So, I have basically shifted into reverse from where I was last year at this time. If you remember, I got a rear bagger for my John Deere X300. The reason I got the bagger was to suck up all the leaves that fall off the trees. Just to let you know, it does a great job. Last year, this lawn was spotless.
A funny thing happened over the Summer. I did a lot of work in the woods. As I was working, I kept walking over these really soft and fertile areas of ground. At times, I would push the top layer of mulched leaves (this is the area I dumped all the leaves I picked up last year) just to see what was going on. Each time I pushed the leaves off the dirt, I would find this beautiful black soil. I was astounded. The leaves that I had dumped in the woods last year had composted and turned into nutrient packed soil. And, this soil was chock full of worms. You should see it. Maybe tomorrow I will take a picture of it. The worms are HUGE.
So what I have been doing rather slowly over the past few weeks is to dig up the compost and sift it into the wheelbarrow. Then, I go out to various parts of the yard and toss the compost all over the place. From what I hear, that’s good for the lawn. It is a lot of work though.
Let me tell you what has happened since I started using the bagger. I mowed and bagged and mowed and bagged. About half way through the Summer, I had this nagging suspicion that something was wrong. I kept asking myself this question – If I keep sucking up all the grass clippings and leaves, where the heck is the lawn going to get any organic materials from? I did some research and pretty much came to the conclusion that I was removing all the goodness from the lawn soil. They call “soil” with no nutrients in it “dirt.” I tend to trust my conclusion because there are parts of the lawn that are really green and lush. Those parts have better soil than the parts that are all burnt out looking. The dry grass areas have dirt that is really hard and inhospitable for growing grass.
As much as I am outside fiddling around, I do really try to cut the work load down to a minimum. I love working, but I’m not dumb. With that in mind, I did a little thinking and figured that it was foolish to suck up leaves, dump them in the woods, wait for them to break down and then dig up the compost to spread on the lawn. Why not just mulch the leaves and grass clippings right there on the lawn? I did all sorts of research on this idea and it seems to be the wave of the future. Or, at least what people have been doing since the dawn of time, before we all turned into a bunch of pansies and had to have perfectly manicured lawns. Sometimes I just shake my head and wish I was the way I used to be.
When I was a kid, do you know what my father used to say to me when the grass was getting tall? He said, “Get out there and mow the lawn.” I don’t think I ever responded, “But father, what about this month’s application of fertilizer.” We’ve been brainwashed.
Anyway, I figured that all I needed to begin my leaf and grass clipping mulching program was a mulching kit from John Deere. I could have simply mowed over the leaves with what I had (the side discharge chute), but it took a lot of extra time trying to “catch” the leaves. The air coming out from the lawn mower deck blew them all over the place. With a mulching lawn mower deck, the leaves are more contained and a lot of time is saved by not having to drive around in circles all day.
Let me show you some pictures of the mulching kit parts and setup.
John Deere X300 42″ deck
John Deere X300 mulching kit
Underneath the 42″ lawn mower deck – regular blades
Lawn mower deck with discharge chute removed
42″ lawn mower deck with mulching kit installed
The plastic piece is held on with one bolt
The discharge chute is removed and area is blocked by the mulching kit
John Deere X300 with 42″ mulching deck
Front lawn with sprinkling of leaves
Lawn with sprinkling of leaves
Front lawn after mowing and mulching
Mulched leaves in grass
Mulched grass clippings
Thicker layer of mulched leaves
The pictures really don’t do this mulch kit justice because there weren’t a lot of leaves on the ground. I basically just wanted to try the mower out. Today, I used my leaf blower to blow out this woodsy area we have. I made a pretty substantial pile of leaves. I rode over it with the mulching deck a few times and you can hardly even tell there were any leaves there. Amazing. I am looking forward to a season full of leaves on the ground that I don’t have to pick up anymore. I am also looking forward to a future with better soil conditions so the grass grows nice and thick.
I keep thinking…if people mow their lawns, bag the clippings and rake up all the leaves, where does the lawn soil get any organic material from? It’s an interesting question and one that I haven’t found the answer to yet.
