf Type Tall Fescue, mimicking the effects of chelated iron in many cases.

Down and dirty – if you are going to use a high nitrogen synthetic fertilizer for a fast green or to make your lawn grow, get one that contains ammonium sulfate, it’s very affordable and works wonders – literally. Just don’t get in the habit of slogging this stuff on your lawn every 5 weeks until winter! There are better ways…

Negative Results From Using Ammonium Sulfate On Your Lawn

I want you to remember back to when you were a kid and how much you enjoyed getting a sugar rush from eating a bunch of Halloween candy. It was great to suck down Reeses, MilkyWay bars and a bunch of other sugary goodies… until about an hour later when you CRASHED big time! You went from buzzing like a bee, to lethargic and sleepy like a sloth. THAT my friends is what can and will happen when you use ammonium sulfate fertilizers on your lawn.

The AS fertilizer pushes top growth in the lawn… to mega proportions. That looks good at first, but the underlying problem is that the turf root system isn’t stimulated in the same way and it oftentimes too thin and weak to support all that extra top growth. Eventually you end up with a major imbalance that causes the turf to actually thin out and become susceptible to disease.

The only way to keep up the burst of growth and color created by the ammonium sulfate is to add more about every 5 or 6 weeks. Over time, the salts in this compound will ruin your soil.

Am I 100% Against Ammonium Sulfate?

No, as I said, i am not an extremist. There are times when it’s a good idea to “kick start” your grass to get it growing or moving. The key is to balance things out and work on your soil’s overall health in the meantime.

If you are going to use a synthetic fert on your lawn, I almost always recommend applying Milorganite or Ringer at the exact same time! Yep, same time (or soon after anyway – within 24 hours)… don’t worry, the Milorganite or Ringer will not burn the lawn (the synthetics will if you apply them outside of label instructions however).

The reason we apply some organics at the same time as the synthetics is to counter-balance soil biotic activity. I want you to stimulate the soil activity with the organics so that roots structure can catch up to the top growth your synthetic fert is creating. It’s a process, and of course, isn’t going to end up perfect over night, but it’s something that can be balanced out if you will be patient.

If you need more specifics, or want to learn a true, sustainable and responsible way of caring for your lawn, get my ebook here and learn it all!

This is another one of those little known tricks that I use in my lawn to keep it green and healthy and dandelion free! In fact guys, I gotta be honest with you on this one: most lawn care “pros” don’t know much about the use of calcium in the lawn and its benefits.

First off, I want you to get the right source of calcium for your lawn. BE SURE to get calcium carbonate soil amendments and NOT dolamite lime (which contains a little too much Magnesium for my liking) At the end of the article I tell you what and where to buy.

Next, I want you to think of calcium as a soil conditioner as well as support nutrient for overall grass plant health. Let’s explore these two separate but very complementary benefits (LOL does that sound hoity toity?)

Calcium and Lawn Soil

Over the years, the dirt/soil beneath your turf has probably been subjected to all kinds of stress. High nitrogen synthetic fertilizers used year after year can basically strip the soil down to almost nothing. In addition, compaction from foot traffic, weather and mechanical factors can literally “crush” soil bacterial activity. On the flip side, you may have a new home that’s lawn soil is just construction scrape that came from who knows where?!?!

I need you to understand that healthy soil is the foundation of a healthy lawn. Everyone thinks that just “throwing down fertilizer” will do the trick, while in reality, that may be actually harming the lawn’s healthy if done in an irresponsible fashion.

Anyway, since your lawn soil is crappy, you need to do something to get it back in shape… and when I mean in shape, you want to increase natural soil activity (micro-organisms/microbes).

Calcium in the soil acts to reduce compaction which brings in air and water at all levels. This, in turn, allows microbes to survive. In addition, calcium in the soil has been show to help reduce phosphorous loss (Phos is one of the “big three” nutrients plants need).

Finally, and best of all, having adequate calcium in the soil can help reduce dandelion populations in the lawn. Something to do with Ca tells the dandelion seeds not to germinate.

