Bermuda Lawn Dominators
The Bermuda Lawn Dominators Podcast is your go-to resource for DIY lawn care enthusiasts looking to transform their lawns. Join hosts Skip Wheeler and Jason Crain as they provide practical tips, personal insights, and engaging discussions to help you dominate your lawn game. With a supportive community and a touch of fun with the "Lawn Beer of the Week" segment, this podcast is your ticket to achieving the lawn of your dreams and have fun on the journey. Let's get greener together!
Bermuda Lawn Dominators
Commanding Your Yard: Pest Management and Lawn Stripes Mastery
Are you tired of pesky pests ruining your beautiful lawn? Ever found yourself baffled by those perfect stripes on your neighbor's Bermuda grass? Well, we've got a treat for you. This episode of our Bermuda Lawn Dominators podcast promises to arm you with knowledge about lawn care that will make your yard the talk of the neighborhood. We kick things off by diving into the world of pest control, sussing out grubs, army worms, ants, and mosquitoes. You'll learn a neat trick involving dish soap that might just save your lawn from being turned into a bug buffet.
Ever had a run-in with a skunk, armadillo, mole, or snake in your yard? We've got your back. We share our experiences and insights on how to handle these tricky critters and manage shaded areas - their favorite hideouts. And if you're grappling with a mole problem, don't sweat it. We're here to give you all the help you need. Buckle up, because we're not just talking about making your lawn look good, we're talking about making it impenetrable.
What's more, we discuss the newest mower models in the market, including the Rolux mowers from South Africa. We also delve into the realm of robot mowers, discussing their benefits and impact on lawn health. So, whether you're a lawn enthusiast or just a homeowner wanting to elevate your lawn game, grab your favorite lawn beer and join the conversation. We're not experts, just two guys who love sharing our passion for all things lawn care. [END SHOW NOTES]
Welcome to the Bermuda Lawn Dominators podcast, the one stop destination for all things lawn care, where we unlock the secrets to achieving a pristine and envy inducing lawn. I'm Jason Crane and I'm here with Skip Wheeler. We're not experts, just passionate about lawns.
Speaker 3:Today we're continuing the discussion on taking your lawn to the next level. So far, we've talked about the four tenets of taking care of your lawn, which is mow, water, fertilize and weed. But what do you do after you've mastered those steps? Well, we're going to explore the secrets of pest control, what to do with those tricky shaded areas and adding some dominating lawn striping to make your lawn the true masterpiece. But first let's quench our thirst with the Lawn Beer of the Week.
Speaker 4:Welcome to the Lawn Beer of the Week, where we motivate your lawn care with a side of hoppy happiness. Join us as we sip on refreshing brews that pair perfectly with tending to your lawn. Get ready to enjoy some grassy goodness and raise a glass to a lawn well done. What do we got?
Speaker 1:So this week we have the 805 Cerveza.
Speaker 3:Oh nice.
Speaker 1:So this is from the Firestone Walker Brewing Company. It's in there on the Central Coast of California.
Speaker 3:Okay.
Speaker 1:And so this is a lager, it's just, it's a light lager and my favorite brewed with lime. Which yeah, I think you're going to like this one.
Speaker 2:I'm pretty sure I'm going to like this one so yeah, it's pretty pretty light, refreshing.
Speaker 1:Good for the summer.
Speaker 3:Got a nice pop. That's perfect. Yep, just needs a little salt with it.
Speaker 1:That'd be ideal, Well you can always add the salt to it. But yeah, it's nice to this brewed with the lime. Already, see, I have to put the lime in there. Yeah, so they have an 805 beer they call it. It's just a regular lager without the lime, but I really like this one better. This is the with the lime brewed in there.
Speaker 3:I like that. The limes are already in there. You got that. Yeah, you don't have to carry limes with you, but it's got that crisp crispness that comes with the lime lime juice that's normally in it. It's a good one. 805 must be the area code.
Speaker 1:That's what I'm thinking. Yeah, I just assumed that I didn't even look it up. So I know that a lot of beers do that now.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they do. I've seen. I've seen a few. I know there's a 512 as well out of Austin area. So, yeah, that is really good. I like that. I could drink more, though. That'd be perfect for finishing up a yard. Sitting out on the back porch and just staring at your master priest back there, that's right, the sun's going down. We are getting close to the end of summer, maybe not the end of summer. I guess we're really in the throes of summer, right, yeah, beginning of August here, but to me I start feeling like we're starting to wind down. But this would be perfect for the heat and the hot that we got going on and hanging out and looking at your lawn. I like this one a lot. Where did you find this? Was this at a liquor store?
Speaker 1:Yeah, I found it at a local liquor store.
