EPISODE #1

 

 

EPISODE 1 TRANSCRIPT

Kyle: Hi folks! Welcome to Lawn Care Secrets with Romy Robinson. I’m your co-host, Kyle Kelin, and we’re here to provide you quick tips and hidden secrets so you can have the greenest lawn on the block. So Romy, introduce yourself to the listeners out there.

Romy: Howdy everybody! Thanks for having me. I’m Roby Robinson. I have 25 years of experience in working with St. Augustine grass, Bermuda grass and little experience with Zoysia grass.

Kyle: Alright! So this is our first episode. I thought we’d start by giving you guys a little overview of why Romy and I decided to start the podcast and the biggest reason was we wanted to help people save time and money on taking care of the yard and seeing there was a lot of great information out there, huh Romy?

Romy: Well, I feel like I’ve been doing this a long time and even if 10 different people tell you 10 different ways of doing things but I feel my ways are best ways so I decided to have this podcast and help people out.

Kyle: Alright! So what’s new right now? Like it’s August, it’s hot, it’s summer, hopefully about over but…

Romy: Well there’s a number of things going on right now. We’re still in the chinch bug season which suddenly about to end of this month, which is August. Give it take a week or two, sometimes the one in September the 1st, second week, we are in the grub worm season just got into that. Seeing grub worm start to feed at the beginning of August this year and also we got sod webworms still feeding, they start in June and then all the way to December and we’re just starting brown patch season which is a disease that comes up in the fall usually starts around the end of August and runs up until spring so there’s a lot going on right now in the lawn.

Kyle: Sounds like it. So I guess it keeps you pretty busy.

Romy: Yeah, it’s good for business.

Kyle: So I know that towards the end of summer, well, the lawn starts to loosen its color a little bit. Is there a way for me to keep it greener throughout the fall?

Romy: That’s a good question. As you get to the fall as the temperatures outside get cooler, the soil temperature starts to get colder also and that starts tearing the lawn to start shutting down and preparing for the winter time. So about another 30 days, 60 days from now as the weather starts getting colder, you can see the lawn gradually declining color. You’ll start seeing your weeds come up and on, no matter how much fertilizer you put on it during that time of the year so it’s not going get any greener so don’t think putting more on it is going to make it greener, it’s going to automatically just shut down on so, cause of Mother Nature and the temperature.

Kyle: Yeah, my neighbor, he’s got a greener lawn than me. It really drives me crazy like, what’s he doing that I’m not doing?

Romy: Well it could be a number of things. I hear that quite frequently but what happens is a lot of times your neighbor, he’ll go buy a bag of fertilizer, you got to read the label. If you don’t read the label, you can end up killing the yard if you have a fertilizer but a lot of your home owners, they’ll go buy fertilizer and the bag says cover 5000 sq. ft. and they’ll put a whole bag on 2000 sq. ft. there in the front yard. Of course, you’re going to get a good green up but there’s always a chance of killing the yard and of course I’m not about doing that.

Kyle: So he’s running a risk of killing his yard?

Romy: Almost, definitely. I see it all the time but you know I can’t do that. If I kill it, I have to reside it.

Kyle: Yeah, maybe I’ll just wait till it dies? I’ll get to win that greenest lawn on the block.

Romy: Well as long as you’re watering it right, you’re mowing it at the proper height, treat it consistent, you should see a good color to your yard on a consistent basis. As long as you use a good fertilizer. If you use a cheap fertilizer, you’re going to get what you paid for.

Kyle: So you want to take some questions from the audience?

Romy: Yeah, that’d be great.

Kyle: So guys if you have a question for Romy, send us an email at askromy@gmail.com and we will answer your questions on the show. So Jacky from Katy, Texas asked:

“Dear Romy and Kyle, I just moved into a new house and it has ton of weeds. Should I go ahead and apply weed control now?”

Romy: Okay, well if we’re talking about a St. Augustine lawn, no. St. Augustine, once the temperature is over 75 degrees on a consistent basis, you do not want to put a weed control down on it. You risk a chance of killing it. If anything you can spot treat it when the temperature’s around the degrees but once it starts getting hot like summertime, you going have to just deal with the weeds. The best thing to do is get your St. Augustine thick and healthy and that’ll help choke out the majority of your weeds. If you’re talking Bermuda, Bermuda grass gets weeds you around, it’s just something you going to have to constantly be on top of, if not the weeds going to get on top of your Bermuda grass.

Kyle: So for our beginning lawn enthusiasts, how do they tell the difference?

