Saturday, April 18th, 2009
A few days ago, I walked outside and dug up a few “bunches” of Daffodils. They were regular Daffodils, but in bunches or clusters, meaning they consisted of about 10 or 15 individual bulbs.
I am not sure if gardeners know this or not, but Daffodils are easily divided. Each bunch is just a whole lot of bulbs stuck together by their roots. Everything is all tangled up. From the few bunches of Daffodils I dug up, I planted a whole line of bulbs all along an entire mulch bed. Sure, it doesn’t look like much right now, but come next spring, I think we’ll be getting somewhere.
Yellow Daffodil
There are only a few things you need to know about dividing Daffodils. The first thing is that you want to dig up the whole plant, without damaging the bulbs beneath the dirt. When dividing other types of plants, such as ornamental grasses, you slide your shovel right down the center of the plant. With a bulb plant like Daffodils, you don’t want to do that or you’ll damage the bulbs. Dig the whole thing up.
When you have the whole messy cluster of bulbs in your hand, shake out any excess dirt. That will make it much easier to get the bulbs apart from one another. I like to hold on to one bulb and kind of shake that one until the rest drop from that. At least you will have one free. Keep doing that and they will all eventually separate. If you dunk them in water, that helps to loosen them too.
When you have all the bulbs separated, you can plant each one where ever you want. I did this a little late this year. The best time to replant Daffodils is when you just see them starting to push through the dirt. You might not get that much out of them the first year, but they should come back in later years and continue getting fuller and fuller as they years go on.
I read yesterday that if you don’t divide your Daffodils every so often, they will stop blooming. I can see how that would happen because with all of those bulbs stuck together like that, it would be hard to get any nutrients to them after a while. Also, after the blooms die, you need to keep the green plant in tact for a few weeks to absorb the sun. I read that the sun kind of re-energizes the bulb for the next year.
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Friday, April 3rd, 2009
I think the first thing you need to do is to recognize that your lawn has crabgrass growing in it.
Sometimes, crabgrass isn’t all that obvious. Actually, if your lawn looks great during the hot summer months but not in the spring or fall, you might have a crabgrass problem. This type of weed loves the heat. While many types of cooler grasses go dormant and turn brown during July and August, crabgrass is thriving. It makes the guy who takes care of the lawn proud…until October rolls around.
The first tell-tale sign that your lawn has crabgrass is the noticing of big brown areas come autumn. While the rest of the real grass is growing nicely, the crabgrass is dying off. The only problem is that crabgrass is an annual plant. Later on in the season, the weed produces seeds that we unknowingly mow into and spread around our regular grass. That lays the foundation for problems the next year, and the next year…you get the picture.
So, what do you do? Well, you can either get on your hands and knees and pluck out every single crabgrass weed you find all season long. That would probably do it. Or, you can apply what they call a “Pre-emergent grassy and broadleaf weed control.” This the probably the preferred route to travel down. You can buy the stuff yourself or call a service to come to your house and apply it for you.
The weed control is pretty nifty stuff. It rests on the soil of your lawn as small pellets and dissolves as it’s watered in. Somehow (and don’t ask me how), this weed control stops the weed seeds from germinating. Stopping the weeds from growing in the first place sounds a heck of a lot better than pulling them out after the fact.
It’s funny – while walking around, I like looking at the different levels of lawn care in different neighborhoods. You can actually see distinct property lines of those who take care of their lawns vs. those who don’t. One lawn is green, while the lawn right next to it is brown and full of weeds. By weeds, I mean big brown areas caused by crabgrass.
My friends at Scotts Lawn in Hartford stopped by today to give the grass its first application of “Early spring and spring fertilization” which adds nutrients to improve lawn color and strengthens the root system of the grass. They also put down some “Pre-emergent grassy and broadleaf weed control” which controls weed problems, such as crabgrass and other annual grasses later in the year. Okay, obviously I got those descriptions from the card they left with me.
I was really happy to see the guy stop by today, because I was getting nervous that the crabgrass seeds would start germinating. I always worry about things like this. Add that to my worry list.
The fella who stopped by today was very nice. We talked for a bit about none other than grass and its care. Believe it or not, it’s one of my favorite topics. Well, I’ll talk about anything that has to do with lawn care or landscaping. They are both interesting. We both agreed that there were some areas that had a little crabgrass problem, but nothing that couldn’t be taken care of.
I told the tech that I think the lawn is already showing nice signs of improvement from what they put down last autumn. Of what grass has already started growing, it’s really green and soft. I just hope we can keep this trend going and get the whole lawn nice and green by autumn.
I thought I would show you some pictures of the fertilizer/weed control they put down as well as some areas that have been affected by crabgrass. Enjoy, because you won’t see these problem areas for long.
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Fertilizer and crabgrass control pellets
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Fertilizer and crabgrass control pellets on top of problem lawn
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Spring lawn greening up – showing some brown areas affected by crabgrass – photo 1
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Spring lawn greening up – showing some brown areas affected by crabgrass – photo 2
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Spring lawn greening up – showing some brown areas affected by crabgrass – photo 3
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Spring lawn greening up – showing some brown areas affected by crabgrass – photo 4
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