Speaker 3:Well, hopefully you guys can find it out there on your own too. It's 805 Firestone Walker Brewing Company. I like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I would like to give a shout out to my sister, Linda, first getting us these awesome lawn dominators Beer mugs. Yeah, beer mugs.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're awesome. She did a great job. I'm so impressed with these. Thank you, Linda, for doing that. You'll have to come join us sometime.
Speaker 1:That's right. Talk all things lawn care.
Speaker 3:Yeah, so what do we got today?
Speaker 1:So today we're going to talk about pest control what to do if you have some shaded areas of your lawn, and how do you stripe the lawn. We're going to talk about those three things. So the first thing that we wanted to talk about was pest control. So I kind of think of it in two different categories. You got the lawn destroying insects right. You have the grubs, army worms, that sort of thing, and then you have the ones that are just kind of a nuisance.
Speaker 3:Ants, yeah, ants, mosquitoes, all those.
Speaker 1:Nats, those kinds of things. So the first category, the lawn destroying ones, those are the ones that are scary to every lawn enthusiast.
Speaker 3:Have you had to deal with any of those?
Speaker 1:I have not.
Speaker 3:I had grubs one time and you know I didn't know that I had grubs. I figured it out and I mentioned it in another podcast that we figured it out because we had armored illos tearing up the lawn. So not only do I have grubs eating the roots, but now I've got armored illos coming and digging up the yard. So very frustrating. So how do you get rid of the armored illos? You get rid of the grubs. How do you get rid of the grubs? So I just went to the big box store and found some grub killer and put that down for that. That's been my biggest thing. But just recognizing that you have it sometimes it takes a minute. I mean. So if you don't have the advantage of a armored illo coming to eat, the grubs, then what would you do?
Speaker 1:How would you know? Or when would you know? Yeah, you see a lot of on our Facebook group. You see a lot of people taking pictures of their lawn. They're like two days ago this was green and now it's dead. What's going on? And a lot of times that turns out to be some kind of you know army worms or grubs. One thing that you can do is the dish soap test.
Speaker 1:You know where you pour the water on, the, mix the dish soap with the water, pour it on the lawn and see if anything comes up. It'll make the whatever insect is in there come up and come to the surface, and then you can identify them there Well that worked for grubs as well, or just army? Worms. I don't know about grubs. I was wondering that myself.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it definitely does work for army worms, so right yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So you know, on the grubs, the only thing I know to do is dig.
Speaker 1:Yeah, dig down and look.
Speaker 3:Dig down and look.
Speaker 1:So what do you do when you find out that you have grubs? You just go to the store army worms. You go to the store and look for something. Yeah, something that I've got that I picked up with and I got this information off of our Facebook group as well is that Byfin XTS? Yes, I got some Byfin XTS just because I saw last year I believe it was last growing season there were a lot of people that were having trouble with the army worms and I just I worried me so I went out and got Byfin XTS Just as a preventative, just as a preventative.
Speaker 1:So do you ever do the preventive treatments, or do you wait until you think you might have something?
Speaker 3:I haven't done any preventative stuff, but I do have I say that I do for things under the ground. I haven't done anything but I do have a bug guy that comes once every quarter and he sprays the yard. So that's mostly to take care of the other stuff that we're talking about.
Speaker 1:Right, like the mosquitoes and the ants and stuff.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Well, I just changed up the pest control company that I was using, because the other one I have comes out and does the fogger thing through the yard and I think that that will take care of a lot of the stuff.
Speaker 1:Yeah probably will. Yeah, we were having a lot of trouble with scorpions in our house when we first moved in. You know it's a new housing development over there and everything, and so you know, one of the first things I did was call a lot I mean a pest control company to come out and start treating the house so that we wouldn't have to deal with that. But they're also treating the lawn, which gives me some comfort too. You know that bifin that I picked up, you can also use it for treating inside your house too. So back at my old house, that's what I did I treated, I did it all myself. So is it a liquid? It's a liquid yes.
Speaker 1:Okay, it's a concentrate that you mix with water and then spray.
Speaker 3:I think you spray the whole house.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I was using home defense just myself. Now that I have these bug guys coming. I haven't done it myself at all. But no, I don't. I haven't put anything on the yard. I have in the past I've gotten the granular stuff that helps prevent the bugs in the yard. Like you know, mostly I was more worried about fleas and ticks for the animals.
Speaker 1:Oh, with the animals, yeah.
Speaker 3:And that seemed to work really well, or I just didn't have a problem. So you don't know, it was preventative, but I haven't done it in a few years.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've used a granular in the past too, before that, and one thing that I found that works really well with ants and again I got this from the Bermuda Laundromaters Facebook group is the Ortho Ant Killer.
Speaker 3:Oh yeah.
Speaker 1:Is amazing. I mean you just it smells terrible, but once you put it down they're gone within minutes. Yeah, it starts killing them.
