Why I Oughta...

A month ago, I posted photos showing the seed packet and the knee-high seedlings that were popping up in my new full-sun cut-flower bed on the side of our house .  I crowed about how I was really pushing things with getting used to direct-sowing seeds like this Nicotiana Jasmine.   In that month since, the seedlings kept getting TALLER AND TALLER.  Some were over my head.  And all of them were crowding out other things - like Zinnias and a few Dahlia tubers that I interplanted in that same bed.   Curious, I thought.  They were growing taller and taller.  No blooms.  Here's what they looked like: Then....we went to Nat's parents house where her mom has plenty of Nicotiana Jasmine.  Too much, maybe.  Her Mom says that it reseeds iteself.  When I looked at hers, they were MUCH SHORTER.  And the leaves were more droop-y and almost like a lettuce leaf.   VERY DIFFERENT from what I was seeing in my bed. ...

The scourge of our neighborhood is in peak form right now.  Wild onions - with their waxy, thin green foliage can be spotted in lawns and beds all over our neighborhood.  And they seem to be getting WORSE.  Starting back in 2019, I've conducted an annual removal process of these things.  Some years - much more than others .  But, I've dug up and tossed Wild Onion bulbs every April. I was out cleaning up some of the edges this week and decided to dig some of the bulbs out.  I hate them. Turns out, wild onions are biannuals - they come back every two years .  That means that you REALLY have to be diligent for two consecutive seasons if you want to control them.  As for the lawn vs the beds - I'm coming around on the lawn, but think I'd like to attack them in the beds (especially around the tree swing tree).  

I noticed something new in the middle-back of our backyard:  A small amount of vinca that is evergreen mixed in amongst a bunch of leaves and fall tree litter.  The Vinca stands out because of the color.  But also...because of where it is located.  This is a brand new spot for this invasive groundcover.  See below for a look at the little bit of Vinca that is trying to establish itself:  We have some Vinca that creeps over from our neighbor to the south, but that is growing in a bed that is much closer to the house.  I'm NOT sure what I dug and (likely) divided and transplanted here (most likely a hosta based on what I'm seeing amongst the roots and tips there in the photo).  But, what *is* certain is that some vinca hitchhiked along with it.   Note to self:  stay on top of this.  Dig it up and toss it - if needed.  Don't let Vinca establish here, Jake.

The Wild Onion continues to be a problem.  The clumps of these bulbs are in our lawn and in our beds.  I've worked at them for years - including cultural and herbicide treatments over the years.  I've removed them, sprayed them and attempted to treat the soil to make them less happy.  This Spring, I've lime'd the backyard , sprayed the tips with Tenacity and pulled them out by hand.  This past week, I went into the understory garden bed and used my Hori Hori to pull up a bunch of these jerks.  Below is the orange trug filled up with the bulbs.  What's different in the beds vs the lawn is that it is a bit easier to get the bulbs out without taking more dirt/soil/earth.  I pry up the bulbs, cut the clump and pull from the bottom.   If you have Wild Onions like we do, be SURE TO NOT COMPOST THEM.  These go right in the trash - not the compost pile.   Here's a couple of other Spring 2023 posts on these awful things. 

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.   B...

This past season, I finally figured out that our backyard was infested with a warm-season grass/weed called Nimblewill and came up with a plan to treat it in place while not doing a full cool-season grass renovation.  That started with using a post-emergent spray called Tenacity  - which caused the Nimblewill to white-out and die .   Once that ran its course, I then began a project using a pre-germination seed technique followed by a project to overseed the lawn with a mix of Kentucky Blue Grass and Tall Fescue .  Which...after some watering... resulted in a bunch of new germination . And, while I was happy with the result in the Fall with new, green grass filling in plenty of bare spots, I knew the real, important results, would be visible once the lawn went totally dormant.  That's because, the Nimblewill is a warm-season grass and totally dies back once the temperature drops.  Which, historically have left us with a bunch of bare spots in the law...

Last week, I shared here on my lawn diary a little breakthrough.  For the past 18-or-so months, I've been watching a grassy weed creep along and begin to migrate from my far backyard to closer to our patio.  And, after reading about various grassy weeds, I came to the (initial) conclusion that I was dealing with Poa Annua - or an annual Bluegrass.  It was showing some of the signs like being lime green.  But, after observing the lawn this Spring, I noticed that the parts affected green'd up later and seemed to handle the Summer better than the balance of my Bluegrass.   I was planning on doing a complete renovation in the back by killing EVERYTHING off and starting from scratch with a new layer of seed this Fall.  As I prepared for that, I went in to see if I could learn more about what was back there and how much I *really* needed to kill off vs. just overseed. When I went in and pulled a mature stalk of grass, I discovered it had this sort of horizon...

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 fr...

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...

For the past few years, I've put nothing but organic/natural products down on the yard to control weeds, feed the turf and improve the soil.  But, this year, I skipped the application of a pre-emergent and I'm dealing with A LOT more weeds in the backyard than I normally have at this time of year.  I don't know if skipping the pre-emergent has to do with the weeds or if it is just a coincidence. But, I needed to take some action.  I bought a concentrate to spray the weeds and applied that a couple of weeks ago.  It worked - in spots - but wasn't enough.   So, I went with what I consider a drastic measure:  I bought a bag of Weed and Feed from Menards and threw it down in the backyard .  I looked around for a weed control ONLY granular product, but didn't see something that would work, so I decided to use this combination product.  Here's a look at the bag: Here's a closer look (below) at the makeup of the herbicide product including Dimethyla...

