Feeding Update

I've been pretty good about publishing photos, but I haven't been so good about updating how I'm keeping the lawn looking like that!

With my low iron levels (1.3 PPM on the last soil test), and slightly high pH, iron's critical. I've dropped 50 pounds of ferrous sulfate (7.1 pounds per thousand) this year to help with both iron levels and the pH. Ferrous sulfate has about 1/8th the acidifying power of elemental sulfur, so this is the equivalent of a bit under a pound of sulfur per thousand.

I've backed off on feeding this year what with the heat and the fact that the soil simply doesn't need it any longer. So far, 118 pounds per thousand square feet of organic feedings have gone down. I'm dividing that into half Milorganite, half soybean meal for most feedings, although I did drop 20 pounds per thousand square feet of cracked corn earlier in the season to help with any fungal issues.

All things considered, that works out (per thousand square feet so far this year) to 6.5 pounds of organic nitrogen, 2.5 pounds of phosphorus, 1 pound of potassium, and 9.6 pounds of iron.

August's feeding goes right around the first, and that will be pure Milorganite. The second August feeding will be soybean meal, around the 15th. That will help get the lawn fed for fall when it really wants the nitrogen. I'll continue heavily feeding in September as well since the weather is still compatible.

Drought Lawn/Garden Photos

We're in an irregular and extended drought in the area, but the lawn and gardens are still doing amazingly well.  I haven't irrigated the lawn since the Fourth of July (although, of course, the gardens require water regularly).

If  you click on the blurry (sorry about that; PhotoBucket doesn't do a good job with thumbs) image below, you can enlarge it.  Clicking on that resulting larger image will show you an even larger one!

Here's the standard lawn shot:



I found this amusing:



Here's a shot of the back garden:



And a bonus image--a new Gaillardia just sending its first bloom. There are plenty more where that came from.

More Lawn & Garden Photos

I'll be letting the lawn go down for the summer around the fourth this year, it's too hot and dry to try to maintain it at any reasonable cost.  So instead of waiting a few extra days, I took my photos today when the lawn is at its peak.  The gardens will be maintained, of course!

As always, click on any shot to embiggen it. The larger versions aren't blurry...

Now, if you click on the PhotoBucket enlarged shot, it'll enlarge again.  I changed over to uploading photos in the 1 Mb version.

The standard lawn shot:



Here's the southern face of the lawn, now with robot tracks all over it. I'd just finished mowing it.



The front line damage hasn't repaired itself much, but the weather's been too hot and dry for spreading:



I've even had some losses in the gardens due to the weather, but fortunately I have Rocket snapdragons and celosia volunteering all over the place.



And here's a bonus closeup of the blossoming bee balm. I had to flip the bees off of it to get the shot.