Speaker 3:We get a lot of the black ants. Well, the little black ants, uh-huh, I forget which ones they are I don't know. I get a lot of those around here and I've used it for that the Ortho and that's worked very well for us, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it worked great. We got a lot of the fire ants up in North Texas, israel. Whatever I was using before and I don't remember which one it was it was something that I had bought at. Lowe's or Home Depot or somewhere like that. I think it just made a move.
Speaker 3:Yeah, maybe. So At least it moved maybe into the neighbor's yards.
Speaker 1:Yeah, but I would see, you know, I would treat an ant hill and then I would see another one a few days later a little farther down. But whenever I got the Ortho that that killed me, yeah, I didn't have to keep treating them over and over Without. It was a constant battle.
Speaker 3:So you know what else you can do for the flying stuff around the backyard or the front yard, whatever it is, especially for mosquitoes flies and that stuff like that is a bat house. So we don't have a bat house here, but we do have a cave really close by my house and then also we're only a few miles away from the largest bat colony in the states or something. But so because we have so many bats around here, we very rarely have flying bugs. But if you don't happen to live close to a cave, most places you can put up a bat house and it'll attract the bats and just having a few bats flying around at night will take care of most of them.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I've noticed that since I've moved closer to the bat caves here that we don't have that much trouble either, and we have seen bats in our backyard since we moved here. We didn't have that back in my old house.
Speaker 3:It is nice to have it and, like I said, if you don't have a bat cave nearby, just get you a bat house. You can get them on Amazon. They're not real expensive. You just got to put it up high. The bats will come if you build it for them in most places. So let me just be like barn. They'll move in and they'll take care of a lot of that stuff for you.
Speaker 1:So if you build it, they will come.
Speaker 3:Yeah, absolutely what else we got?
Speaker 1:We got a yeah you were talking about the armadillo that came to eat your grubs. So, we do have other pests animals that get into their yard and can make a mess of it too.
Speaker 3:You know, the armadillo is just one thing, but it gets snakes around here, deer. Those are probably the biggest issues around here. I mean, we have had mice when we first moved in, but it was a new neighborhood they were building, they were probably displacing, they were filled mice. So we had an external. But the deer. They can be a big pain, but the biggest way to keep the deer from coming around is just make sure you have nothing in your lawn that they want to eat. That they want to eat yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:I have seen people use a spray that they were spraying on the plants and then supposedly Makes the deer not want to eat those plants. I don't know how well that works. I don't know if anybody this thing has ever used anything like that.
Speaker 3:I've never tried it but, the deer do come through my yard, but there's not a whole lot, we're just wandering through, right they don't. They don't nibble on anything. But if you try to put up a new tree or anything, it's, it's gonna be right.
Speaker 3:So that's the deer. The biggest thing for us is probably the snakes, because we still get snakes and the Way I've tried to prevent that is I keep everything Mowed and well kept, because they tend to like higher grass somewhere they can hide. Yeah, generally speaking, we haven't had one in a few years now. We'll get some garden snakes here and there, but we've had coral snake, we've had rattlesnake. We haven't had them in a while now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I've been at our new house, I haven't seen any snakes. At our old house we saw snakes quite frequently, but we were backed up to like a green space I guess you recall it where it was pretty overgrown and I'm sure they were thriving in that area, but we only saw rat snakes. Some of our neighbors would see rattlesnakes, but we left the rat snakes alone.
Speaker 1:So that they could eat the eat the rodents. Keep that population down for us. And another thing that we had trouble with I'm back in North Texas. I don't know if we have it here in South Texas as much as the gophers.
Speaker 3:Oh really yeah. What'd you do about those?
Speaker 1:Most people would Just trap them. I mean, that's about. The only thing that you could do is to really get rid of them. I've tried all kinds of things like running the water hose down in the hole, trying to drown them?
Speaker 3:Flood them out? Yeah, maybe not drown them out, yeah, but I don't know.
Speaker 1:I've poured gallons and gallons of water in the holes and nothing happens, and so Most of the time you just have to trap them and re-home them. So I can't I don't know of any other thing other than it poison them, which I think a lot of people don't like to do, just because you don't want any other you know, you don't want pets or anything to to get a hold of that poison or any other animals out there.
Speaker 3:It's the same way with the armadillos you can't even Poison them very easily, because they'll only eat what they dig up. So there's no good way to bait an armadillo.
Speaker 1:So you just kind of got a.
Speaker 3:You just got to trap them.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:That's what we do. I have a trap out there if you ever need one. Okay, yeah, it's up in my my shed, but Thankfully I haven't had to use it in a long time. Yeah, and one of the neighbors you know I'm reluctant to use it because we also have skunks.
Speaker 1:Oh, yeah, yeah, I just skunk in one. Yeah, now you can have the trap, he can have the trap. I don't know what you can do. That's his new home.