Calcium And Grass Plants

Calcium can also help your grass be more healthy and vibrant. Without getting too technical here, calcium is kind of a regulator in the plant that helps and support intake and uptake of water and nutrients from the roots (Xylem). If it is not present in proper balance, plant vigor can be effected, allowing disease to take over.

I recommend you apply calcium to your lawn in the spring of the year if you find it is needed. How much you apply depends on the product you buy and the needs of your particular soil. You can see my recommendation for a calcium lawn supplement on my recommended products page, or in my lawn ebook.

Final Points – Calcium

As always, I want you to use your noggin’ a little bit before spreading lime (calcium) all over your lawn. Did you perform a soil test? Did you find that your soil pH is off? Is your lawn soil void of nutrients? Are you following my lawn program and keeping organic nutrients high in the soil to begin with?

It’s perfectly fine to add lime to your soil in the spring… just make sure you follow the label directions and don’t over-apply.

If you want to have a thicker lawn, you are definitely looking in the right direction – because a thicker lawn is the ultimate indication of a healthy turf structure (that will also be greener by default). In fact, a thicker lawn will resist all other problems and pressures that can hit your yard during the year. This is not about getting your lawn to grow – it’s about getting your already decent lawn thick and healthy… So in this article, I am going to give you guys the secret to getting your lawn thicker starting right now.

Learn To Grow Seed

If you want a thicker lawn, I want you to become a growing grass seed expert! It’s really not as difficult as you think and it will do wonders for the thickening process. In addition, growing fresh grass seed in your lawn adds in new cultivars that have been engineered to withstand drought and heat, as well as be disease resistant. I recommend that no matter what your lawn looks like, you grow fresh grass seed in it every fall anyway. Either way, here are the best ways to grow grass seed to make your lawn thicker (and a goofy video I did to help drive home the point)

Watch this video on YouTube.

Pretty funny, I have gotten tons of feedback telling me this vid is annoying and I should just get to the point and I have learned a lesson when it comes to doing vids… but the info is still good nonetheless LOL so get through it!

Growing grass seed to make your lawn thicker boils down to these three elements: 1) heat  2) moisture  3) seed/soil contact

Get Your Lawn Aerated

Going right along with growing grass seed is aerating the lawn. In fact, I recommend you aerate your lawn in the spring and fall very single year no matter what. I want you to aerate, and then immediately spread grass seed.

Aeration is the process whereby we take a machine that is a little bigger than a lawn mower is taken across the lawn and cores of soil are actually removed. What this does is loosen compacted soil that that existing grass root structure has room to spread out. When you remove soil plugs, the voids that are left are filled in with grass roots within a matter of a couple days, especially in the fall of the year. Over a few weeks time, the rest of the voids will be filled in with organic material, but the roots that have pushed in will also be pushing up new grass blades, making the lawn thicker! Remember, a thicker root structure makes a thicker lawn!

Use The Right Fertilizer

Getting your lawn thick and green is about 50% dictated by the fertilizer you are using. I want you to keep in mind that fertilizer is not lawn food. Fertilizer for lawns is nothing more than nutrients that support photosynthesis (which is the process whereby plants make their own food utilizing the sun). The nutrients help make the lawn thicker by allowing it to push out more roots and more grass blades so it can create more of its own food through this process.

The nutrients that we mostly need are: (3 numbers on the bag of fertilizer) N-P-K

Nitrogen – pushes top growth (grass blades) and also makes them greener.

Phosphorous – Phos helps support the root structure and density of grass plants and also helps them withstand heat and drought.

Potassium – supports the overall xylem and phloem of the plant. This is the process whereby water is taken up into the grass blades and sugars are transported down and into the roots. This element is very important but is not needed in large quantities.

When you buy fertilizer, there will be three numbers on the bag. The first number is the nitrogen percentage in the bag, the second is the phosphorous percentage and the last is potassium. You’ll notice that with lawn fertilizers, nitrogen is almost always the highest because it’s the one that most interacts in making the lawn greener and thicker.

