Why I Oughta...

Another day, another post showing some of the use of biosolids in the yard and garden.  This time....it was a couple of half-full trugs of the organic material in the front of the front porch bed and a little bit scattered in the lawn.    I last showed using it in the backyard .  But, I've put the bulk of biosolids down this late Winter/early Spring in the front.  Parkway and main lawn.  Bu, also in the front porch beds. Below are a couple of photos showing a bit of biosolids scattered in the front of the bed (first photo) and the two trugs that I used.   The reason for applying it to the bed was because I had a bunch of clay that I had dug up that was on the top of the soil.  When those clay clumps dried, I kicked them to break them up and then mixed in this organic material.  You can also see a little bit in the lawn, too. What is my plan for the next batch of biosolids?  I was thinking of running them straight-down my property li...

Over the past week or so, I've been working on - and posting about - the front yard beds.  Mostly, I've been working on - and thinking about the soil conditions.  Since we moved in - Summer of 2017 - I haven't had much luck at all up there.  That's six growing seasons (well...five full ones at least) and I've lost things, have had other things not grow so well and removed the biggest plant in this bed last Fall:  the large Norway Maple tree.   I started last week doing some vertical boring of holes using my post hole digger .  Both, to get a real look at the soil conditions, understand how deep the clay lies under the topsoil and to (maybe?) help improve the conditions by cutting through some of that bathtub effect that takes place in clay soils.  After I dug a hole about 12" around and 24-or-so-inches deep, I proceeded to fill it up with some leaves and a big helping of biosolids to top it off.  My thought is that this 'vertical mulching' wi...

The planting bed that is out front of our porch has been something that has been on my mind for years.  Specifically...the growing conditions.  Between a few things going on out there, I think it might be time (this year) to take an even more aggressive stance at improving the soil across this foundation planting bed.  Last year (2022), one of the items on my annual to-do list was to think about how we improve the conditions up there and I suppose that I did that (a little) and gave myself a partial grade of complete.   The way I was thinking about this problem was across a couple of fronts:  hydrophobic mulch and the root mat from the Norway Maple .   Starting last Spring, I went about trying to fix the hydrophobic mulch issue - including the addition of some nitrogen in the form of alfalfa cubes and raked it in .  Then, in the Fall, I attempted to do even more.  First...with the removal and grinding of the Norway Maple tree, I'm hopin...

Day three of the front-yard tree buds in Winter - first with the Saucer Magnolia fuzzy flower buds and then yesterday with the Red Fox Katsura .   Today, is the Chanticleer Pear flowering tree that is in the 'in between two driveways' island and planted pretty close to the Katsura.  This was a replacement tree that was planted in 2018 after our first one died.  This one STRUGGLED.  By October of 2018 (four months after planting), it was in bad shape .  Turns out, it was planted in a 'clay bowl' and the roots were drowning in what is called the ' bathtub effect ' where water had no where to go.   It seemed to continue to decline in 2019 - but by Spring 2020, I was seeing the very FIRST flower buds .  Not everywhere.  But, some flowers.   Then, last Spring - 2021 - we seemed to have a big part of the tree that had died back.  And a bunch of the tree that looked to be back on track - and flowering .    I ended up ...

Every year, we've planted annuals in our front bed to add a little pop of color to the front of our house - with mixed results.  Last year, we used 24 Devine Lavendar Impatiens in the bed .  The most plants we've put in this area.  The full progression looks like this: Our first full year - in 2018 - we planted some Ranunculuses - about eight of them.  In 2019,  we planted 16 orange marigolds.  +8 plants yoy. In 2020, we planted 24 Impatiens.   +8 plants yoy. The second goal (beyond the color) is to help improve the soil in this area as when I got started it was solid clay - from the foundation backfill.  I amended the soil with Gypsum and have added some biochar/humic acid to the area, too.  And, of course I've added mulch to these beds over the years.  First, with hardwood fines, then in 2019 and 2020, I laid down cocoa bean hull mulch .  The thinking here is that nothing aerates and breaks up clay soil better than roots gro...