Speaker 3:One of the neighbors did catch one, one year, and oh no, it was so much work for them. But you know they end up having to cover it and yeah. I don't know how they ended up doing it. It was uh. There's lots of recommendations on how to do it and some of them were not very humane. I just I thankfully I've never had to deal with it.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I like to re-home stuff. I don't typically try not to kill anything. I can help it, but I'm not against it if you have to. But I prefer not to do it myself, that's all.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, I'm the same way. I would prefer not to, if I, if I can get away from it, and moles, moles are something that I've never had to deal with. I've never had to do either.
Speaker 3:The only thing I know about them is from the old movie Bill Murray.
Speaker 1:Caddy shack. Yeah, I think those are gopher's though. Oh, those were gopher's. Yeah, you're right, it wasn't even moles. Yeah, moles. Moles are evil looking creatures. Yeah, they are.
Speaker 3:I've never had to deal with them and I'm not even sure what part of the country that they're popular. I think the east coast right, it's what I'm.
Speaker 1:I think I'm not even sure, I don't even know.
Speaker 3:So if anybody knows, anybody has an experience of that? Shout out to us on the facebook page and let us know how you deal with those.
Speaker 1:Yeah yeah, I've seen a few people trapped the moles too on there. It may be the same thing, probably not a whole lot else you can do. Yeah, trap them or poison them, that's pretty much right, and I know that they make Sprays for for snakes to, to keep snakes out. You know, you spray the perimeter of your yard, but every the reviews I've read on that stuff is like it doesn't really work yeah.
Speaker 3:I've read the same things and to me, if you keep the lawn, you know you keep their hiding areas down Because they don't like to be out in the open. You keep the hiding areas down, then you're generally pretty good.
Speaker 1:Yeah, you might find one here in there.
Speaker 3:We had a baby, one who pulled the other day. Yeah, I just set them out and let them go talk about shaded area. That's a big issue for a lot of people.
Speaker 1:Yes, it is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, your new yard right now. You don't have to worry about that at all, do you know?
Speaker 1:There's no shade in my new yard. Yeah. I have a few trees that are Barely limping along in this heat right now, and yeah. Not causing any shade problems, that's for sure. I had the. I had shade issues in my old house, so that you know I've talked about before how I rehab the back lawn and one of the best, best things I did for that back lawn is we got rid of a huge pecan tree. That was causing a lot of shade.
Speaker 1:We got it. That's not the reason I got rid of it. Um, it was just. It was Too close to the patio and when we got rid of that it helped immensely On that section.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'll get it up. You got a sign on it.
Speaker 1:And the Bermuda just spread like crazy once we opened it up and in the front yard was completely shaded. I had three big mulberry trees in the front yard and the only it I had. That's why I had st Augustine in the front. Is because it would be growing that shade when the Bermuda would not.
Speaker 3:Yeah, there's no way Bermuda would have grown in there.
Speaker 1:And I did have an area on the side of the yard under two big oak trees and I nothing. I grew dirt over there. That's.
Speaker 3:A lot of people have a section of the yard that's like that right, she's on the side of a house and maybe between, especially if your houses are close together.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then you get.
Speaker 3:There's going to be a section that just doesn't get much sun on a lot of houses. In those situations it's best to put down some gravel, grow some gravel over there. Right because there's not a whole lot else you're going to be able to do now.
Speaker 1:That's. That's what I should have done over there. I just it was one of those things that I just never got around to doing while we lived there. But yeah, it just needed a bed. We tried planning some kind of Ornamental plants that were supposed to do well in the shade, and Even those didn't survive in there. It was just the too thick, and we kept the canopy high as we could, yeah, but they were just huge oak trees and they were close together, so Uh, didn't let any sunlight in, hardly at all.
Speaker 3:But it's also nice that it shades your house.
Speaker 1:This time of year, oh yeah absolutely. It's a trade-off.
Speaker 3:It is a trade-off, for sure, in those situations, you know, finding an alternative, maybe not even if it's not rock, you know, maybe mulch or something, right, put that down, something that just shows that you or just kind of covers up that area, covers up the dirt, so you just don't have bare dirt, because otherwise you're going to have erosion and Other issues over there. So right, that's why I like to cover it up with something.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and I. I have seen a yard where they had Bermuda in the sunny part of the yard and St Augustine and the In the shade yeah. Yeah, and then they just cut the Bermuda a little higher than most people would have cut the Bermuda. You know, they grow probably a couple inches and then that'd be interesting to try to keep it all the same.
Speaker 3:It'd be interesting if you could try, if you're artistic enough, to Build you a design with right, exactly, yeah, that's interesting that I know a lot of people end up having to have two different grasses in the yard just for that reason. Yeah, so yeah, different types of grass, you have that on here. Ornamental ornamental plants.