I used to bag the lawn clippings. I was having fun doing it too. Then, I read that I could just mow the lawn and let the clipping stay. Of course the article was written by one of those freaky granola people with a dirt lawn. You know the type, the guy who tries to eat the lawn weeds. I always try to take advice from people I want to be like, not some weirdo who jumped on the “green” train. So, I kept on reading articles from a variety of authors. I came to the conclusion that leaving the grass clippings on the lawn is okay if you mow frequently. If you mow infrequently, you will get big grass clumps that will kill the grass underneath. I think I can handle mowing regularly. About half way through this last Summer, I stopped bagging and the lawn looked the same thereafter.
The whole reason I did that research is because every time I bagged the clippings, I felt like I was taking a little bit of love away from the soil. For the life of me, I couldn’t figure out how that soil was going to get the organic material back. I mean, was it from the leaves I pick up every Autumn? No, because they obviously aren’t there anymore (I picked them up, duh).
I had a vision in my head…I visualized the lawn in five years. It was horrible. Everything was in black and white and looked barren like the moon’s surface. You can even use Mars as an example. I didn’t like having a lawn with no nutrients and dark soil. I decided to keep reading and to research what would happen if I just mulched up the leaves that fall from the trees every year and kept them right there on the grass. Well, wouldn’t you just know it, other people were having the same thoughts and a group up at Michigan State University did a study on this exact topic.
I am going to jump right to the conclusion of their study. They said that it is okay to mulch your leaves into the grass and it’s actually better for the soil. It helps out all those microbes and the worms as well. I know about the worms because my compost pile is FULL of them. Worms like organic material. If the lawn had more organic material, I could imagine that the worms would find their way there.
I’m going to do it. This year, I am going to mulch the leaves and leave them on the lawn. I am going to have to do a really thorough job though because there are a lot of leaves. That’s good because there are some areas of this lawn where the soil is just stripped of any nutrients. I wouldn’t even call it soil anymore. It’s like dust when it gets dry.
I suppose I could always just spread peat moss or compost over the grass every Autumn. That wouldn’t really be fun. Besides, where would I get my compost? From the big pile of leaves and grass clippings I raked up and bagged the year before?
This year will be the experiment. I will let you know how it goes. If things look good in the Spring, I will tell you. Actually, I will tell you either way. It can’t get any worse than it is now. Although, I am looking at the grass after a three week spell of no rain and a thorough dethatching job. Things ain’t looking so great.
As I mentioned in an earlier post, I went up to Home Depot yesterday and picked up some Ortho Weed B Gone Plus Crabgrass Control to deal with the weeds that are popping up all over the lawn. This is a selective herbicide, which means that the chemical only kills the weeds, not the actual grass.
I guess the question is, does this stuff work? The fear that every person who works on lawns has is to see their once semi-beloved lawn totally dead after they apply a selective herbicide to the entire thing. To deal with that fear, I would suggest applying some of the weed control spray to a small portion of the lawn to see what dies. After a few days, if only the weeds are dead and your grass is still alive, go ahead and finish up the rest of your lawn. This is just my suggestion; I’m sure there have been thousands of people who have used this weed control throughout the years with no trouble. Just read the directions.
I applied the Ortho Weed B Gone Plus Crabgrass Control this morning to the entire front lawn. I wanted to show you some photos of how fast this kills the weeds.
Ortho Dial N Spray multi-use hose-end sprayer
Top of Ortho Dial N Spray multi-use hose-end sprayer – showing application amounts
Ortho Weed B Gone plus crabgrass control
Plantain weed dying after Ortho Weed B Gone application
Dandelion weed dying after Ortho Weed B Gone application
I’m not sure how long this stuff takes to work on all the weeds on the entire lawn. I already see a whole bunch of Clover curling up and dying as well. Maybe I’ll take some pictures in a few days to see how far the process has come.