Best Tip In This Article

This all being said, you should get fertilizer for your lawn that is labeled “STARTER FERTILIZER.” Most of you think that starter fertilizer is something you use to help get new grass seed started – and while that is true, it is also an excellent balance of nutrients that will support an existing lawn. All starters aren’t created equally, but they are usually going to be formulated better than stepped fertilizers. If you use starter fertilizer on your lawn in the spring, you will be well on your way.

Mow The Lawn Tall and Regular

Just like I talked about above, the more grass blade surface that can soak up the sun, the thicker the lawn will be. You should cut your lawn taller to leave more leaf surface. I am on the far extreme and recommend 3.5 to 4 inches tall all year long. As far as regular goes, you want to keep the lawn cut tall but do it consistently every single week. If you miss a week and have to lop a lot off, it will stress the lawn out, and possibly stunt the growth. One of the best ways to keep your lawn green and thick is to mow tall all year long.

How To Grow Grass

I get this question quite a bit actually. Fertilizing and cutting properly don’t mean anything if your grass won’t grow! So let’s break this down a bit first and see if we can’t help you out. We are going to address those of you who are trying to grow grass seed first, and secondly, we will address those of your who’s lawns “just won’t grow” which is entirely a different case.

Growing Grass Seed

Sometimes when people ask me why grass won’t grow, they are talking about growing grass seed. They spread it out in an area and hope it will produce a great lawn… but it just doesn’t happen. If you want to grow grass seed, then this part is for you.

Grass seed needs three things in order to grow properly. Heat – Moisture – Soil contact

Heat – grass seed will not grow if temps are lower than 45 degrees or much higher than 85. It’s a simple fact guys, that spring and fall are the best times to plant grass seed. Any other time will offer extremes that will kill or stunt new seedlings as they sprout.

Moisture – you need to keep grass seed wet ALL THE TIME. I tell people to water new grass seed every single day for 30 days! Even if you think the grass is grown, keep watering for 30 days without fail. Get a sprinkler timer that will turn on the water every morning for an hour.

Soil Contact – Ideally you’d want your grass seed to be sitting on soil and also being covered by 1/2 inch of soil, but this isn’t really possible if you are reseeding an existing lawn. The best thing to do is incorporate your grass seed into the soil by raking it in. YOu can also buy coverings for the seed like Scott’s Patchmaster and these work VERY well… just be sure you don’t spread the patch too thick because it will be too dense for the seedlings to poke through as they grow. As a rule, spread the Scott’s patch VERY thin… it will work. You can also use peat moss for a cheaper alternative. (in the pic to the left, that is grass seed growing up through peat moss at about the 17 day mark – Kentucky Blue)

My Existing Grass/Lawn Just Won’t Grow

Ok, so you have a lawn, but’s it is sparce and thin and just lays flat in the dirt – it just won’t grow. I’ve actually seen this quite often and there are basically three causes for it that we can address. The good news is that each case can be fixed if you are willing to put in the effort.

Too Much Shade – Grass needs sunlight, and quite a bit actually. I know they sell grass seed in the store that is designed for shade, but that is a bit misleading. At the very very least, grass, not matter what type or climate, needs 3 hours of direct sunlight per day in order to grow healthy and thick. Even outside of the three hours per day, it needs what is called “dappled sun” which is where the sunlight can break through the tree cover in spots. If you don’t have this much sun on your lawn at a minimum, then you need to prune out and thin the canopy of your trees. This can be done by your local landscaper or tree company and isn’t cheap, but really can be done successfully every couple years. It’s good for your trees too if you hire a company with arborists on staff that know what they are doing.

Rocky – Poor Soil – This is also very common. I’ve seen lawns that are mostly clay (which isn’t bad really) but also contain lots of rocks and construction debris that hamper grass root development (like in the pic above). If your lawn gets adequate sun but is just flat and thin, take a shovel full of soil from the top 4″ of ground and look at the composition. If you see lots of rocks and other garbage in there, or even an over-abundance of sand, then this is your issue.