Everyone has a landscape enemy.  For some, it is Creeping Charlie or Clover.  For others, it is Garlic Mustard Weed.  For others, it is Wild Violets or Plantain Weeds.   Or Nutsedge.  Or Purslane.  I have ALL OF THOSE.  But, they're not my enemy.   I have one weed that bothers me more than any other.  Because it is both everywhere and nowhere.  And I have so much trouble removing.   It is the Wild Onion .   And I've been on a multi-year crusade to eradicate it from my yard.  Yet, I can't tell if I'm winning the battle.  Here - below - is the very latest of the scourge that I yanked out of the backyard. I have - so far - filled up a five gallon bucket of these Wild Onion bulbs and A LOT of soil that came out when I yank'ed them out.   I've been at this for (now) three seasons.  Started in 2019 when I started to pull them out .  Then, I went at it again last year with remova l. I...

In March, I shared the bag of Halts (no lawn food) that I had secured before Amazon started to slow down their shipping during the pandemic and referenced the Michigan State University Growing Degree Days tracker .  Welp...today is the day:  we're right in the middle of the "Optimum" range so it is time to put down that pre-emergent.  You can see where April 2nd lines up in the screenshot above. My bag of grassy weed pre-emergent that I have from Scott's covers just 5k square feet.  I have about 15K square feet of turf, so this covers just part of my lawn - and I've been focused on the very far back 5k square feet.  That's where I applied this year's batch .  I'm trying to set a reminder for myself that I should throw down another round of this stuff in the Fall to take on the Poa that I think is taking over parts of my lawn.  I went back to my ratty Scott's Edgeguard spreader for this job of what reminds me of cracked corn: I'll be...

I was out in the far back of our yard yesterday and I saw some brand new, bright green growth.  I knew immediately what I was looking at:  the first instance of Wild Onions for the year.  I know it won't be the last.  If you've followed along, you know that Wild Onions in my yard are public enemy #1.  They've achieved that status due to their prolific nature (they are EVERYWHERE), the fact that I can combat them in early Spring when there isn't much else going on in the yard and they are a DIY project that doesn't involve herbicides (you have to dig them out). I've chronicled my Wild Onion journey here on the blog starting with last Spring when I started to dig the clumps of Wild Onion bulbs out of the turf everywhere I could .  Once their season passed, I tried my best to make the soil less hospitable for them by applying Lime a few times.  I posted about them earlier this year when I saw this story about a potential spray (Bonide Burnout) tha...

Nat added this bag that you see at the top of this post to one of her recent orders from Amazon.  It is a bag of Scott's Crabgrass and Grassy Weed Preventer under the "Halts" product name.  It does NOT have lawn food in it - which is fairly uncommon in most crabgrass preventers. You can find this stuff here at Amazon (this is NOT an affiliate link.  I don't do that...) for $16.99. I used this same product last year - and sought it out because of the fact that it doesn't have lawn food in the mix.  Last year, I held off on feeding my lawn until Memorial Day and I'm thinking that I'm going to do the same. I laid out my full 2020 lawn care plan here in this post from February .  In that post , you'll note that I'm calling for an application of this pre-emergent in "April" versus "mid-April".  And that's because that I'm going to turn to - once again - Michigan State University and their "Growing Degree Days...

No...not that kind of weed tree .  I'm talking about a weed tree that has grown up and isn't really much of a desirable tree.  Or, is it a Walnut tree?  You can see the trunk being very tall and thin.  The tree is twelve or so feet tall and has a set of leaves that look just like Walnut tree leaves.  We have quite a few large Walnut trees around the yard, so it isn't beyond reason that a Walnut would have rooted and grown into a tree, I would think? The leaves of Walnut trees are "alternate compound" or "pinnate leaves" and so, too. are the leaves of this tree. I know a little bit of the Black Locust tree - which is (I think) a "weed tree".  It has similar shaped leaves, but the tips are rounded where these are pointy.  It is "not recommended" by the Morton Arboretum .   I'm pretty confident that the tree in question - in the red circle - is NOT a black locust.   But, is it a Black Walnut tree?   Here's a...

This is the first season that I've really paid a lot of attention to the lawn in any sort of meaningful way.  I've posted about it all year, but normally, I just dealt with the length of the grass and that's about it.  Weeds?  Sure.  Fertilizer?  If I remembered.  But, this year, I've upped my cutting and feeding game.  And also, for the first time used some herbicides to tackle the weeds. In the far back of the yards, I had a pretty serious Creeping Charlie issue that is a result of the lawn being untouched since before we moved in our house.  I posted in late May about how I started to use a Blue Spray Pattern Indicator in the sprayer to know where I was putting down the treatment .  I had both Wild Violet and Creeping Charlie running through the yard and the herbicide worked well.  In my mind, the blue pattern indicator additive was part of the reason for the efficacy because I was able to tell both how much and where I was putti...

Posting this panoramic photo of the backyard at our #NewOldFarmhouse (or...rather... our #NewOldBackyard) of the state of play BEFORE the cedar fence is going in.  That version above is clickable, so you can get a larger look at the yard, but I'll also share this version on Google Photos that allows you to zoom in and take a look at the panoramic that was stitched together from a few photos I took.  If you look closely, you'll see the crew delivering some of the materials like posts to the various locations around the yard.  Also, on the left side of the yard property line, you can also get a good look at the Japanese Cherry Blossom tree that we planted a few weeks back. And, those of you with sharp eyes who have kept up with some of the tree talk here on the blog, might also see the Greenspire Lindens that I am planning on espalier'ing .  They're still in their containers up along the rear portion of the house. You can also get a sense for the density of ...