Speaker 3:Yeah mulch beds. So I don't know what else you can do about shaded areas. I Haven't had a whole lot of experience with them because we just haven't had that much of a problem, but Flower beds around the trees. Now, one thing I'll mention is if you're going to put mulch around the trees, make sure you don't put the mulch up against the base of the tree. If you put the mulch up against the base of the tree, you can choke out the tree. The tree will start growing roots at the mulch level. Now You've essentially reset the the height of the Ground for that, so you want to keep the mulch, kind of like a donut, around that tree. So try to keep the mulch away from the base.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's good advice. I know the trees that they planted in our yards.
Speaker 3:They just they just put it right up Piled it right up against it, yeah. Did you move it out already?
Speaker 1:We did for a couple of the trees. They just replaced one in the front and they added more mulch to the pile. We haven't done that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I've seen that happen with my tree out front the mulch even though I put it in a donut away from it Over time, it ends up right up against the base and then it starts sprouting some roots into that mulch. So it essentially raised my base but then we end up putting flower beds around those trees with rock, with the bricks and rock. Yeah, One of the reasons that bothers me or worries me about that, is that then you're bringing the roots up to ground level, so then you have other issues, right.
Speaker 1:Right.
Speaker 3:So I know a lot of people, especially in shaded areas, they get the tree roots coming in and then what do you do? You know you got shade already. You're fighting that. Now you got tree roots sticking up. So that's why I say mulch it or put a flower bed up and write it.
Speaker 1:That's the best thing you can do, yeah.
Speaker 3:Okay, so you want to talk a little bit about some striping as well.
Speaker 1:Yes. So how do you strike? So I mean, what's the method of striping? So I know a lot of people have the reel mowers with the rollers and the yeah, so Bermuda doesn't strike real well, does it?
Speaker 3:I mean it does, okay, depending on, I guess, depending on the, but it doesn't strike as well as some other, but it will strike and if you have something that will help with your striping. So let's talk about what striping is right. So striping, we're talking about the dark and light lines in your yard that come from mowing it, and what causes it is the way the sun's hitting it, right. So there's a few tricks you can do to kind of enhance those stripes.
Speaker 3:Number one is if you do it in the direction of the sun. So with the sun at your back you're going to see those stripes a little bit more than with the sun. So that's one thing you can do is strike with the sun, right. The other thing you can do is especially if you're using a rotary is, getting a striping kit. They sell striping kits or you can just make one. I made one for my rotary mower back when I first started this. I just got some four inch PVC and a couple of caps, put some sand in the middle of it and chain that to the back of my rotary mower and I drug that around behind me and what it's doing is it's laying that grass down so that when you're laying the grass down in one direction it's going to give off a different shade than the striping. So dragging that pipe with sand in it so you need something with a little bit of weight help those grass blades lay down. That made the stripes a little bit more prominent. That's the number one thing is just a striping kit, or maybe a real mower with a roller on it. Okay, well, based off of all that, you guys should be experts in lawn striping.
Speaker 3:Now I want to talk about some of the new machines coming to market, so the Rolex mowers which are coming to the US from South Africa. So Chris and I were going to go out there but our flights got canceled at the last minute Not by us, they got canceled by American Airlines. They had a mechanical issue and because of that so we're flying out Saturday morning. This past Saturday, because of this mechanical issue, we couldn't get to our connecting flight in Dallas in time to get out to Atlanta, so we had to be there by three. The earliest they could get us out there would be 7pm. So we ended up Chris and I ended up not going, but Tyler was able to make it out, so I'm looking forward to seeing what he's got to say about it. I did talk to him on the phone a little bit and he absolutely loved the mower.
Speaker 3:I haven't seen him, but I've talked to several people that have used these mowers. Have you seen him at all?
Speaker 1:I've seen, so I've been to the website, looked at the mowers on their website before and then. I don't know if you saw the post, but Dwayne Sanders.
Speaker 3:Yes, I saw that. Yeah, so he was out there at that same event.
Speaker 1:Yes, and he posted some pictures of them and they look really cool. Yeah, they're towards the professional end of mowing.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're going to be heavy, solid mowers, so they and I believe they come with a Briggs and Stratton or a, I think by even having an option for a Honda mower. I'm not positive on the Honda motor.
Speaker 1:Motor, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 3:But Tyler was very impressed. I've talked to several people in the lawn business and they really liked the Rolex brand and I know they've been around for a long time. I think this is their first time coming to the US. I know they've been around Europe and South Africa for a long time, so I'm anxious to see these and try these out. I have a Swartman and it's been a great mower. I've had a couple of parts break, but they've been great about fixing those. I've had a California trimmer, which is what I think you have now.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that's right, and those are great mowers too, yeah.
Speaker 3:I haven't used the what's the other one? True cut True.