If you haven’t noticed, lawn weeds are starting to hit hard. It’s been hot for the past few days and this is prime season for all those ugly critters to take hold in your lawn. I actually just went out yesterday to get a few bottles of Ortho Weed-B-Gone, along with the hand sprayer that hooks up to a garden hose. I sprayed the front yard today and am going to wait to see what that looks like. I’ll let you know.
Since I had the guys at Scotts Lawn Service put down some pre-emergent herbicide, I am sitting here wondering why the lawn is starting to have weeds grow in it. There are some spots with crabgrass, but other weeds are growing as well. The whole thing got me thinking about which lawn weeds are annuals and which ones are perennials.
I found a nice description of the most common lawn weeds over at this website. I’ll put the weeds in a list for you:
I think we pretty much have all of these weeds, so my work is cut out for me.
I know that a lot hinges on how nice and full lawn grass grows. We have a few bare spots that need reseeding, but I can’t do that until Autumn. I am getting a little impatient, but seeding now (with the pre-emergent still active) is a waste of time. Also, seeding in the Summer doesn’t really work out too well. Come September, I am going to de-thatch and aerate the heck out of this place and reseed the whole thing.
Little by little. That’s what they say about lawns and lawn care…little by little and you’ll win the battle.
Well this is refreshing. I actually have some names for the flowers that I am going to post today. It wasn’t very difficult. All I had to do is search for “different types of daffodils.” The second site I looked at pretty much told me everything I needed to know.
You know, I never really noticed that we had different types of Daffodils here. I always just took them for granted because they are kind of all over the place…drains, ditches, people’s front lawns. I always just thought of the Daffodil as a flower that probably wouldn’t go away if you tried to get rid of it. Upon looking at the flower a bit more closely this afternoon, I have come to appreciate it a bit more.
As far as I can tell, we have three different types of Daffodils here. The three types have a few different colors. Take a look at the photos in the gallery and then we’ll talk.
Three Replete Double Daffodils – orange and cream
Orange and cream Replete Double Daffodil
Yellow Dutchmaster Trumpet Daffodil
Cream and yellow Ice Follies Long Cup Daffodil
Cream and yellowish blend Ice Follies Long Cup Daffodil
Okay, from what I can gather, we have “Ice Follies Long Cup Daffodils,” “Dutchmaster Trumpet Daffodils” and “Replete Double Daffodils.” I would say that’s a nice assortment. There are a whole bunch of Daffodils that haven’t bloomed yet, so I am hoping that we’ll have a few more varieties. At least that will give me an excuse to take more photos and post them up here.
I know I am probably beating a dead horse here, but I wanted to post a few photos of today’s lawn dethatching.
Yesterday, I showed you some photos of dethatching the front lawn. Today, I am going to show you some photos of the back yard getting dethatched. I know, very exciting.
Actually, I dethatched the entire front area along the road as well as behind the house. That took a lot to do. This dethatcher works wonders. I pulled up so much dead grass, I couldn’t believe it. I am slowly learning about all the goodies the real guys use to make lawns look good. When I was riding the tractor, towing the dethatcher, the lawn looked like it was being rototilled because there was so much of a mess behind me. Believe it or not, this dethatcher really doesn’t mess with the good grass. That grass is really rooted in there. It just pulls up all the dead weeds and everything else that shouldn’t be there.
Here are some photos of dethatching the back yard.
Back yard after it was dethatched – photo 1
Back yard after it was dethatched – photo 2
Dead crabgrass pulled up by the dethatcher
Back yard after dethatched material was picked up by lawn mower rear bagger
Freshly dethatched and cleaned up lawn area – one of the worst areas – hardly any good grass
Sorry, I forgot to get the before shots.
If you look closely, you can see all the dead material on top of the grass. One time around the back yard basically filled up both rear bags on the mower. It’s crazy how much stuff came up. Take a look at the last photo. That area was totally covered with dead crabgrass, not it’s all cleaned up and ready for this season.
Come September, I am going to dethatch the lawn once more and then I’m going to aerate the heck out of it. After that, I am going to put down seed where it’s needed. Boy, they weren’t kidding when they said it takes a few years to get a nice lawn.
