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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Friday, August 29th, 2008
I don’t know if you are aware of this, but I have been busting my butt to get the front sidewalk area of the house landscaped. It wasn’t all that difficult because things were in pretty good shape. I really like mulch areas, so I decided to add a few. Keeps the weeds down, if you know what I mean. Also, it just looks damn good.
After a few trips to the local hardware store for some mulch and a lot of weeding and digging, I can finally show you some photos of my hard work. I think you will be impressed with my perfection.
Here you go.
Mulch area in front of the house
Front of the house from a distance
New Blue Princess Holly bush
After all that weeding and trimming, I had a few open areas. I decided to get two Blue Princess Holly bushes to fill the void. I also decided to get some more landscape lighting. Oh, you just wait for the next post for that one.
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Thursday, August 21st, 2008
I am not sure how I get myself into these messes.
I had a second to spare this afternoon, so I decided to put a shovel in my hand. Then, I went outside and started looking around. I had planned on doing all the mulch beds in the Spring, so what the heck was I doing when I started digging up the grass?
Oh well, since it was already started…I decided to drag the shovel along the ground in a nice curvy line. I had a vision of how I wanted these particular mulch beds to look. By the way, here’s a tip for you; when making a mulch bed, make it three times larger than you originally planned. There is nothing worse than a small mulch bed. Trust me, when it’s done, you’ll think a professional landscaper did it. The two beds I made here already, I have to go back and make them bigger.
If you can see what I did, you will notice that I just dug a sharp trench, about eight inches deep, along the line where I want to see the mulch. Anything to the right of that line is going to be covered with mulch. Realistically, you just need somewhere for the mulch to butt up against. I don’t worry about the chunks of grass and the existing grass. That won’t grow through, if you put enough mulch down. I did this back at the old house and only saw small areas of grass peek through. I killed that with weed killer.
Now that the front is done, I have to do the other side, along with some more flower transplants. Once that is done, I am going to order my ten yards of mulch and go to town.
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Monday, August 4th, 2008
Laura and I have been walking quite a bit. We are up to 3.7 miles per walk now. I never really thought that walking was much exercise until recently. When I hit that three mile point, I start feeling it. The feeling has been less and less intense though, so I guess I am getting in better shape.
We see a lot of things on our walks, and landscaping is one of them. One thing I notice in particular is what people do with their mailboxes. You could have guessed that. You know, your mailbox tells a lot about you. It tells what kind of person you are…not that it’s good or bad, just what you are like. I remember one guy back in my home town had a mailbox that was 10 feet in the air. It read “Air Mail” on the side of it. That tells me he has a sense of humor. If you have a big iron mailbox, but have never had any previous mailbox smashed, that tells me you are kind of paranoid. If you have had a mailbox smashed and you went the iron route, I can see that you are smart.
Ok, this post really isn’t about mailboxes, it’s about the landscaping around them. I really like the idea of making the first thing people see when they come to visit us nice. I like a nice mailbox, a nice post and nice landscaping. As you may know, I already made the mailbox nice.
Today, I ran out to the local hardware store to pick up another yard of pine mulch. I wanted to use some for around the mailbox and the rest for another post I will most likely write tomorrow. Today’s post is about how I spruced up the mailbox area.
Here are a few pictures of what I did:
Mailbox before picture
This is a photo of the mailbox before I did anything to its surrounding area.
Digging out grass around mailbox
The first thing I did was to dig out the existing grass around the mailbox. I used the flat side of a pick-ax. It was pretty easy to get up. Then, I used a shovel to make the edges of the area nice and sharp.
Adding ornamental grass to mailbox area
After the area was prepped and ready for some plants, I added four ornamental grass plants to it.
Adding mulch to mailbox area
When the plants were the way I wanted them, I added three cubic feet of pine mulch over the dirt. This mulch will keep the weeds down and will also keep the dirt moist in between rain showers.
I still need to get a broom up there to clean the dirt off the street, but I think the area looks better than it did. Perhaps now, when someone goes for a walk, they can get an idea or two from what I have done.
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Tuesday, October 9th, 2007
I have been meaning to do this for some time. Our well is in a semi-middle area of our front lawn. As you surely are aware, wells are not attractive contraptions. In an effort to keep our house aesthetically pleasing, I am trying to hide the well as best I can.
Yesterday, Paul and I made a visit to the Fishkill Home Depot. I knew there would only be a few plants left this late in the season. When we arrived, I was surprised to see how many were actually there. We walked towards the back to the Juniper section. I browsed through a few Junipers and decided upon a nice Youngstown Juniper. Well, that’s what the tag says at least. We weren’t completely convinced that that the correct tags were on these plants. This tag says that this plant grows one foot high by four feet wide. Strange, because it’s already about a foot high, and I just bought it.
I think it will grow out nicely to cover the ugly well.
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Sunday, September 23rd, 2007
I just finished up with the latest mulching. I think it looks pretty damn good. I had some extra mulch, so I used it in the front yard where the dirt is like concrete. I covered that area right up. I put a bunch around the trees, so they are good. Now all I need is some water. I already watered a new bush and the new crabapple trees in the back, but the rest of the property needs some of the wet stuff.