To fix poor soil, you have your work cut out for you…

1) You can hire a landscaper to come in with a Bobcat and scrape the top 12 inches of crappy soil off and bring in good, fresh topsoil, spread it, pack it and sod or seed the lawn for you. This will cost thousands but will surely be done right and quickly. This is for those of you who need a faster fix and are willing to pay for it. Of course, if you go this route, hydro-seeding will be cheaper than sod.

2) You can fix it yourself – but this will take time and patience. We need to incorporate good elements into the soil. This method will only work if your soil has rocks in it smaller than 1/2″ on average. If the rocks and in-organic materials are larger than that, you will need to choose method #1 above.

Do this once in the spring and again in the fall until your lawn begins to thicken (could take 2-3 years) We must begin by aerating the lawn. Aeration is a process whereby cores of soil about the size of a role of dimes are removed all over the lawn. I want you to fun the aerator over the lawn two or even three times … This will serve to open things up for the next step which is…  to spread a blend of two parts peat moss with one part top soil across the freshly aerated lawn.

What we are doing is incorporating fresh, good soil in and over time, this will push the small rocks up and out, or down. While you are spreading this top soil mix, it is also a good time to spread fresh grass seed that will help to speed up the thickening process. The key here guys, is to be patient and stick to the plan!

Sour Soil – Poor pH levels – just like any plant, the pH of the soil will play a big part in whether or not it will grow healthy and strong and be able to resist ourside pressures. If your soil is too adidic, we would refer to that as “sour soil” and too alkaline we would call “sweet.”

Neither condition is ideal and the only true way to know what problems you have is to perform a soil test. You can get soil test kits at garden centers in your area. Be sure to test MANY areas of your lawn and not just one or two. We want to get a good sampling of what you are dealing with.

You may need to use some lime to correct the problem. Lime applications can work but need to be applied at recommended rates (read the labeling) and over a course of months/years to have a lasting effect.

When In Doubt – Try Some Fertilizer

Sometimes guys, you may be able to get your lawn growing with just a little boost of nitrogen. Surprisingly enough, it can do wonders.

Now I am not a fan of scouring your lawn 7 or 8 times per year with synthetic fertilizers in an effort to thicken it up. There are much better and more sustainable ways to do this, but if you throw out two applications of high nitrogen synthetic fert on a lawn that is just not growing, it may do the trick and help you plot your future course of action.

Get a fertilizer at your local Home Depot or Lowe’s that is in the range of 30-3-5 or something like that. THe large number that appears first is Nitrogen and you want it to be 30% or higher. Apply an application according to directions in the early spring, and again about 4 weeks later. This isn’t going to burn the lawn or anything, so don’t worry – just apply the amount that is recommended on the label (usually around 3 lbs or product per 1,000 square feet of lawn space). This could do the trick to jumpstarting your lawn for the season so it will grow.

I hope that you will find some help from this long article guys… it’s important to try new things when it comes to getting your lawn to grow. Let me know if you have any questions.

Hey guys, YES, I do actually have some winter lawn tips for you. Just because it’s cold and probably snowy out doesn’t mean we can neglect that little patch of green love. Everything you do (or don’t do) over the winter will have some lasting effect on the condition the grass starts out with next Spring. Here are three quick ones for ya…

Don’t Walk On Frozen Turf

I know it’s tempting to play football on the first fallen snow, or to build that big fat snowman on the front lawn, but DON’T! When you walk on frozen grass you end up crushing the grass crowns which ends up killing the plant and leaves dead spots in the spring.

When you think of a grass crown, think of it in relationship to the hair on your head. Your hair grows out of the crown of your head. It’s perfectly natural to cut your hair (just like you do your grass) and everything works fine. But if you get a hard knock to the crown of your head, that is bad… and if that hard knock was to actually break your crown (skull) you are in some serious trouble!! Grass works the same say… the blades grow up from out of the crown. When the crown is frozen it is brittle and breaks under foot. Got it?

