Wednesday, May 15, 2013

The First Feeding

This year, I'm performing an experiment.  I didn't feed the lawn at all this spring--normal if you feed synthetically, but all my feedings are organic except the winterization one in late November.

As of a few days ago, the lawn is starting to lose a bit of color, so it was definitely time.  What I put down now won't activate for about three weeks anyway, so I should see an improvement after Memorial Day.

So I trundled off to the local grain mill and bought 300 pounds of soybean meal.  The target was to have half of that down today.

I missed the target by about 20 pounds, which is completely my fault.  However, I'll divert that last 20 pounds to the June garden feeding.

Still, 13 pounds per thousand (130 pounds total on the lawn) gives a bit over 0.9 pounds per thousand square feet of nitrogen, more than enough for a spring feeding.  The next scheduled feed won't be until August first, to take effect in late August just as the temperatures start to drop.

The gardens get fed monthly through the season with at least half a pound of organic nitrogen per thousand per month, and sometimes up to a full pound of N.

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