This is the side of the front yard that I covered. This is along the property line.
This is a picture of all the white pines and blue spruces that I planted last year. I mulched all around them. The picture is on the side of the house facing down in the back yard.
Here I am, walking a little further towards the back yard.
This is looking up from the back yard. This area is the whole reason why I got the mulch in the first place.
Man, I am a little sore. I always forget how much ten yards actually is.
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Saturday, September 22nd, 2007
Hopefully. No, I mean it.
You knew I was going to get some more mulch by the way I was writing, right? I mean, I mentioned it here and here. I just had one last part of the backyard to smooth over. I also wanted to mulch around all the trees I planted. The dirt (I say dirt, because it is no where near soil) was getting rather crispy. I checked under the mulch that I previously put down this year and the dirt is nice and moist. I knew what I had to do.
I am not sure how many of these pictures you can take.
When the mulch dude called me back this morning, I asked him for a “big” ten yards, instead of the “not so big” ten yards he delivered last time. I know the pile doesn’t look any bigger, but it is. After he dumped it, the whole pile was steaming like a big cow pie.
Here is the area in the back yard that I am fixing up. I forgot to take a picture before I started, so you can see some of the fresh stuff towards the top of the hill. The whole area is really crappy and dry. It also has a bunch of stone mixed in with the dusty dirt. I say, cover the whole damn thing up. I have a few trees planted in there, so they should appreciate that.
I will take an “after” photo tomorrow when I finish up. I hope it looks beautiful.
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Thursday, August 9th, 2007
This is just a little update post to my previous “Spreading the Mulch” post.
I was a little worried that a good hard rain was going to cause all of my newly spread mulch to slide down the backyard. Well, I have some good news. There was a heavy rain storm the other night and I woke up to see my mulch in exactly the same spot as I put it. That is good news indeed. I even found an article online that backs up my plan to stop topsoil erosion by using mulch. Pretty cool, huh?
I think I am going to order five more yards to finish up the back yard.
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Saturday, August 4th, 2007
If you know me, if you know who I really am at the core, you would know that I love mulch. I think I may have described my love for mulch in a few past posts, but let’s say it again…I love mulch.
Ok, now that the tender intro is out of the way, I will tell you a little story. When we moved in, I noticed a little problem with the back yard. It seems as though there has been a bit of erosion over the years. Every time there is a hard rain, more and more of the dirt, or topsoil, if that’s what you want to call it, finds its way down to the bottom of the hill that makes up the yard. I think the poor schlub who lived here before us tried to spread a bunch of topsoil out over the area and plant grass seed, but before he knew it, that rolled down the hill as well. It’s not really that big of a slope, it’s just that the soil around here doesn’t have much organic content in it. If there isn’t grass growing on it, it turns in to dust and is gone with the wind. What’s left is a nice layer of crappy dirt and rocks. This isn’t much to look at and really causes problems when I try to mow the lawn. If there is grass growing, it tends to be thick and green. Strange, I know. The trick is to get the grass to grow.
Since I didn’t want to end up like the last guy, I decided to travel a tried and true route. I had ten yards of mulch delivered just this morning. Two things – First, I think I got a small ten yards. Either that, or I got a big five yards last time. Second, I thought it would be a real blast to get out there and shovel the mulch in to the wheelbarrow and wheel it to the back of the house for spreading. Well, it is 2:52PM and I am inside feeling a little heat on my neck. Sunburn. Not bad, but enough to make being outside annoying. I think I’ll wait until about 6PM before I pick up where I left off. I am just glad I have a project. I am not fun to be around when I am bored, just ask Laura.
Here are some photos of what I am talking about…
This is the pile of mulch before I tackled it with the shovel.
I put some mulch around the arborvitae and holly that I planted. I didn’t go crazy under the porch, because that will hopefully be covered up by the bushes soon.
You can see how I am spreading the mulch over the bad areas. I would say the layer is a few inches thick. I did this same technique on another area of the lawn last summer and the grass is nice and thick there now. All I ask for is a few nice rains to get the mulch packed down to stay. If we get a torrential downpour, I think I may have ten yards of mulch at the bottom of the hill. After one season, the mulch should be broken down enough to plant some grass seed. It is also good at holding the dirt and rocks bad from eroding even more. An additional bonus is that this mulch was recycled from a bunch of old stumps right down the road from me. I watched the guy do it last year, it’s really cool.
Unfortunately, I though ten yards would be enough, but I think I may need twenty to get where I want to be. Mmmmmm, that’s going to be fun.
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Sunday, July 8th, 2007
I was outside strolling around, when I noticed that our Easter Lilys are almost in full bloom. Laura’s friend gave us a few of these flowers last summer. We planted them and they immediately died. I left them there and within a few weeks, new sprouts were coming up out of the ground. When I saw that, I transplanted them into the front garden where they could get some sun.
These flowers have been doing extraordinarily well. The flower is huge and the pollen almost drips, there is so much. Here, take a look…
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