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.
Fertilizer and crabgrass control pellets
Fertilizer and crabgrass control pellets on top of problem lawn
Spring lawn greening up – showing some brown areas affected by crabgrass – photo 1
Spring lawn greening up – showing some brown areas affected by crabgrass – photo 2
Spring lawn greening up – showing some brown areas affected by crabgrass – photo 3
Spring lawn greening up – showing some brown areas affected by crabgrass – photo 4
I have often said that my life has turned into one big blog post. That’s either really good or really pitiful. Depends on what kind of mood I’m in. I would say that it is good more than not.
You know, it’s not easy waking up every morning thinking of things to write about. It’s a snap during the spring, summer and fall. I mean, during those seasons, I have dozens of things to discuss. I think my record is 7 posts in one day last summer. To me, that’s exciting. To other people, that may be a bit absurd, but still, I think it’s fun.
During the warm months, I am outside all the time, either working or driving around. Flowers are blooming and everything is growing. We start walking in the woods again and we go to all sorts of exciting places.
Just this afternoon, we were discussing all the adventures we would like to have this summer. Laura wants to go whale watching. I keep saying, “What? Whaling?” I give a little chuckle and she belts me one. I really should watch what I say more often. Okay, seriously, we’ll probably go whale watching this summer. I also want to find a cheap canoe on the internet for sale. Either that, or we’ll rent one. Whatever happens, I want to go canoeing too. I just need to find the best spot to go. I sure wish someone would come out and tell me, instead of us driving all around looking. “Hey Jay, go over here. That’s where everyone goes.” That would be nice.
Spring has flowers, summer has lawns, autumn has leaves to write about. What does winter have? I really try to do my best, but sometimes I get “blogger’s block.” I just made that up. Okay, wait a second. I just typed “Blogger’s block” into Yahoo! and a whole bunch of sites came up. What’s with that? I guess I didn’t make it up. If you are battling blogger’s block and want some tips to get over it, you can read here.
One of the things I try to do to get over my block is to go for a walk. That usually loosens my mind up. If I just sat at the computer all day, I would have zero ideas. By getting outside and walking, I look around and do a lot of talking. The things I look at and the conversation I have usually bubbles something to the surface that I can bring inside and share with you. That’s good, but there are still those days…
I have had strange ideas of traveling, simply to write about it. I think of how weird that would be, but then I think a little harder and realize that people do that all day long. It’s called being in the newspaper and magazine business. I am sure I could do it for myself, but if anyone ever held me accountable, I think I would fall apart. I’m no good with creative pressure.
I’ll make you a deal; as long as you keep reading, I’ll keep waking up, thinking of things to write about. If it ever gets really bad and I can’t think of something to write, I’ll start taking suggestions. Until then, hagoone’.
I think that’s a myth. There’s no such thing. I’m sure people go out to do a big cleanup every Autumn…you know the kind, when the kids jump in the huge piles of leaves, but it’s unrealistic to think that you don’t have to keep cleaning all season long.
I have already done two big cleanups. Each time, I blew out all the gardens, I mowed the lawn and sucked up all the leaves. I also got up all the twigs off the grass. I am betting that I have to do this at least one more time, if I want to get things really clean.
You know, I guess I can just forget about the whole thing and wait until Spring. That would be a problem because, besides having the place look bad, trying to get wet leaves up the Spring time is a much more difficult task.
All I have to say is I love you Stihl and John Deere. If I didn’t have this blower and ride-on mower with the bagger, I would be up…well, in a very annoying position. I couldn’t imagine trying to rake this entire yard and then mow it with the push mower. I suppose I could do it, but I really wouldn’t be doing too much else in life because of the time it would take.
Can a guy get grass obsessed?
Grass
I believe so.