Speaker 1:Yeah, true, cut's a manual one, yeah.
Speaker 3:I can't think of the other one, McLean McLean.
Speaker 1:What is the one I'm trying to think of?
Speaker 3:Yeah, I haven't used a McLean personally, but I know a lot of people swear by them. Yeah, I know each person has their own preferences, for sure, but I'm anxious to try this one out and I'm excited that Bruce and Stu are bringing these over from South Africa and look forward to seeing what these mowers can do, how they feel.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I was looking at the ones that Dwayne had posted on the Facebook group and that back roller that's it's way bigger than the one on my California trimmer.
Speaker 3:Oh is it.
Speaker 1:Yeah the thing, it looks like a beast.
Speaker 3:Is it like the driving wheel or yeah? Like the driving wheel. Okay, yeah.
Speaker 1:And then also the handles on it. It looked like it would be a lot more comfortable than the California trimmer that I have too. Looks a little higher. Yeah, a little higher, like built like handlebars, you know, instead of. I noticed that.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it looked like a chopper.
Speaker 1:Right, exactly, yeah, yeah so.
Speaker 3:Very unique look. They look very solid and there's a couple of guys out of South Africa, or at least one that does a YouTube channel, and I've watched some of his. They look really good. They look like they do a great job.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:So I'm anxious to try them. These will be something interesting to try. Now. I'm still using the robot mower, though.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I'm using the robot mower and just to catch people up if you haven't, if you haven't been listening, but my motion sent us a robot mower to try out and to review and it's been awesome. I've really have enjoyed the cuts better than I expected and I've enjoyed not having to go out in this hundred degree heat. Quite frankly, yeah, it did a better job on the front lawn, where I typically use a real mower. It's did a better job on that than I expected, so I'm still using it. I was this morning I woke up because I sent it out at 10 o'clock last night and this morning I woke up and checked on it and it was not in the charger. It was just in middle of the yard. So I'm not sure why it stopped. But when I opened the app it said it needed to update the app and the um, the software on the mower itself, and it wouldn't let me do anything else until I did that. Unfortunately, the mower was at 24% and it won't let you upgrade the firmware unless it's got 30% or more.
Speaker 1:So it's like catch 22. It was a catch 22.
Speaker 3:So you know that's part of being in a um early adopter and I have a high tolerance for this technology and I don't mind putting up with these, these nuances, when it's new like this. They're working on stuff like this and they're working out the kinks. So I noticed the. I did get it fixed. I got it put back on the charger, got it charged up, got it the firmware upgraded. The app is upgraded, or updated rather, and I noticed in the new app that it's got some scheduling features in there that weren't there before. So I'm anxious to look at that. I haven't looked at it yet but I still like the mower.
Speaker 3:I took it this weekend. I took some time and cleaned it up a little bit. Razors are still smart, just as sharp as they were when I started. Of course, it's only been about three weeks.
Speaker 1:So, um, so, what kind of maintenance, other than cleaning it up every once while, are you having to do on the with it? That's?
Speaker 3:pretty much it. I rented off with the uh hose. A lot of that has to do more with it. It's just been so dry and dusty right yeah, especially in the backyard and with that dust it does kick up and um block those sonic sensors on the on the front. So that may have been the problem this morning, I don't know if it was the dust on there that was causing the problem?
Speaker 3:I don't think so, and I don't know what happened last night. I suspect they dropped that firmware update and the mower got to the point where it couldn't go any further because it had the firmware update, and so maybe they need to look at how they are dropping these firmware updates, because I think that yeah, but the maintenance as far as that's it. I mean you can after about 50 hours you flip the blades over and use the other side of them. They're sharp on both sides.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so after a hundred hours you're replacing the blades replaceable. So what are the blades you just ordered from a motion, or can you get them other places too?
Speaker 3:Right now, as far as I know, the motion is the only place. I'm sure there's other people, because there's other mowers out there that use these type of blades. Okay, so you could probably get them anywhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:I bet you I haven't looked so, but I suspect you could probably find them on amazon or something. They're thicker than regular razor blades, right, and they're stainless steel so they're Um. They won't rust or anything, but I could tell. When I was looking at it this weekend I could tell that there's a little bit of wearing on some of them. You know, I don't. I do have rocks and stuff out in these yards and it may have run over, hit a rock or something, but most of them are just fine.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so, and they're pretty easy to switch out. Yeah, it's just a single.
Speaker 3:Uh, philips, screw. Yeah, it's easy. You know, the biggest hurdle or the biggest cleanup I've had to do on it so far is when I let it go mow In the morning when there's still dew so that was a little painful.
Speaker 3:So I make sure I don't do that. Make sure the grass is dry before you know that's your. I mean, you're not gonna hurt the grass, but it will make a lot of work and clean up your mower. You don't want all that stuff caked under there. Yeah, so, but other than that it's been almost no maintenance at all.
