"Help your lawn breathe during the dog days.

I recently read about a retired Detroit police officer who claims that his lush, green lawn comes from treating his grass to a special "cocktail" every three weeks. To 20 gallons of water, he adds one cup of beer, one cup of ammonia, one half cup of dishwashing detergent, one half cup of liquid lawn food and one half cup of clear corn syrup.

Now, I'm not recommending this because I've never tried it. But if YOU have had success with this or some other "unusual" lawn treatment, please send me an e-mail at steve@landsteward.org"

I first heard of this tonic on the St. Louis, MO PBS station KETC during one of their pledge drives.

Jerry Baker was the promotion at the time.

I sporadically use this tonic on my patch of zoysia grass. I use a small dose (a fourth of one of the packages in the box) "Miracle-Gro Lawn Food" dissolved in the mixture.

I use this during the summer between the spring and fall applications of 13-13-13 fertilizer.

I also use Bakers tonic of Fels Naphtha Soap and chewing tobacco juice for lawn and garden bugs (NOT ON TOMATOES).

I wear golf shoes, that you both tout, mainly for the safety of extra traction when pushing the "toe eating mower" on the sloped portions of the yard.

All of these seem to help.