Watering St. Augustine through a Houston summer, brown patch, soil testing, and the smart controllers that pay for themselves.
In a Houston summer a lawn is either expensive or ugly, and the shortcut most people reach for is more water at the wrong time of day.
Mike Faust of Faust Landscaping came on during a stretch of triple digit weeks and put the choice plainly: right now you are either spending a lot of money on water or your yard looks bad. His advice on grass is to stay with St. Augustine in this part of Texas, and the reason is availability rather than toughness. Bermuda and Zoysia are special order, so replacing a few square feet of a Zoysia lawn can mean buying a whole pallet, while St. Augustine sits at every sod supplier and can be bought a square at a time. That episode also covers watering schedules, sprinkler nozzles and the license behind irrigation work. His earlier episode covers what a lawn service should actually include and how the work gets priced.
The Master Gardeners episode with Linda and Michael from the Montgomery County AgriLife Extension is the science half: soil testing, soil pH, brown patch fungus, integrated pest management and rainwater harvesting.
The hardware is covered too. The Rachio review is a controller that waters on the weather rather than on a fixed timer, and the spring checklist covers the sprinkler startup and the mower blades and belts that decide how the rest of the season goes.
Craig sits down with Mike Faust from Faust Landscaping in Conroe TX to discuss how this incredible heat wave is affecting the grass for homeowners here in Texas and what strategies you can implement to keep your lawn healthy. Get Real Work Labs for your business – click this link for an incredible deal on this system, available ONLY to those who listen to our podcast.
That Time We Talked to the Master Gardeners In this episode Craig and Kevin talk with Linda and Michael from Montgomery County Texas Agrilife Extension Service. We were live on site and got a tour of their amazing facility.
In this episode Craig and Kevin interview Michael Faust, owner of Faust Landscaping. Hiring a lawn care company is something that many people do.
In this episode Kevin and Craig review the Rachio Smart WiFi Sprinkler Controller. If you have an underground sprinkler system at your home, you should strongly consider purchasing a smart controller for your system.
In this episode Craig and Kevin give you their checklist of things that needs to be done as we enter into springtime. Inevitably, there are things that you will use during the spring and summer that have not been used in months!
Mike Faust's answer on the healthy lawns episode is St. Augustine, for a practical reason rather than a horticultural one. Bermuda and Zoysia are special order, so a small repair can mean buying an entire pallet, while St. Augustine is sitting at every sod supplier and can be bought one square at a time.
Strategically rather than constantly. Mike Faust came on during weeks of triple digit temperatures, at a point when neighborhoods were talking about rationing, to work through watering schedules and sprinkler nozzles. The Rachio review covers the controller side, which waters based on weather instead of on a fixed timer.
Brown patch fungus is the usual suspect in this climate, and it comes up on the Master Gardeners episode with the Montgomery County AgriLife Extension, along with soil testing and soil pH, which is where they suggest starting before buying anything.
Mike Faust's landscaping episode goes through what the work involves and how it gets priced, including drainage and irrigation, paver installation and mower maintenance. It is the episode to hear before comparing two quotes that look the same on paper.
There is a lot more where that came from.
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