Why I Oughta...

Last week, I posted a couple of photos showing the 'clumps' of Wild Onions (and their surrounding turf) that I've been digging out of the yard .  Over the years, I've found that the ONLY way to remove these things are to dig them up.   I've taken different approaches over the years in terms of how much soil I 'take' vs what I 'put back'.  This year, I'm trialing a new way to remove the Wild Onions by digging out and NOT pulling the bulbs.   In previous years, I'd use a shovel to dig out a clump that included grass.  Then, I'd sort of 'tear' the clump apart to try to release the bulbs.  And, then...I'd put the clump with the grass on top back in place.   This year, I'm taking the turf, too.  In an attempt to not leave any bulbs behind.  My thought is that the lawn will spread out and fill these spots in this Summer.   I'm also NOT composting these - instead...just tossing them directly in our garbage can.   But, what di

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 Nimblewill removal/treatment i

Out in the yard recently - with the snow melting away - and I notice some interesting contrasts appearing in the lawn in a few pockets.  See below for a photo showing what appears to be a darker, finer-blade green patch of lawn in the yard that (at first glance) seems out of place: What the heck is this?  At first, my brain raced to think about if this was an invasive turf - like the Nimbleweed that I discovered last year.  This patch is darker green and a different texture from the rest of the lawn.  I stared at it.  And stared at it.  Then it hit me:  this is a patch of Tall Fescue that I overseeded last year during a renovation .  For the most part, I attempted to mix the Tall Fescue seed in with Kentucky Bluegrass seed, but in the section closest to our patio, I didn't mix them.  Why?  Because that section is/was all KBG.  So, by overseeding with Tall Fescue, I was attempting to get a blend of the two.   That patch above is a bit more Tall-Fescue-exclusive than what I was going

Well, woulda look at that.  We have seedlings emerging in the blank spaces of our backyard lawn.  Specifically, we have seedlings taking off that were spread around our backyard a week or so ago after undergoing a pre-germination process of soaking them for five days .  I threw down 30# of seed (mix of KBG and Tall Fescue) and hand-spread some of it in some bare spots in the far back.  Below is a photo of one of those blank spots.  Have a look to see the grass seedlings coming up and filling in the space: A few things to note about this photo:  I spread a combination of Tall Fescue and Kentucky Bluegrass seeds back here, so I'm not totally sure what I'm seeing here, but based on germination time estimates, I'd say that this is more likely than not to be Tall Fescue.  You'll also note that there is a bunch of white blades in the photo.  That is a nice sight to see as that is Nimblewill that has been treated with Tenacity and is (hopefully) damaged enough so it will NOT b

Last week, I posted the details of how I was overseeding and renovating my backyard with a mix of Kentucky Bluegrass and Tall Fescue seeds .  In this post , I went over how I was attempting to pre-germinate the seed by soaking it in water for five days in an attempt to speed-up the process once I scattered the seed.  Well...I went ahead and scattered the seed using e-Corganite as the spreading and drying agent with the wet, pre-germinated seed.  As a reminder, I put down 30 pounds of seed across about 10k square feet in our backyard that was made-up of 10# of KBG and 20# of Tall Fescue seeds.  I applied it at different rates to different parts of the yard.   But, then I panicked.  As I walked around the yard, not only did I NOT see any seedlings, I saw a bunch of what sure seem like blank spots.  Just dirt.  No seeds.  Yikes.  I thought that maybe I didn't put down enough seed.  Or that it had washed away.  Especially on the sides.   So, I rushed out and bought another bag of seed.

The time has come for the backyard Fall lawn project.  What I thought was going to be a total renovation - killing everything and seeding from scratch - has turned into a combination of patch seeding and total overseeding in a couple of ways.  Once I was able to positively identify that I had an infestation of Nimblewill (a warm-season bent grass), I opted for a selective treatment called Tenacity.  After a couple of applications, the spray began to work and has turned the tips of the Nimblewill white as it begins to kill it off .  The killing and eradication of the Nimblewill isn't going to be done in this one season, but rather will be a multi-year program.  But, with the application of Tenacity (while the Nimblewill is/was growing ), I think I've begun to defeat it.  And allow for the application of a new batch of grass seed that will (I hope) take off and begin to grow in the final six or so weeks of the season.   The backyard is a case study in three parts.  The first thi

Yesterday, I posted about the lawn care breakthrough that I had in properly identifying and diagnosing our lawn with hosting a warm-season bent grass weed called Nimblewill .  In that post, I talked about trying to work my way through a process to both treat the Nimblewill, help some of our other tough spots and overseed the backyard this late Summer/early Fall. Back in March of this year, I posted my 2022 lawn care schedule and included the idea of a renovation in the back.  Turns out...(if you read yesterday's post on Nimblewill ), I don't have Poa and don't need a renovation.  I just need to remove the Nimblewill and overseed.  Here's how I'm approaching the process below. My plan starts with controlling the Nimblewill through a herbicide application.  Followed by aeration to part of my lawn then overseeding and finally amending parts of the backyard with compost to help improve the conditions.  I touched on some of this in my 2022 lawn schedule post from this S

I had a little lawn care breakthrough this past week.  Turns out....I don't have Poa in our lawn.  We have a bent grass called Nimblewill .  Since last Fall, I've talked about how I needed a plan to deal with what I thought was Poa Annua in our backyard .  I s ketched out the notion of a full back renovation and even included the idea in my 2022 to-do list.    But, as I was thinking about the timing of killing that (presumed Poa), I started to dig a little deeper on the Web.  I pulled a blade of my invasive grass and compared it to what I found on the Web.  It wasn't looking like Poa.  Then...I found this page from Purdue's Turf Science Department that talks about Nimblewill .   Purdue describes Nimblewill thusly : Nimblewill (Muhlenbergia schreberi) is a warm-season perennial grass found throughout the northeast, southeast, and Midwestern United States.   ...It grows well in moist, shady areas but it is also found in dry, sunny areas. Nimblewill spreads vegetatively t