Sunday, October 25th, 2009
This is a simple post. There are two things I want to show you.
1. A Kentucky Bluegrass seed germinating
2. The new Pennington Smart Seed sun and shade mix grass seed popping up through the compost I put down last week
Boy, they aren’t kidding when they say that Bluegrass seed takes over four weeks to germinate. I planted most of the seed near the beginning of September and a lot of it is just coming up now. That’s just crazy, but I do enjoy it when I look outside every day and the grass looks slightly more green and full each time. I over seeded the entire property and it really is showing. I can’t wait for Spring to come so I can give it another layer of seed. I am going to give this a shot because I don’t want to put down any weed and feed. From now on, nothing but fertilizer. No herbicides or pesticides. We’ll see if the saying is true…”a nice thick lawn will crowd out weeds.”
Also, it didn’t take long for the Pennington Smart Seed to start growing. I watered it a few days ago and it got drenched last night. I woke up this morning to find parts of the compost actually lifted off the ground. It was like someone poured soil on a shag carpet. The new grass growing underneath the top layer of compost was lifting the whole thing up. When I put my hand on top of it, it felt like I was pushing down on a sponge.
Here are some pictures.
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Kentucky Bluegrass grass seed germinating
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Pennington Smart Seed sun and shade mix early growth – germination
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Thursday, May 7th, 2009
This is just another one of my documentation posts. I thought it would be nice to show the status of flowers budding as well as the grass and how far the leaves on the trees have come.
One thing to note is that we primarily have Oak trees on this road. I have been doing a lot of driving around and have noticed that everywhere else seemingly has more leaves on their trees. It looks pretty much like Summer there. Then, I get back here and it looks like early Spring. Oak trees bloom late, that’s all there is to it.
The grass is coming along nicely. It’s very green and the bald patches are filling in. I already mowed it twice. There is one thing I would like to mention…I have been using the rear bagger when I mow the lawn. I have read all over the place that it’s good to spray the grass clippings back onto the lawn. It probably is, but with my experience, and especially when the existing grass (and crabgrass) is seeding, it’s better to catch the clippings. I don’t want to spread crabgrass seeds back on the lawn. That would pretty much defeat the purpose of what I am trying to do here. I told a friend the other day, “Just take a look at what the good lawn services do and copy that.” Seems logical enough.
Here are some photos from a cloudy, muggy Spring day.
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Pink / purple Lilac budding up close
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Bloomed Red Dicentra – Bleeding Heart
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Bloomed Crab Apple flowers
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Blooming white Lilac
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Status of Oak tree leaves in early May
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Green grass in early May – Front lawn
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Green grass in early May – Side lawn – Weeping Cherry in background
Yesterday, I received my notification call from Scotts Lawn service out of Hartford. They said they will be here within two business days. I gave a quick call back just to see what they will be doing. They told me that they will be spraying the lawn for weeds and putting down fertilizer / crabgrass pre-emergent. Sounds like just what we need.
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Sunday, April 26th, 2009
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.
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Ortho Dial N Spray multi-use hose-end sprayer
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Top of Ortho Dial N Spray multi-use hose-end sprayer – showing application amounts
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Ortho Weed B Gone plus crabgrass control
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Plantain weed dying after Ortho Weed B Gone application
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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.
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Sunday, April 26th, 2009
It appears they are both.
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:
Perennial Lawn Weeds
- Dandelion
- Ground ivy
- Clover
- Plantain
- Nutsedge
Annual Lawn Weeds
- Crabgrass
- Annual bluegrass
- Knotweed
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.
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Thursday, April 9th, 2009
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.
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Back yard after it was dethatched – photo 1
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Back yard after it was dethatched – photo 2
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Dead crabgrass pulled up by the dethatcher
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Back yard after dethatched material was picked up by lawn mower rear bagger
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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.
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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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Friday, March 27th, 2009
Okay, today is no doubt the nicest day of the year so far. It’s mid 60s and sunny. I can’t complain about that.
Yesterday, I had 15 yards of mulch delivered from the place down in East Hampton. I got it for $22 per yard, plus $8 for delivery (per yard). That’s $30 per yard for the cheapest stuff they had. Considering I paid $120 to have yesterday’s mulch delivered, I am considering getting a sweet little trailer. After all, I did have a trailer hitch installed on the new vehicle for a reason. What a treat it would be to drive down there and pick up mulch for $22 per yard. Either way, I got the 15 yards and still need about 5 more. I’ll have to think about this a little before I order the rest. I have a severe allergy to throwing money out the window for delivery.
