Why I Oughta...

I put down 72 pounds of Forever Green Natural Lawn Food in the front yard, parkway and IB2DWs and 72 pounds of the stuff in the backyard.  I've done this type of late-season dormant lawn fertilizing for the past few seasons.  Here's last year's - where I used e-corganite .  And, I used the same E-Corganite from Menards in 2021 , too.   They switched to carrying this Forever Green Natural Slow-Release Nitrogen Fertilizer which has an N-P-K of 4-3-0.  I applied it pretty heavy and spread it right on top of the small, chopped-up leaves that I have been mowing into the lawn.  I won't apply a fertilizer on the lawn until I put down a pre-emergent (with fertilizer) in the late Spring.  Well...if you call the topdressing with municipal biosolids 'feeding' (which it is), then I'll probably go sooner than pre-emergent.   2023 lawn care season is now wrapped.   Can I do better next year?  Probably.  

I threw down 15K area of coverage of this Grub Control granular from Menards.  A June application was in my 2023 lawn plan , so this is a 'check the box' activity.  I ran my spreader over the lawn in the front and back as well as some of the beds to apply the grub killer to those areas, too. I have to spot-treat some of the weeds this month, too.  Then, coming out of the July 4th holiday, I'll be applying the first treatment of an organic material (biosolids from Menards) after doing two synthetic lawn applications this Spring.  I'm calling my March, April, May and (now) June - in terms of lawn care - a success.    I've done:  Lawn lime, a pre-emergent + fert, a weed-and-feed and now insect and grub control. 

One of the ways that I've used this garden diary is by laying out a plan or schedule that I can reference later in the season as a way to keep me on task.  I veer off-course way, way, way too easily, so these kind of posts are helpful in putting up some guardrails.   The lawn has been one of the focus areas over the years and my approach has evolved.  I mentioned this in the post about the new Menards biosolids lawn fertilizer that is natural (a Milorganite alternative) when I talked about how I've swung from all synthetics to all organics.  And now I've settled in the middle - and intend to use both.  We have cool-season turfs.  In the front, it is all Kentucky Blue Grass.  In the back, we now have a mix of Kentucky Blue Grass and Tall Fescue.  And...(I think) some thin, whisp-y perennial rye grass.  Here's last year's post about the plan - and I'll say that it was (overall) a positive year.  Mostly because of the renovation and ...

We were at the Menards in Bolingbrook and wandered out to where they keep the bags of lawn fertilizer.  I was hoping to pick up a few bags of fertilizer and pre-emergent that I could put down late this Winter/early this Spring.  As I've talked about over the years, I've evolved in my approach to feeding our lawn.  When I started....I was all synthetic.  I used the four-step program - all synthetics and some with weed/feed combined.   Then...my eyes were opened (thanks to YouTube) on organics.  Specifically Milorganite.  I started to use biosolids.  And, I stopped early Spring feedings.  And, did a late season (Thanksgiving) feeding.  And 'spoon fed' during the warm months and all of those things that people talk about online.    Starting last year, I've kind of swung back on the synthetic --> organic spectrum.  But, only half-way.  I'll post about what I'm doing with the first application in another post....

Like I've done the past few years, I attempted to lay out a lawn care (feeding and treatment) schedule this year by listing what I was planning to do to the front and back lawns.  This year's schedule was posted in March .  So...how did I do?   I'd call it a mixed grade.  I started out with a synthetic weed and feed in March .  Good.   I skipped adding lime to the backyard to help treat the wild onions.  But, I did, remove a few more emerging clumps.  Not so good.   I also skipped insect and grub treatments.  Ran out of time.  Not good. And skipped fungicide.  Also...not good. I also skipped 4th of July and Labor day feedings in the backyard.   But, what did I do?  I detathed, aerated the backyard.   Good. I also identified and treated Nimblewill in the backyard .  Good.  And, most importantly...I overseeded the entire backyard with a blend of Kentucky Blue Grass and Tall Fescu...

This application of rose fertilizer to our three Disneyland Roses (Floribunda Roses) on the south side of our house marks the fourth seasonal application of the granular fertilizer this year.  May, June, July and now....August.  (Despite this post publishing in September, I put down this rose food in late August).    The full archive of rose fertilizer posts are here .  Below, you can see how I spread this fertlizer around the base of the rose: And, here's a look at the bag of Vigoro food that I've been using all season.  I didn't use ALL of this bag this year, but came pretty close.   The timing of the blooms of these seem to follow the application of the food.  Right now (late August), these have just finished a bloom-cycle and should be putting on the final set of buds for a September flower show soon.  

A week or so ago, right when they were putting on a bunch of their new growth, I applied the first treatment of fertilizer on our three Disneyland Roses that are planted on the south side of our house.  This is the second year that I've done a feeding program for them and something I mentioned I wanted to keep doing on my 2022 to-do list (#10) .   Last year, I used a granular product from Jobe's , but this year when I went to the orange Big Box Nursery, all I could find was this Vigoro granular.  I figured it was fine since the N-P-K were just about the same. I feed in early May, so this particular bag says that the next time I should feed them is two-to-three months from now, which would mean sometime in July.  And, then again sometime in September.   One of the other things that I need to remind myself is around companions for these Disneyland Roses.  I covered some ideas last year, when I mentioned Alliums and Nepeta as potential options ....

I saw this bag of Lesco 19-0-7 lawn fertilizer with pre-emergent at one of the big box stores recently and thought it was worth tracking here for both price and N-P-K makeup.  For reference, Milorganite has a 6-4-0 N-P-K and based on what I've both read/watched and my initial soil testing, finding something like this that has a # in the Potassium part of the equation is, inherently interesting to me.  At $68 a bag, it is a little bit LESS interesting, though. This post and photo, however...reminds me that I NEED to keep an eye on my 2022 lawn care schedule as I'm planning on making some changes to the treatments this year - especially as I try to balance my historical heavy N-P's in the N-P-K analysis.