These are some of the products and services I recommend from a handful of trusted businesses in the lawn and garden space.
To start off the list I want to show you a few review videos I’ve published on some important tools I use in the lawn.
►► 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.
Now let’s move on to some of the liquid and granular fertilizers, weed preventers, and misc. lawn applications I recommend to my readers and viewers:
►► Simple Plant Food (Lawn Fertilizers) ◄◄
These are the products I’ve been using a lot lately from Simple Plant Food (Chemwise). They offer an excellent hybrid-organic liquid product line that’s affordable for owners of smaller properties.
■ Simple Aeration Soil Builder ■
0-0-8 + 1.5% Iron – 6% Humic Acid
This is a liquid aeration product but I like it mostly because it’s a single lawn app that delivers a good amount of highly plant available potassium to the lawn that doesn’t need to be watered in to work. The Potassium is foliar available.
You also get 6% humic acids for nutrient uptake benefits and included sea kelp extracts for improved root depth & development in your existing grass plant systems.
Molasses is added to feed microbial life making this a very well rounded product; in fact this is my favorite liquid lawn aerator product on the market. I still recommend core aeration but this is a very powerful tool in the shed.
■ Simple Balance Lawn Food ■
14-2-14
This is a nitrogen fertilizer that contains half slowly available Urea-Triazone and half fast available water soluble Nitrogen.
You get a 7-1 ratio of nitrogen to phosphorus which is closely in-line with my preferred NPK ratio for residential lawns.
The Potassium is a split between Potassium Phosphate & Acetate giving it a broad availability to lawns in both the soil and the foliar canopy.
For general lawn fertilization this product is a great option that won’t leave your soil deficient in anything over the long run.
■ Simple Enhance Root Builder ■
1-1-1 + .02% Iron – .02% Manganese
This is a complex root booster product that comes in at a modest 1-1-1 ratio but also includes micronutrients and molasses which will feed the microorganisms in your soil resulting in a healthier soil bed for deeper healthier roots.
■ Simple Green Lawn Food ■
20-0-0 + 1% Iron – .25% Manganese – .25% Magnesium
This product is a great option to quickly pop more leaf growth and deeper green color due it’s slowly available nitrogen content paired with chlorophyll and photosynthesis enhancing micronutrients.
It is safe to use regularly because it’s not too high in anything, the nitrogen is in the Urea-Triazone form, and the micros have excellent foliar absorption rates.
I can see using this product in a variety of situations throughout the year.
■ Simple Maintain Lawn Food ■
18-0-6
This is a phosphorus free balanced lawn food that should maintain health over time so long as the lawn receives a little bit of Phosphorus in other applications throughout the year.
Most of this Nitrogen is derived from Urea-Triazone giving it a lower burn likelihood and a slower delivery to the plant meaning less leaching.
The Potassium Acetate is also more available to the plant through foliar contact making this a great source material to use in a liquid fertilizer.
►► More Recommended Lawn Apps ◄◄
Additionally here are a few non-fertilizer products that greatly help in keeping your lawn healthy.
■ CytoGro by Ecologel Solutions
Pricing Available on Yard Mastery
This is a unique lawn product that is packed with cytokinins, a plant hormone found in seaweed, which stimulate root development in lawn grasses making it a very powerful product to use to encourage deep root growth and resistance to lawn stressors like summer heat, drought, and freezing soil.
The grass’ hormonal response to this product can also be seen in it’s effect on delaying or exiting winter dormancy making this a great tool for greening a lawn up in the early Spring or keeping it growing deep into the Fall.
■ N-Ext Humic12
Pricing Available on Yard Mastery
Humic acid is a product that goes into the soil and allows for improved nutrient availability and uptake into your grass plant’s root systems.
If you apply it then the plant will be able to use more efficiently the nutrients already present in the soil and will be able to use new fertilizer treatments more effectively with less waste or leaching.
This is a very important product to apply to the soil under your turf-grass regularly. This product can also be used in tandem with most all other lawn applications at the same time making it very easy to get down on the lawn all season long.
■ N-EXT RGS (Root Growth Stimulator)
Pricing Available on Yard Mastery
It’ll help your roots grow deeper and tougher!
■ Hydretain
Pricing Available on Yard Mastery
This product basically makes it so that you don’t have to water your lawn as much or as often… meaning you save money month after month after month on your water bill when you use it. That’s a win-win in my book.
►► Lawn Care Program (Delivered To Your Door All Season Long) ◄◄
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.
►► Soil Testing Kits ◄◄
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.
►► Liquid Thatch Removers & Digesters ◄◄
■ N-Ext D-Thatch via Yard Mastery
■ Lawn Star Liquid Lawn Dethatcher via Amazon
►► Fertilizers & Lawn Food ◄◄
■ 7-0-20 Stress Blend (with Bio-Nite™) – Granular Lawn Fertilizer via Yard Mastery
■ Jonathan Green Organic Lawn Food (10-0-1) via Yard Mastery
■ N-Ext Air8 via Yard Mastery
■ GreenePunch 18-0-1 Fertilizer via Yard Mastery
■ N-Ext Greene EfFect 7-0-0 via Yard Mastery
■ N-Ext MicroGreene 0-0-2 via Yard Mastery
■ N-Ext 16-21-2 GreenePOP via Yard Mastery
■ N-Ext FloraGreene 4-0-2 via Yard Mastery
■ N-Ext 9-0-1 GreeneStart™ Multipurpose Fertilizer via Yard Mastery
►► Weed Control – Post & Pre-Emergents ◄◄
■ 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.