Romy: Well, St. Augustine’s are real wide bladed grass and Bermudas are real thin bladed grass. You see Bermuda out on golf courses, soccer fields, baseball fields, football fields. You don’t see St. Augustine out there. You can look in the medians the majority of your subdivisions are going to be Bermuda Grass. Your St. Augustine is just a wider bladed grass.

Kyle: So my grass kind of looks like a baseball field. I probably have a Bermuda grass or golf course.

Romy: Yeah, it’s going to be Bermuda or you can call me of course. Go to my website and send me a picture of it and I’ll tell you what it is.

Kyle: Okay, those are the only two…

Romy: Yeah, you’re most common is going to be Bermuda Grass and St. Augustine. You’ll see a little Zoysia grass here and there. Not really common. But Zoysia grass is more like, treated more like St. Augustine than Bermuda.

Kyle: Alright, So Paul from Dean, Texas writes in.

“Hey Romy thanks for all the Youtube videos, those have been pretty helpful. My question is I feed and seed every year, but I always seem to have weeds. What am I doing wrong?”

Romy: Okay well, on your St. Augustine you’re not going to be seeding that because it doesn’t come in a seed. It’s going to be Bermuda grass. If you’re seeding it, that tells me you got Bermuda Grass. If you’re seeding it and you still got weeds what you have to do is raise your mower up a little higher, make sure that the water is right.

Kyle: 4 inches?

Romy: Well on Bermuda, about 2 1/2 to 3 inches high, usually during your summer months just kind of insulate it so don’t stress out so bad when you get to the fall and winter and early spring. You know a little lower than normal, but if you get that grass tall and thick with Bermuda, you’re always going to be fighting weeds but the thicker the long, the less problem you going to have with those weeds.

Kyle: Alright, and the last question we have is, Jayson from Sugarland. Said he’s about to finish building the house, doesn’t have any sod, so he’s going to put some in and he wanted to get some advice which one he should pick.

Romy: Good question, it’s all preference. Some people like St. Augustine because it’s real thick, gets tight and chokes a lot of your weeds but you got to understand St. Augustine gets a lot of problems. They get grub worms, chinch bugs, sod web worms, brown patch disease, drought stress, pre-lived spot, iron chlorosis, your Bermuda grass, and the number one problem you’re going to have with that is weeds. uh just a little sod web worms and that’s it. So you decide on that one grass that gets 10 problems or that one grass that gets two, but you go to understand with Bermuda you’re going to always be fighting weeds so it’s just preference on which one you decide, but you know if I had it my way, I have it all seen in again.

Kyle: If you all seem it, it might not be out of work.

Romy: But you know it cost a lot of money, both grasses are going to cost just money to maintain, they both, you know, they have to be watered. St. Augustine has to be watered more in Bermuda. Bermuda is more tolerant to drought stress, than St. Augustine.

Kyle: So Bermuda needs less water?

Romy: Yeah, needs more water, and less maintenance. St. Augustine requires a lot of maintenance.

Kyle: What do you have in your house?

Romy: I have Bermuda. I’ve had St. Augustine for 25 years, and I’ve got a Bermuda yard and when I get home, I’m tired, I’m not going to be thinking about the yard so I got a few weeds in there. I get one weed here and my wife’s all over me.

Kyle: Coveners kids, right?

Romy: It’s kind of like the farmer, you get to his house and it’s got leaks all over it, but I’m doing lawns all day and I’m tired when I get home but I do have Bermuda and I have to keep up with that cause of my wife.

Kyle: You know they say, never going to haircut from a barber that needs a haircut.

Romy: I hear you.

Kyle: Alright. So you got any news or parting advice to share with the audience?

Romy: What I would recommend right now is, get now is get your lawn as healthy as and strong as possible before we get to the fall and winter. If you got any dead spots on your lawn right now, you want to get them as thick as possible, because another 60 days is the weather cools down when they start giving in to the fall, the grass is going to slow down from growing. So if you got any weak spots in your lawn, those spots are going to stay there until the following spring till the grass starts growing again and filling in. So what I always try to do is get all my lawn as healthy as I can before it gets to winter because if it’s thick and it’s healthy, it helps keep the weeds down during the winter and then the beginning of spring all I got to do is aerate it and it’s ready to go. So right now you want to start preparing it for winter getting it as strong as you can before that time.

Kyle: Alright! Sounds good. So you guys should definitely check out Romy’s Youtube page. If you go to Youtube and just search for “Ask Romy”, he’s got tons of videos out there telling you the difference between St. Augustine and Bermuda. A lot of the things we talked about are covered in those videos as well as check out greenerthanever.com which is Romy’s lawn care service website as well. Anything else?

Romy: Guys, I appreciate you all listening and we’ll talk to you all again.