Hey, I’m not the only one out there who cares about the grass so much. Do you know how much money people spend on lawn care every year? A whole lot, that’s how much. Those nice even green lawns don’t come cheap. The trick is to get them even and green in the first place. Keeping them that way is the easy part. When you’re just a novice like I am, the learning curve can be kind of steep. My main problem was identifying the problem. Now that I know what’s going on, I can correct it. The bad part is that it’s probably going to take until next Autumn to get things looking good. That makes for a very long Spring and Summer for a guy who sits on the front steps looking at the grass.
You really should see it though. When I am done driving around like a crazy man sucking up those leaves, the whole place looks like I just vacuumed it. It’s so cool. I get such a kick out of these toys.
Even my brother got a nice back-pack blower. He couldn’t deal with his 10 year old Craftsman hand-held, so he went out and got a big one. He told me just last night that he got done in 5 minutes what would have taken an hour with the other one, if it did the job at all. Hey, when you have a lot of leaves…
Sky at dusk
I know why people say that Autumn is their favorite time of year. It is simply spectacular. Even when many of the leaves are already off the trees, nothing beats a nice warm Autumn day.
We have been doing a lot of hiking and walking. Sometimes, I just stop in the middle of the trail and smell the air. There are only certain times of the year we can do this and I like to enjoy it. There is nothing like it.
It has been pretty dry here lately. It just rained this morning, which is good, but up until that, we haven’t had any substantial rainfall in quite some time. I have been watching many plants wilt because of the dryness. The neighbors are getting used to the guy with no shirt standing out front with a hose in his hand.
I have had a few goals. One of them was to finish the rhododendron line across the front of the property. I have been looking at Home Depot for rhododendrons, but none can be found…anywhere. I guess they are a Spring time seller. I actually had to dig up and few that were already planted on the property and the ones I planted earlier in the season to finish the row. It’s done now, so that’s good.
I also wanted to plant some sort of a perimeter around the patio area near the basement doors. I decided to go with the Blue Prince Holly that I have been buying (it’s the only thing left), along with some that I planted earlier on. Earlier in the season, I had no plan and I was just sticking these things in the dirt. Now, at least I have a plan.
I did make a nice discovery yesterday. For a few months, I have been dismayed at the price of mulch around here. I used to pay $20 per yard at the other house. Here, these crooks are charging about $50 per yard. I need to get some of what they are smoking. It’s funny because when I call somewhere for a price, I always sense a little hesitancy in their voices as they tell me how much they charge. They know what they are doing.
I called the local hardware store and found out they sold mulch by the bag. They had 3lb bags of pine mulch for $4.49 per bag. I didn’t think that was too bad, since I just paid almost $5 per bag at Home Depot for that dyed junk. I stopped by the store and picked up 10 bags. That’s 30 cubic feet (a little over a yard) for about $45. I beat the system, you see. Now, I can go back and get 10 bags at a time only when I need them.
The mulch is very important, not only to me and my mulch addiction, but for the plants as well. The whole reason for the plants wilting is because the ground wasn’t holding in any of the moisture. I kept watering them, but the sunshine was just too strong. Now, since I mulched and gave each plant a nice soaking, I think the plants will grow nicely.
Mulched Colorado Blue Spruce
Rhododendrons in mulch.
Blue Prince Holly planted for a hedge line.
The holly bushes really don’t need any mulch because the grass is nice and moist in the back yard.
Speaking of grass, I don’t know how I did it, but the back and side lawns are like a nice thick green carpet. I now mow the lawn on the highest level the mower will go and I think it made a difference. I also overseeded with the Vigoro Contractor’s Mix, so there is some good warm weather seed in there. The reason I mow with the higher setting now is because the grass I planted holds most of the water it absorbs in its leaves. If you mow too low, you are actually cutting off all that water. Also, a short mow exposes the dirt so it gets baked and weeds start to grow. Mowing at a higher level will give you a greener lawn.
Here, check it out…
Green grass in dry conditions.
Hand in grass showing height of mowing.
See, I’m not making this stuff up. Now, if I could just get rid of the brown crispy grass in the front and replace it with this stuff, I will be in good shape. The seed is down, so a bit more rainfall should do it.