The task was to mulch the small garden in the front, the stone wall garden in the front and the side garden that I just expanded. I didn’t think I was going to have enough for anything else.
It took about a half day to get those three areas done. When I was finished with them, I had about 4 yards of mulch left over. I decided to spread some around at the end of the driveway. When it rains, the runoff from the driveway erodes the ground there. It isn’t the prettiest thing. I figured that mulch was the answer. Also, I decided that I could tackle some of the back garden as well. I would say that I got about a third of that finished.
Hey look, I even took some before and after photos for you.
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Pile of Witch Hazel mulch – 15 yards
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Small garden in front before mulch covering
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Small garden in front after mulch covering
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Stone wall garden in front before mulch covering
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Stone wall garden in front after mulch covering
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Side garden before mulch covering
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Side garden after mulch covering
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Garden in back of house about a third of the way covered with mulch
Talk about weed control.
What I am trying to accomplish here is a nice base. I think that light yearly applications of mulch will keep the soil nice and black and the weeds down. If that happens, I will be happy.
Now, I need to order 5 more yards of mulch to finish up the back and then it’s off to get flower bulbs, plants and shrubs…and a hammock.
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Sunday, March 15th, 2009
Well, I think it’s almost here. Yeah, now that I said it, it’s probably going to snow next week.
What I’m talking about is Spring. If you’ve gone outside over the past few days, you might have gotten a tan. Sure, that may be exaggerating things a bit, but no one can deny sweating a little during a warm March day. I did and I don’t think I miss the sweat. I miss everything else, but definitely not the sweat.
When I woke up this morning, I looked out the window and thought it would be a great day to get a little yard work done. I know, I know, it’s a little early to start hitting the yard work, but you have to remember that I have been waiting about four months for this. If it’s over 50 degrees, I am going to be outside getting stuff done.
Today was the day that I dug up the sprouting Daffodil bulbs from the backyard and transplanted them to the new mulch bed. Well, the mulch hasn’t exactly arrived yet, so I guess I should just call it a dirt bed for now.
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Digging up the clusters of Daffodil bulbs
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Freshly dug up Daffodil bulbs – showing the roots
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Another view of Daffodil bulbs and their roots
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This is what a Daffodil bulb looks like when it’s sprouting in mid March in the northeast
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Digging a new (or larger) mulch bed
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A five gallon bucket of Daffodil bulbs
As you can see from the above photos, I decided to expand the mulch bed that I made last year. I got thinking about it and thought the old one was just too small. Also, I was sick and tired of mowing around that fruit tree. Now that the new mulch bed is dug, I could plant all sorts of stuff in there, starting with the Daffodil bulbs I dug up today. I am not a fan of small mulch beds. If you have a small mulch bed and don’t know what to do with it, give me a call and we’ll chat.
It took about a half hour to get all those Daffodil bulbs up and out of the dirt. When I first started, I dug up a big chunk of dirt and transplanted the whole thing, but as time went on, I thought it would be more efficient to grab a bucket and shake the dirt off the bulbs so they would fit inside. That way, I could just carry the bucket over when all the bulbs were dug up.
I got about five gallons worth of bulbs. I did manage to dig up a few Iris rhizomes while I was at it. Do you remember the last time I did this? If not, here, check it out. I like getting everything all dug up and put in their new spots.
You may be asking, “Jay, why are you doing this?” I would answer, “Friend, I am moving these bulbs over because I think grass would look nice up against the rear stone wall. Also, the whole area near the stone wall was full of weeds last year and I have learned that you can’t have a garden without mulch. The area in the back is way too large to cover with mulch.” How’s that? I guess I just like to consolidate.
I will tell you one thing that happened today. I got my hands all dirty. I have to say that I just love getting my hands filthy while gardening. It’s one of those things I suppose.
(Remember, if you click on a photo to view the larger version, you can click on it again to see an even larger version.)
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Monday, October 13th, 2008
A few days ago, I gave up. I admitted to myself that my patchwork ideas and techniques were no match for this large semi-terrible lawn. Sure, it was beautiful during the Summer, but now its true self is showing.
