plOTTing and planting: Ott, E's new lawncare toy

Ott, E. has a new toy, (of sorts) that will help him do yardwork.  He has a spreader to hook behind his garden tractor to fertilize the lawn.  (Now let me back up and tell you a quick story about Ott, E and lawncare to bring you up to speed on on why he has this spreader.)

As I have mentioned before in my professional blog The Ag Grant Guru Ott, E does research on herbicides and pesticides for an Agri-Chemical company.  He majored in Agronomy in college and received his Masters in Weed Science.  From time to time when he meets someone new and he's making small talk and they ask; what do you do?  He will say he is a weed scientist.  What I find amusing sometimes is the others person response.  Several times they will say, "You must have a great yard."  Well.... we have a nice yard, but we have our fair share of dandelions and mole holes.  You see, he's a weed scientist from a crop and agronomic standpoint, not a turf scientist from an urban or golf course standpoint.  He can tell you anything you would want to know about weeds in corn and soybean fields but these are handled differently than the weeds that grow in your yard or pond.   It may not seem like a big difference, but from his strandpoint it is.  Think of it like you would Doctors.  You wouldn't necessarily ask your Cardiologist questions about your teeth for your Dentist. 

So when we bought our house there was a little shed out back to keep a lawnmower in.  We purchased a lawnmower and we were all set to start taking care of our yard.  However, out in this shed the previous owner had left behind a little push fertilizer spreader.  It was older and only about a foot wide, it was heavy to push and took forever to do the whole yard.  For the first year it worked, but by the time the second year rolled around Ott, E decided it would be easier purchase a newer spreader with wider spreading capabilities (and while we were at it) one that he could pull behind the lawnmower rather than having to push it. 

As you can see in the pictures he is quite happy and content now to spread fertilizer, weed killer and grub killer on our yard now that it can be done from the seat of his lawnmower.  In no time I'm sure we will have the great looking yard of a "weed scientist."