Use “Lawn Safe” Driveway Ice Melter

You are going to have to salt down your driveway to melt the ice at some point. When you do, make sure to get a product that is labeled “safe for properly cured concrete and turf and shrubs.”

These products normally contain calcium chloride rather than salt. Calcium chloride won’t harm the grass when used according the labeling. Of course, “according to the labeling” means use smaller amounts rather than larger. Ice melter is NOT “snow shovel in a bag” so keep that in mind.

Mark Your Driveway Edges Before Snow

Many times the turf gets damaged during winter because you can’t see where the driveway or sidewalk ends and the lawn begins. In this regard, you may end up driving onto the lawn, or taking up chunks of turf with your snow blower.

Get some orange sticks and mark all the edges now. This will keep you on track. In addition, don’t park your car on the driveway in a manner that forces you to step onto the lawn when you get out of the drivers side.

Keep these three simple, yet super important tips in mind this winter guys! It will save you some repairs in the spring for sure.

Mulching Leaves With Your Lawn Mower

Simple lawn care tip today guys – but a very important one. Here in the fall time, most of you are out raking all those falling leaves to the street (if your town has collection service) or picking them up and stuffing them into refuse bags. Gosh that’s one of the things that I dislike most about “outdoor care” – I must admit.

But there is a much better way to do it that will also benefit the lawn – mulch the leaves with your mower.

Now I am not talking to those of you who have a freaking forest of oaks and maples in your yard – that is simply too much to mulch up, but within reason, you should grind up as much as possible and return it into the lawn.

The reason being is that falling leaves are awesome sources of free-organic nutrients that will help build your lawn’s soil profile, increasing soil biotic activity and air flow. The key is to use your mower’s mulching blade to get the leaves broken up into smaller bits that will not block sunlight or pack down and choke the grass. This may require you to mow over them a couple times each week until the end of the fall season, but so what guys – it’s still less work than raking and pulling isn’t it?

Trust me, mulching up fall leaves is a great practice to get into starting right now!

Just this week I got an email from Jake in Iowa asking me “How do I know if the brown areas in my lawn are caused by grub worms?”

I think that is a really good question. The reason is because there are probably 10 or 11 reasons why lawns are turning brown right now and grub worms are only one of them. In fact, I have been on lawns that are being hit by multiple issues this year. Anyway, let’s look at the issue of identifying grub worms… but first, you MUST look at the time of year it is.

If it is the spring time and you are reading this, you need to chill out! Grubs you find in spring are NOT a concern.

But if it is later August, September or October or later, and you find grubs in your lawn, then read on!

The picture below is of a lawn in the Midwest (Indiana) that I recently road up on. The person called and said that their parkway (the area between the street and sidewalk) had turned brown within the last 3 weeks and they wanted to know what was going on. Below is a picture of that parkway:

Brown Areas In Lawn - What Caused These?

Now, at first glance, you might think that the lawn mowing company has done some sort of damage, or maybe there was a lawn disease (maybe dollar spot) that attacked or another insect like sod webworm. The truth is, the damage you see really doesn’t throw off anything typical. It’s just brown areas in the lawn. And the best way to identify the problem is to get down off your riding lawn mower and DIG DIG DIG!

Peeled Back Like Carpet - Look Closely!

Look what I found when I started to pull up the dead grass. Grub worms!

Grub Worms Caused The Lawn To Die In This Area

Now, if your brown spots done’ peel up like a carpet being rolled back, then it may be another issue., but in this case, the grass rolled right back and I found the grub worms beneath. I recommend you check several spots if you suspect grubs, Check the outside perimeter of the dead area, as well as right in the middle. You will probably find grubs in both spots. Here are what they look like in the pictures.

Want to know what to apply if you find Active Grubs in your Lawn? Use these products to KILL grubs on contact, there is nothing better on the market and these are very similar to what we use on our professionally treated lawns.