Speaker 1:Yesterday I mowed and it was Over 100 degrees. I waited till later in the evening, but it was still. It was so hot yesterday that Even at nine o'clock I was sitting outside and it was 97 degrees. Yeah so and I was thinking, man, I wish I had something to mow, this besides me in the backyard. I think I'm at the point now I mean I'm new to real mowing with the power real and I'm excited about that, and I would I.
Speaker 1:The front yard definitely will be real mowed for At least a few years. Yeah, but the backyard I thought if I had something that could do it for me Today. I would, and even my wife mentioned it. She's like how much are those robot mowers? So I looked it up and the the 1000 1000, I think, would be.
Speaker 1:I mean it mows a quarter of an acre and it's like 1900 dollars. So it's about 500 more than I paid for my California trimmer. So that's not too bad. I know when, when they, the robot mowers first came out A few years ago, you know they first started. I started seeing them, I was looking at them and they were like $5,000.
Speaker 3:So the price has really come down on those not only $5,000, but they also had a perimeter wire right and I refused to do a perimeter wire because it's an acre and I don't.
Speaker 3:I just did not want to do a perimeter. The other thing I didn't like about those is they were random mow, so these things would just bounce all over your yard On a schedule right. It would not go back and forth in a straight line or anything like that. It was literally just bouncing around from one side of the yard to the other till it hit that wire, and so I didn't like that. I didn't like the idea that it was just random like that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so a shark vacuum right.
Speaker 3:Yeah, like the old vacuums, when they first came out, they were doing that that way. So that's what's kept me from doing the robots for a long time. But I tell you, in this July and August you start thinking I need, I need a solution, besides me going out there, because you're right.
Speaker 3:It's. It's 100 degrees till 9 10 o'clock at night. So yeah, or at least in the high 90s. Yeah, and it's just it's too much to try to do on your own. So Initially I thought a robot would just be a supplement to what I was doing, and it probably will be in the long term. But to be honest, since I got it here in July and it's now August, right now I'm just letting it do it. Maybe in September I'll start bringing out the reel again, but right now I'm just gonna let this mower take care of it. And the nice thing about it I don't run it in the heat, so I wait till middle of the night.
Speaker 1:Let it run at night, because it doesn't need any light, doesn't make a lot of noise, no, noise at all.
Speaker 3:Yeah, very little noises. You can't hear it from very far away. You can stand next to it and talk, just fine. It's snuck up on the dogs before.
Speaker 1:So, that tells you how quiet it is.
Speaker 3:Yeah, I'm not pushing robot mowers, I'm just saying I'm over 50 and 100 degree weather out there. So you know, working smarter, not harder.
Speaker 1:That's right, that's right, that's my motto.
Speaker 3:I heard you have an armadillo store.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I do so. This armadillo wasn't in the yard, all right. No no, so um, this was several years ago whenever my uh son was. He was probably about Five years old or so.
Speaker 3:That was a long time ago. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, he's a grown man now. Yeah so we so, uh, we had gone to to the store or something. My uh, it's my, now my ex-wife, but my wife at the time and my son and we come back and I Open the garage door and I look and things are in disarray in the garage. Oh no looked like somebody had broken in, and so I'm walking in there. I'm uh, I'm like y'all wait in the car, I'll go in and See what kind of intruder we have.
Speaker 3:Yeah.
Speaker 1:So I'm walking in there and the ladder is knocked over and you know, toolboxes are knocked over and things are strewn about and I and then I turn around, my son's following me. I'm like get back in the car. He comes on in there and then, uh, there was an armadillo in there.
Speaker 3:Oh no.
Speaker 1:So apparently the armadillo had gotten in In the time. I had opened the door to get the car out to back the car out and then I closed the door on him and he have you ever tried to herd armadillo? Oh yeah, they. Apparently they don't see very well.
Speaker 1:No, they don't see, so he wasn't a bit scared of me because I guess he didn't know I was there, and so I was trying to Using the broom trying to direct him out of the garage. But my son did get back in the car when he saw the armadillo. He was like yeah, jump back in there pretty quick, that was that was the end of that, and so I got him out, and then I never saw it again, so I wasn't Rooting through my yard.
Speaker 3:So you were able to get him out with the broom, though. Yeah, I was. Yeah, that's eventually he yeah tried to climb the wall a few times and things like that you know, when I've caught them in the traps they they try Very hard to get out, they just keep ramming the trap. The problem is you catch them in the middle of the night while you're asleep, so you don't know for a few hours. So usually when you wake up and you check on them they get a little blood on them somewhere.
Speaker 1:Yeah.
Speaker 3:But every single time I go to release them I take them Across the county and open up that trap and they would just sit there. You'd have to poke them with the stick a little bit to get them out of there. So I don't know that there's smartest rodent out there, but yeah, yeah, I paint between them, being dumb, and I can't see yeah mr Magoo running around.
