Recommended Products For DIY Lawn Care

■ MESO 4SC Select – Generic Mesotrione (An Alternative to Tenacity) – YM
This is a a pre and post emergent herbicide that is typically used during the seeding process of new or existing lawns. It doesn’t interfere with germination or rooting of new plants but rather interfere’s with the weed’s ability to do photosynthesis.

This is the generic version of Mesotrione; the same exact stuff used in Tenacity but at a lower cost.

You can also pick up the actual Tenacity Herbicide from DoMyOwn.com. Tenacity is the brand name version of Mesotrione.

Just like the generic version you can use this product when you seed or overseed to help prevent weeds from germinating alongside your baby grass. This product is usually only slightly more expensive than the generic version MESO 4SC Select.

■ Prodiamine 65 WDG – Generic Version of Barricade – YM
This Pre-Emergent Herbicide is used in both warm season and cool season lawns to prevent the rooting of both grassy weeds and broadleaf weeds that are trying to germinate. Crabgrass is a common weed this ingredient targets.

Here is a larger size of Generic Prodiamine 65 WDG. These are liquid herbicides that must be sprayed on but granular versions are also available.

This granular 0-0-7 + Prodiamine product by Yard Mastery is a perfect way to fertilize your lawn in the early spring to push the grass plant’s ability to stand up to turf stress while simultaneously getting that prodiamine pre-emergent protection.

If you want the basic granular dispersible granular prodiamine called Barricade then it can be purchased easily on Amazon here or on DoMyOwn here.

■ 0-0-7 With Dithiopyr – YM
For those of you looking to fertilize with a Potassium only granular product but also want the pre-emergent and post-emergent control that dithipyr provides then this product is for you.

Dithiopyr works as a short duration (3-4 month) pre-emergent and a post-emergent for weeds that have already germinated within a few weeks prior to application. This is a great pre-emergent for people who waited a little too long to get prodiamine down on the lawn.

Typical target weeds this product prevents include crabgrass and poa annua, the undesirable annual bluegrass.

You can also buy the straight liquid dithopyr product known by the brand name Dimension here on DoMyOwn’s marketplace.

■ Pendimethalin
Product recommendation coming soon.

■ Triad-Select – YM
This product uses Dicamba, 2,4D and MCPA as primary active ingredients for post emergent control of undesirable grassy and broadleaf weeds.

It is similar to over-the-counter weed killers that you see at big box stores but the concentrations of the active ingredients is higher making the product more effective or capable of eliminating the weeds in your lawn on the first try.

This product is used on cool season grass types plus Bermuda and Zoysia.

■ Defender Herbicide (DoMyOwn.com)
This product uses Florasulam as it’s active ingredient and targets many weeds as a post-emergent. It is frequently used for early season control of dandelions which other pre-emergent products won’t stop or kill.

■ Celsius® WG Broadleaf and Grassy Weed Control for Warm Season Turf – YM
This is a post-emergent product for use on warm season grass types excluding bahia. It uses three main active ingredients including Dicamba 57.4%, Iodosulfuron-methyl-sodium 1.9%, Thiencarbazone-methyl 8.7%. Dicamba is frequently used in weed killers for cool season grasses so that’s not what makes this product a warm season herbicide; it’s the other active ingredients.

■ HALO Select – Generic Halsulfuron (An Alternative to SedgeHammer®) – YM
This product uses Halosulfuron-methyl 75%, the same as SedgeHammer but in generic form. The herbicide can be applied to both warm and cool season grasses to control both purple and yellow nutsedge as well as Kyllinga. It works as a post-emergent and can also suppress a variety of additional weeds although Nutsedge is the main one.

■ N-Ext D-Thatch via Yard Mastery

■ Lawn Star Liquid Lawn Dethatcher via Amazon

If you want to make sure you are applying products to your lawn that the soil is actually in need of… and you don’t want to apply products to your lawn that your soil has an over-abundance of then doing a lab soil test is a necessity. There are a bunch to choose from so I’ve listed a few below that I like. Alternatively you can see this page for a full overview of all of the best soil tests on the market today.

■ AgriTech Corp – SoilKits.com

■ Yard Mastery Soil Testing Kit – YM

■ Sunday Lawn Care Subscription – New subscriptions receive a free soil test for your property.

Mailed-to-you when you need it is a somewhat new thing in the yard care space. In years past you could hire a company to come to your yard and do what needed to be done based on time of year but now these delivery services send you easy to apply products to your yard based on your grass type, climate, and time of year. When the box arrives in the mail you just apply everything tot he yard and then wait for your next shipment. Easy-peasy.

■ Sunday – Lawn Care Subscription Service – I can provide a special promo code to you for your order. As a cool perk Sunday will throw in a free soil test for new accounts.

Use code MECHANIC20 after you insert your address to see your Sunday lawn plan.

I tend to like doing everything yourself in the lawn, right up to product selection and to the timing of applications but obviously Sunday does make it all so easy that you don’t really have to even think about what to put down and when if you don’t want to. You still have to do it yourself of course but it’s far cheaper than paying a local company to come out and do the same thing all year every year.

In the near future I’ll be producing some posts for the site and some videos for the Turf Mechanic YouTube channel that explain a bit more about how Sunday works and what types of people it may be useful for.

►► The ProPlugger ◄◄

I use this tool mostly for taking soil samples below the main root zone of the grass, looking at my thatch layer, and comparing soil layers by depth. Other people use this to make grass plugs for transplanting or to dig clean holes in garden beds. I use this tool surprisingly a lot!

Here’s an Amazon affiliate link to the ProPlugger.

►► The Ames True Temper Thatch Rake ◄◄

I use this thatch rake multiple times throughout the year but most often in the mid Spring and early Fall. You can see my review of this rake in the video below.

Here’s an Amazon affiliate link to the Ames True Temper Thatch Rake.

►► The ReoTemp Compost & Soil Thermometer ◄◄

ReoTemp makes mostly non-digital analog thermometers for soil, composting, and worm bins. I like to use the smaller compost thermometers for monitoring my lawn soil temps throughout the days of the growing and dormant lawn seasons. These thermometers can be left outside and will hold up to the weather. They can be bought in many different lengths in both regular and heavy duty styles. Here is a video review of the style I’ve been using for a couple of years now.

Here’s an Amazon affiliate link to the 20-Inch ReoTemp Compost Thermometer and here is an Amazon affiliate link to the 24-inch heavy duty version.