Colt Case Ingersoll Garden Tractors

My house came with 60,000ft^2 (square feet) of lawn which gets quite expensive to fertilize several times a year especially with Scott's products pushing $60 per 15,000ft^2 bag. A few years back I stumbled across Scott's weed and feed on sale this time of year in the local Walmart for $15 per 15,000ft^2 bag. For the past 2 years I have been buying Scott's weed and feed + Scott's crabgrass preventer at 50% off at Walmart during late July though September and storing the product for the winter. Scott's sale prices are in store only AFAIK.

This year I found Scott's turf builder triple action (fertilizer + weed and feed + crabgrass preventer) for $40 (normally runs $65). Seemed like a good deal at first until I realized the bags only covered 10,000ft^2 and I'd need 6 I ended up doing some research and figuring out that Walmart's Expert Gardener brand is actually made by Scott's. The formulation is a little different but at the price point, I figured why not give it a try. I caught the Expert Gardener triple action 4,000ft^2 bags on clearance for $5.58 per bag. I had to order it online but there was no shipping to the store option but Walmart literally shipped 30 bags to my house for FREE since my order was over $35. I swear Walmart lost money on the deal. Unfortunately Expert Gardener triple action is out of stock online now but you can score Expert Gardener weed and feed 4,000ft^2 bags for $3.91 each. So next year my lawn's going to be a discount fertilizer experiment.

Walmart links:
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Expert-Garde ... /626925310
https://www.walmart.com/ip/Expert-Garde ... /603561302

I've also tried the Lesco starter fertilizer sold through Home Depot. The Lesco product comes as pellets and spreads really well. No clumps like Scott's Also seems to work well. I have not tried Lesco's weed and feed.

You're got an amazing deal there Matt! That's great. I think if you had boys you'd think about a football field right there! It's a little bit of a predicament you're in, what are you gonna do with all that nice lawn?

Mow it 5 times a week!

Bill

Yep Bill,
I spent money on weed and feed, then spent way more on gas than before Lucky for me the wife owns the mowing duty


Gordy

Get some sheep and goats and they will mow it for you and fertilize it for free.

I about killed my father last time he fertilized the grass out at the farm... For the life of me, I couldn't understand why he was fertilizing when it always stays green, and it's just fieldgrass... We have no animals to graze, and the more it grows, the more we have to mow... It was just insanity.
I like a nice lawn, but I've stopped all the additives at my house, other than mulching the grass back in. Grass has certainly thinned, but not terrible. I think if it died off, I'd probably put in all clover since that seems to do just fine with no help.

Clover lawns are all the rave in the gardening groups on this side of the world. I plowed and tilled a small area of the garden about a month ago and instead of weeds Clover took over in that area. I must say I really liked the look. Being on garden soil it'll gets turned and the nitrogen that it fixed goes back into the soil. Would actually like to have clover instead of grass everywhere, as I mow very rarely.

Timj wrote: ↑Thu Sep 16, 2021 11:20 pm Get some sheep and goats and they will mow it for you and fertilize it for free.

I don't have them, but I do have 3 doe white tails and 5 fawns come threw daily munching and fertilizing some grass, but not enough to matter. They do real well at cleaning up the dropped apples for me though And if there are not enough on the ground they will stand on their hind legs and pick their own apples They seem to have adapted to the "Liquid Fence" I was using to keep them out of the squash, so back to "Irish spring bar soap and a vegetable peeler. They won't come within 15 feet of the squash now, but with resent rains and heavy morning dew the soap is about gone so I will need to reapply it after todays rain passes.


Gordy

Anybody own a decent tow behind spreader?

MattA wrote: ↑Wed Sep 22, 2021 9:45 pm Anybody own a decent tow behind spreader?

I have a large Agri fab, I'd have to get the model off it. Works good, has pneumatic tires. I use it for food plots, don't fertilize my lawn.

You can borrow it if you bring it back.

Timj wrote: ↑Wed Sep 22, 2021 10:26 pm

MattA wrote: ↑Wed Sep 22, 2021 9:45 pm Anybody own a decent tow behind spreader?

I have a large Agri fab, I'd have to get the model off it. Works good, has pneumatic tires. I use it for food plots, don't fertilize my lawn.

You can borrow it if you bring it back.

I've got a Brinley BS36BH? Its #1 on this list but certainly has its issues. Mainly the flat bottom preventing all of the fertilizer from being dispensed and poor flow rate adjustability. At some point I may fab up a shield to prevent the fertilizer from being spread on my tractor and install a grate to help break up the fertilizer.

https://www.outdoorhappens.com/best-pul ... d-or-farm/

MattA wrote: ↑Thu Sep 23, 2021 7:50 am

Timj wrote: ↑Wed Sep 22, 2021 10:26 pm

MattA wrote: ↑Wed Sep 22, 2021 9:45 pm Anybody own a decent tow behind spreader?

I have a large Agri fab, I'd have to get the model off it. Works good, has pneumatic tires. I use it for food plots, don't fertilize my lawn.

You can borrow it if you bring it back.

I've got a Brinley BS36BH? Its #1 on this list but certainly has its issues. Mainly the flat bottom preventing all of the fertilizer from being dispensed and poor flow rate adjustability. At some point I may fab up a shield to prevent the fertilizer from being spread on my tractor and install a grate to help break up the fertilizer.

https://www.outdoorhappens.com/best-pul ... d-or-farm/

Mine is an older 125lb model. Should have a shield to not spread on the tractor. Was always stressing putting a bag of expensive, fine seed in and hoping you got the spread rate right.

Tim I keep a log of my fertilizer settings for each type of fertilizer/lime/seed that I put down. Fertilizer is in the 1.5-2 setting. Lime and grass seed are in the 3-4 range. Not sure what the 4-10 range is for... maybe spreading salt in the winter? I'm thinking of modifying the mechanism so that setting 10 (wide open) is more like setting 5. The trouble I have is there is so little play in the settings at low rates for fertilizer that I typically get the application rate too low and have to cover the lawn again. I typically use a low rate and hit the lawn in two directions. This helps eliminate lawn striping from incorrect fertilizer application overlap.