Speaker 3:Well, they can definitely be past, for sure, and I've had to deal with it and you know some years. You know it seems like everybody deals with the same lawn issues at the same time, right? So everybody in the neighborhood had we had a lot of grubs that year, so we caught eight or 10, 12, something like that between me and all the neighbors and we end up re-homing all of them. There's a lot of work and it was very painful in. The lawn looked pretty rough.
Speaker 3:So, it's very frustrating to get up the next morning and see all this digging up in the lawn.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the good thing is, the Bermuda recovers pretty quickly.
Speaker 3:Yeah, it recovers very quickly. It feels a little fertilizer down and water it in real good. Some extra nitrogen push that growth yeah. It'll recover. You want to do some? Bermuda lawn dominator. Facebook group shout outs for this week.
Speaker 1:Yeah, sure do.
Speaker 3:What do you got?
Speaker 1:So the first one we have is Tony Stewart and he has a picture. He has two pictures actually that you posted on Stripe and I thought it was pretty relevant to what we were talking about today. So he's showing. The first picture shows pretty defined stripes in his yard and he says stripes facing north, with the sun behind my back. And then he takes a picture from the street and he says stripes that everyone sees driving by and just because of the sunlight, direction of the sunlight, you can see the stripes still.
Speaker 1:But they're not as defined.
Speaker 3:Yeah, they're not as defined.
Speaker 1:The first picture. They're super defined, and so it's just like what you were talking about earlier.
Speaker 3:Yeah, if you can get those stripes where the sun's going to be at people's back when they go by. I mean, this depends on which side of the street you're on, I guess, but that's really the secret to it. But the second part of that is just lining it up with the sun so as well. So I tried Mine's about a 30 degree offset from the street to line mine up with the sun. I'm pointing my stripes right at my neighbor, but yeah that's OK with me, tony. It looks good though.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it does look good. Thanks for sharing that. It looks really good.
Speaker 3:I think you have Logan Garner here. Me and my neighbor are fixing to have some major come to Jesus meeting. How do I handle this? So it looks like your neighbor scalped your lawn for you in a section. That's frustrating.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's kind of a heart shape, I guess. Yeah, it looks like the mower just got low maybe, yeah, probably turned it around right there or something.
Speaker 3:Well, the way you handle that is you put up a big fence. Yeah, yeah, it happens. At least it's organic, it's grass, it's alive, it'll come back in a couple of weeks. Throw some green paint down there, green lawn dye, cover it up for a couple of weeks and it'll be back pretty quick. As long as you water it and keep it fertilized, it'll bounce back. Yeah, but I feel you it's very frustrating to do all this work. You know it's kind of like you do all this work keeping the weeds and keeping your lawn sprayed for weeds and taking care of all that, but the neighbors don't, and then you get all that stuff in your lawn as well. Kind of the same thing, I suppose.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and that's something that I think we're going to talk about on a future episode. Yeah, I kind of have that. It's not a person, but I have an empty lot next to me. Oh yeah, so you're getting all of those and it's just overgrown with whatever weed can grow here in South Texas.
Speaker 3:Yeah, and it's mostly dirt over there. Yeah, a lot of dirt and a lot of weeds.
Speaker 1:So I end up treating a little bit of that lot round up and making sure I'm cutting their weeds down a little bit to around mine.
Speaker 3:Yeah, just so it doesn't seed out.
Speaker 1:Right yeah.
Speaker 3:But even if your neighbor is taking care of their lawn, you're still going to have weeds that pop up here and there. But it is frustrating when you're doing all you can and the neighbors got dandelions right up against the domination line or St Augustine grass.
Speaker 3:I have St Augustine, my neighbor has St Augustine rather in the backyard and it under the fence all the time. I keep it mowed really short back there, but some of that St Augustine is still creeping it. It's just a constant fight. You know, digging a trench and filling it with some concrete, you know four inches thick, or maybe some bricks or something. Short of doing that, I don't guess there's a whole lot else you can do other than just fight it all the time. Yeah, so what are we talking about next week, jason?
Speaker 1:Well, you know, there are a lot of things that people get wrong about taking care of your lawn.
Speaker 3:There are A lot of people have some mis-.
Speaker 1:They do at that. So next week we're going to talk about the top three things that everyone gets wrong about taking care of your lawn.
Speaker 3:Oh, that sounds really good. Everybody join us next week when we talk about those.
Speaker 4:Thanks for joining us on this episode of the BLD Podcast. We hope you enjoyed our lawn care discussions and the lawn beer of the week. Remember, as we sip and tend to our lawns, let's get greener together. Keep mowing, keep sipping and keep dominating those lawns. Until next time, stay green and cheers.
