Anyone get any rain last week? I know I did not. I go whole summers without priming my well; however, this year watering has been mandatory. Hopefully, we will get some rain by the end of the week.
A topic that I mentioned last week briefly needs to be expanded on. That topic would be the dreaded measure your lawn and bed areas. Knowing the square footage of your grass areas and bed areas are key to applying any fertilizer or control product correctly. An old bathroom scale and bucket also aid in the proper application of products.
I can remember several times hearing different variations of this same answer to my question while at the counter at Possum’s. “How square feet is your yard?” Rough answer,” well, last year I put out that bag that covers 5000 square feet and it was perfect for my yard, so I must have 5000 square feet.” Sorry, wrong answer.
Based on a pound of nitrogen, we sell 50 pound bags that cover as much as 23,000 square feet and as little as 1000 square feet. Unfortunately, the bag does not know the size of our yards.
In the old days, yards were mostly square or rectangular, and they were easy to measure. Now most yards have curvy bed lines that sweep across the landscape, making them more difficult to measure. If you can break the yard up into little squares or rectangles, and measure the length and the width then you can get your square footage. Length multiplied by width will give you your square footage. Add up all the squares and rectangles that you measured the square feet of, and you will come up with the square footage of your yard.
If this sounds like total “Greek or Geek” to you, ask a landscaper, a landscape architect, someone that works with floors or carpets, an engineer, a construction worker, someone who pours driveways, or anyone else that regularly needs to measure the square footage of something to help you.
Now, there are even websites that you can log onto and they will tell you the square footage of your yard. Of course, I like to do it the old fashion way – length times width.
I know this measuring seems like a pain, but most of us stay in a house for several years or several decades. A little pain spread over several years of having very useful information is worth it.
Once you measure the yard, put the measurements in about 5 to 10 locations throughout your house, your car and garage, so you do not lose them.