Ever since it started getting chilly outside, parts of the grass have been turning brown. I know it’s normal for grass to turn brown, but not so early in Autumn. I looked up a few things online and discovered that there were some issues with the lawn. Then, I called Scotts Lawn Service. You know the company…they are the ones that make all the stuff you see on the shelves at Home Depot and Lowe’s. I know, I didn’t know they had a lawn service either.
The guy came out and checked the place over. He gave me a write up of what they would do and how much it would cost. I asked him if this would make the lawn green and thick. He gave a slight chuckle and said “yes.”
Scotts Lawn Service
That’s all I want, a nice healthy, green, thick lawn. I don’t want to see bare spots, moss, brown spots or weeds. They seem to have the cure for this.
They came out today for the first application. They put down some fertilizer and grub control. During the next visit, they are going to put down some lime and a winterizer fertilizer. He said this is to establish good roots and an early green up in Spring. That’s all for this year.
Next season, starting in the early Spring, they are going to come back out and put down some weed control. That should get rid of the brown parts of the lawn, because that is what’s dying right now, causing all the brown areas. Throughout the season, they are going to fertilize, lime, kill grubs, aerate and reseed. By next Autumn, I think the lawn should be ready for a magazine. Well, that’s my hope anyway.
You know, the funny thing is that I think I am actually saving money by having someone else do this. I priced out 11,000 square feet of fertilizer today at Home Depot and it was about twice as expensive as what they charged me for that part of today’s service. Same for the grub control. Strange.
One thing I am going to do myself if aerate. John Deere sells a tow-behind aerator that I am going to get. This should pay for itself in one and a half visits of what they charge.
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Thursday, October 9th, 2008
I must say, this John Deere ride-on mower has been a real treat to work with. What once took half a day to do, now takes a mere 45 minutes. I cut at 3.5 inches and everything is working out smoothly. Also, I now longer sweat like a pig while mowing the lawn. Well, the hillside in the front still needs to be mowed with the push-mower, so there is a whole heck of a lot of sweating and swearing at that one.
These days, the issue isn’t so much mowing the lawn, but picking up the leaves. Back in the day, I would just mow over the leaves and hope for the best. I actually liked doing it. I love the sound of the leaves getting all crunched up and shooting out of the side of the mower. Well, with joy, sometimes comes pain. All Winter and once Spring rolls around, all those piles of shredded up leaves are still on the lawn. The create a bunch of dead spots.
The grass clippings from the previous (and current) season create what is called “lawn thatch.” If you care about the health of your lawn and care about what it looks like, thatch is something you are going to want to deal with.
With all this in mind, I ran down to the local John Deere dealer this afternoon to pick up a shiny new 7-bushel rear bagger for the ride-on mower. I have wanted this for a while, but with the onslaught of leaves falling from the trees, a little mini-fire was lit under my butt.
John Deere logo
John Deere dealer
The rear bagger came unassembled and took about a half hour to put together on the back of the mower. I decided to take photos for all my loyal readers to enjoy. Heck you never know…someone might actually “Google” how to put together a 7-bushel rear bagger for a John Deere X300 and my site may pop up. I’m such a genius.
John Deere 7-bushel rear bagger for x300 mower
Here are the pics with some short captions…
Rear of x300. This is why I got the x300 - heavier frame for attachments.
Installing hopper assembly.
Installing hopper assembly.
Installing hopper assembly.
Installing hopper assembly.
Installing hopper assembly.
Installing hopper.
Installing hopper.
Installing hopper.
John Deere X300 with rear bagger.
John Deere X300 rear bagger chute.
John Deere X300 rear bagger chute.
See, wasn’t that exciting? Ok, I will admit that after posting these photos, I understand that not all of you may be as excited as I am. Well, maybe this will do the trick. After setting everything up and mowing the whole lawn, the place is now leaf free. The lawn looks great. I can’t even believe how easy it was. I dumped about 12 bags worth of grass clippings and leaves and that made me feel good.
Oh yeah, one more reason to catch your grass clippings is because the weeds on your lawn keep coming back because of their seeds. If you catch your clippings, you reduce (theoretically) the amount of weeds on your lawn. I made that one up myself, but I think it makes sense.
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