Why I Oughta...

Posting this a little bit late, but I checked-off a new (to me) seasonal activity:  feeding our ginkgos with lime.   I had a bag of Organic Garden Lime from Espoma that (on the bag) bills itself as being able to change color of Hydrangea blooms - "Turns Hydrangeas Pink".    I took the bag and sprinkled a heavy hand at the base of the Spring Grove Ginkgos on either side of our stoop.  I also fed the Saratoga Ginkgo in the front yard , the Ginkgo tree that arrived cracked-in-half that I planted in the backyard and the same variety that the online nursery sent as a replacement that is IB2DWs extended (now in the conifer garden).   5 Ginkgo trees, two of which are dwarfs - all (according to this post from Mr. Maple) want alkaline soil : One great tip with Ginkgo that is different from a lot of other trees is that Ginkgo love a more alkaline soil, so by giving them lime when you're planting them and lime throughout the season, you help this plant get established and take up

Documenting with this photo of the pelletized lawn lime below that I threw down 120 pounds of lime in the backyard.  Both the lawn and the beds.   Yesterday, I shared a photo showing the Wild Onions were back and this is my attempt at systematically treating the soil to make it less hospitable for Wild Onions.   We are/were supposed to get a good-sized storm this weekend, so I wanted to get this down ahead of it so it could begin to be watered in and start to break down.   This is the first step in the lawn program, but I'm watching the soil temp and GDD tools to figure out when I need to move with the pre-emergent crabgrass granules.  

Yesterday, I posted some photos of a new organic (biosolid) lawn fertilizer from Menards that is a Milorganite replacement that comes in $10 cheaper per bag.  I mentioned that I was getting started on my 2023 lawn care program and bought a few products to get started.  Before I talk about the first application of lawn food I'm going to put down, I intend to start with a soil amendment.  Over the years, I've applied pelletized lime to our backyard in an attempt to change the makeup of the soil.  Why?  To help make the lawn a less-hospitable place for Wild Onions to grow .  I've fought those jerks every Spring - with both removal and lime application. Does lime do anything?  I'm not sure.  But, it isn't expensive, so my not throw the stuff down - if it can help, right? It seems that I haven't put Lime down since 2021 - skipping last year.  Or...I didn't post about it, at least. Here's what I'm putting down this year in the backyard:  three 40 pound b

Putting this in the lawn diary - I put down about 15# of The Andersons Soil Master 5-0-0 in the front yard this week.  And, I put down 3 40# bags of pelletized lawn lime in the backyard.  I bought The Anderson's Soil Mastery bag online - and it includes biochar, humic acid, iron, gypsum and sea kelp.  My plan is to spoon feed the front lawn with this - three applications...one per month - across the end or April, May, June.    Here's what it looks like in the spreader: I've applied Humic Acid in the past - early Summer 2019 - and pelletized gypsum before - but I've never applied these other things like biochar and sea kelp.  This is supposed to be an all-in-one product that I found online at Yard Mastery.  Here's their product listing : If you’ve been looking for a granular bio-stimulant for your poor soil, this is for you. It’s meant to be an add-on to your regular fertilizing regimen. It will condition your soil, add carbon and bio-stimulants, and improve the

Our Home Depot is doing curbside pickup with online orders, so I put through an order for some lawn care products including pelletized lawn lime and (wait for it....) ten bags of Milorganite.  Yeah...it seems like they've figured out their supply chain issues this year?  Our local Home Depot is showing over 600 bags in inventory right now.  Based on my 2020 plan , I need 18 bags for the season, so perhaps I should buy the balance and store them (hoard them) for a few months.  Also, based on the 2020 lawn plan , I outlined a 4 bag application of lawn lime to the back in Mid-April.  You can't get any *more* Mid-April than April 15th, right?  That's a bag of the stuff from Home Depot (curbside FTW.) in the Chapin spreader that I was sent last Fall.  Mark it down.  Lawn lime applied.    #5 on the 2020 to-do list was to continue to wage battle against the Wild Onions .  This lawn lime is *supposed* to help do just that.    I'm going to go at the lawn with a small spad

Yesterday, I posted about how I aerated my rear lawn using my neighbor's tractor as part of my fall lawn care duties.  I also threw down a final application of Lawn Lime for the year.  This is focused on trying to make the backyard as inhospitable as possible to the Wild Onion that we have in our backyard .  First application of pelletized Lawn Lime was in late April .  4 40# bags.  160#s. Put down the second application in early August .  4 40# bags.  160#s Used Mag-i-Cal in September - one month later - for third treatment.  1 54# bag.  And now this - in early November - my fourth application of lime.  4 40# bags.  160#s. Four treatments this year.  160 + 160 + 54 + 160 = 534 lbs added to the soil.  That seems like a ton, right?  With the aeration taking place, I'm thinking that this final fourth treatment will be the deepest in terms of intake into the soil.  I'm planning on doing another round of soil tests this coming Spring, so we'll see what happens

We had the 'front half' of our backyard sodded when we built our house, but left the back half of the backyard completely native.  All the weeds and grass and what have you growing back there.  The bulk of my focus out back has been on the landscaping and mostly left the lawn/turf on autopilot.  I had our Automower running back there, so it kept the lawn pretty low and I don't think I really noticed the HUGE amounts of Wild Onions that were growing in the grass.    If you read my post from a few days ago , you'll know that I recently put down a pre-emergent grassy weed and crabgrass preventer.  That product does NOTHING for Wild Onions.  Well...I suppose that I should start at the beginning of this year.  As our grass was coming back and starting to green-up, I noticed some pockets of dark green, spikey grass.  Or so I thought.  As I went outside, I started to realize that this wasn't grass.  But something else.   I didn't actually really know what this st