Starting this Spring and continuing this Summer, I've chronicled my experiences with our lawn and the process, materials and thinking that have gone into it.  This is the first time that I've spent anything more than a passing thought about the turf, the soil and how to best tend to it as the seasons change. Started in Spring with a Wild Onion removal - digging them out. Used a calculator to time my application of pre-emergent Crabgrass preventer (without food!) Started to use an organic fertilizer - Milorganite on the yard - instead of synthetics.  Got serious about my weed spraying with a blue pattern indicator . Then I tested my soil and got a baseline on the front and back .   I added some Ironite (2x) this Summer to keep the lawn green . Cut the front yard higher than I've ever cut in the past.   Earlier this Summer, I bought and spread a big bag of granular Humic Acid . And most recently, I put down a second application of pelletized...

Back in June, I posted a photo of a couple of soil tests from Soil Savvy that I had purchased to try to ascertain the exact details of our soil in the lawn.  I thought it would be a good chance to get a baseline and to understand if we had differences in the soil that was left undisturbed in the far back of our lot and the more clay-like soil that is lying underneath the sod closer to our house. I did exactly as the instructions said to do:  pulled up small samples from various parts of the lawn and mixed them together.  For each of the two samples.  Mailed them away and then waited a little bit.  A few days later,  received a couple of emails with links to the results.  At the top of this post, you'll see the results from what I call the "far backyard".  This is soil that is totally undisturbed and grass that we inherited.  Based on my experience, it is softer, not as hard to pull a plug out of and A LOT less clay when I turn a...

The last time we checked in on this large caliper Chanticleer Flowering Pear tree that is planted close to our front driveway was last Fall when it was totally off-cycle.  It flowered in early November .  But, I took that (oddly-timed) indicator as a potential sign of progress.  Looking back at this same tree in June of last year, I think that this year the tree is healthier.  It isn't perfect as there are still plenty of thin spots and some dead tips.  But, look at the photo from last year .  The leaves are a different color.   Darker green.  Seemingly more healthy, right? The culprit was the clay bowl that this tree was planted in and how it was drowning the tree.  At least...that's what I *think* was happening.  I dug out part of the tree on the low-side of the planting bowl and then used a post-hole digger to dig through the clay layer to make a kind-of drainage spot so the water had a place to run.  After I did this ...

Last week in the post about how I had bought my first run of Humic Acid (granular), I mentioned that I was going to test my soil before applying.  Welp, today is that day.  I bought two Soil Savvy Soil Test Kits after watching Ryan Knorr on YouTube talk about how to collect a sample .   There are a variety of ways you can test your soil including a few that you can buy at Menards and mix up on the spot, but this test is priced a bit higher, requires you to send away a sample and the posts some online results for you.  So, why two?  You can probably imagine that I'd want to get a test from my front yard and my back.  But, you'd be wrong.  When we built our house, the entire front yard was a massive mud pit.  And so was the back.  For about the first 100 feet.  And that's where we laid sod.  Based on the soil type in our landscape beds, I'm pretty sure that everywhere there is sod, there's a lot of terrible clay soil.  ...

Posting this mostly as a reminder to myself here in the [ garden diary ] that I recently put down 80 lbs of pelletized gypsum.  Both on the front lawn and in the beds that I've planted around the foundation.  The instructions recommend applying this stuff at the rate of 40 lbs per 1,000 square feet, but I didn't do that.  I have about 15,000 square feet of landscape and that would require 15 bags.  I bought two and decided to concentrate on the beds and the front sod.  I didn't do the parkway area, but I intend to go back to Menards later this Fall to pick up a few more bags so I can do the parkway and driveway areas. Why? Because of the product benefits that the bag lists is the neutralization of roadway salt. But, why did I put this stuff down in the first place?  Well, the actual science is marginal.  I've read things on the Web that both say:  it helps and it doesn't help any.  But, see the first bullet point on the front of the bag ...