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Dog Pee Killing Grass??? — You have a dog. Your dog has gotta pee in the grass. But what can you do to neutralize the urine so it doesn’t burn the grass? Read on and find out… this will work.

Dog Urine Neutralizer – A Three Pronged Attack

First off, let’s understand why the dog’s urine burns the grass.

It’s because of the high ammonia content in the urine. What’s kinda ironic, however, is that many fertilizers contain similar chemistry (ammonium sulfate) that is designed to actually turn your lawn green! But a dog urinating on the lawn is not very well controlled, and the concentration is too much for the grass to handle. This is compounded by the fact that dogs tend to pee in the same area over and over again.

So when your dog pees on the lawn, you have two possible results:

1) the pee spot will turn dark green… darker than the rest of the lawn.

2) the spot where the dog pee’d will become brown and dead.

Neither one of these situations is desirable.

How To Stop Dog Urine Burn In Your Lawn

We need to attack this issue is a couple different ways.

Water Down The Dog Urine

The cheapest yet most difficult way to stop a lawn from being burnt up by your dog’s urine is the water in the pee pee. If you can, take your hose behind your dog and soak in the urine. It doesn’t take long, just a minute of the hose will do the trick to water it down enough to stop any noticeable damage.

Stop The Dog Urine Burn From The Inside

Another great way to help stop the dog’s urine from burning up the lawn is to take care of the internal chemistry. There are tablets that you can give to your dog that will effectively neutralize the urine before it even comes out! These tablets are essentially just brewers yeast and they work very well with little effect on the dog if any. Many have used them to great success. They are a true grass saver.

Adding Lime TO Prevent Dog Grass Burn

You can also add some lime to the lawn to combat the pH differences in soil that the urine creates. This strategy works well in conjunction with the watering strategy and is recommended when you have multiple dogs. If you have just one, then it is not practical, but if you have three or four dogs urinating on your lawn, then a spring or fall application of lime can definitely help keep the soil in proper balance.

This one is not a cure-all, rather, just a part of the overall plan of attack.

Dog Training – Where to Pee

The last and final part of this strategy is to train the dog to pee in a certain spot. You can create a “dog run” where you lay down a patch of mulch and teach the dog to only pee in that area. They also make doggie pee poles that will attract Fido to the same spot each time. This is a very effective way to stop your dog from burning up your lawn!

I hope these tips help you guys out. I always recommend using not just one, but a couple of these tips to achieve complete control!

I’m writing this to those of you who have basically done nothing for your lawn all year and are thinking that you may want to go ahead and try to salvage what you can before winter. I will tell you, this is a GREAT IDEA! The fall time across the Midwest is a very good time to rejuvenate your tired and crappy lawn.

Lawn Aeration

Fundamentally, this is the baseline that needs to be established in getting the lawn back in shape after the long summer and prior to fall. Aeration is a process whereby a machine is used to remove cores of soil from the lawn. These cores being removed leave holes throughout the lawn that are about the size of a roll of dimes – thousands of them. This relieves soil compaction and allows the roots of the lawn to expand. This is important because turf expands its root structure in the fall naturally anyway and aerating helps it.

Fall Lawn Fertilizer

Right after the aeration (same day) I want you to apply a well-balanced lawn fertilizer designed for fall. I want you to look for something that has a good balance of nitrogen, potassium and phosphorus. These three elements will help build even more root structure.

The numbers should be something like 20-20-10 or 25-15-10. If you are unsure, look for the term “starter fertilizer” or “lawn starter” and you will be all good! The reason I want you to apply the fert right after the aeration is because this will put the nutrients DIRECTLY into the root zone for immediate use once we get a little moisture.

Grass Seed

If you have some thin spots (maybe from an attack of sod webworms), or your lawn is thin overall, now is also the time to apply some fresh grass seed. You can put it down right after you fertilize with no issue. If you are doing a general overseeding of the lawn, you should apply 4 lbs of seed per 1,000 sq feet of lawn space using a broadcast spreader. Here is a video I did that will help you.