2018 Lawn Additions

This year's heavy hitter was soybean meal for the organics, as usual, with some corn early in the season.  Later on, I used more urea as I damaged my knee in July.  That's repaired, but I was advised to take it easy until 2019.

I did spray ferrous sulfate as well, which helps enhance the color, back right around the time I winterized.

Date	N	P	K	Iron	Organics	Other Notes
5/1/2018	1.21	0.36	0.19	0.00	25.0	Soybean Meal, Cracked Corn
8/1/2018	1.05	0.30	0.15	0.00	15.0	Soybean Meal
9/1/2018	1.01	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.0	Urea
10/1/2018	1.01	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.0	Urea
11/14/2018	1.01	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.0	Urea
Total per K ft:	5.29	0.66	0.34	0.00	40.0	400.0 active organic total

Four Weeks Left

Or so, anyway.  October's lawn feeding will also be urea, but I'll time that with the next rainfall.  That looks to be around October seventh.

The grass is looking fairly good.  Myrtle (the robot) broke and I have yet to replace the main board, so this is being done manually. 









The standard garden shot shows pretty good color remaining, although things are drifting out of shape a bit and starting to bronze as the season moves on.









The rose bush is still happily producing roses at a very high rate.  A few of these are finding homes in cast resin as paperweights and jewelry.


The mailbox garden looks good this year!  The blue salvia are all volunteers, as is the rear yellow Melampodium.  The front one I planted, and between the two they ate most of the marigolds.

2018 Garden Additions

2018 featured a little more nitrogen and an extra September application of urea to the gardens.  I'd irritated a torn meniscus in my knee, which meant that September's lawn feeding was urea instead of soybean meal (to lighten the weight I had to carry).  It was just as easy to also apply around 2.5 pounds per thousand square feet of urea to the gardens as well to cover September growth and blooming.

As the knee had been bothering me a bit, I also went with soybean meal more through the season so I only had to walk through carrying the buckets once.  That's also the reason for the urea additions late in the season, in addition to having a very rainy September that precluded injecting nitrogen via the watering system.

Just as last year, I didn't list the slow calcium I added this year, about 20 pounds per thousand square feet.  That will gently release over the next few years, holding the pH in the lower 6 range.

Date	N	P	K	Iron	Organics	Other Notes
5/7/2018	1.32	0.30	0.25	0.36	21.5	Milorganite, Soybean Meal
6/1/2018	1.32	0.30	0.25	0.36	21.5	Milorganite, Soybean Meal
7/1/2018	1.75	0.25	0.50	0.00	25.0	Soybean Meal
8/1/2018	1.75	0.25	0.50	0.00	25.0	Soybean Meal
9/1/2018	1.15	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	Urea
9/15/2018	0.69	0.52	0.00	0.00	0.00	Urea, Monoammonium Phosphate
10/1/2018	1.15	0.00	0.00	0.00	0.00	Urea
Total per K ft:	8.13	1.62	1.50	0.72	93.0	186.0 active organic total

Mid-Late August

Summer is starting to spin down and nights are getting just a bit cooler than their high point, but the gardens don't notice and won't care much until October.

The main back garden, showing off the blue gazing ball.  Most of this is Magellan zinnia (in scarlet) that do very well here.


I'm very happy with the Babylon dahlia, although I wish they were just a bit taller.


I keep trying to hide the meters with things.  I didn't expect much from the Easter Egg plant, but I had some hopes for the cleome.  Unfortunately, that didn't work out too well, but at least it takes the worst of the view out of play.


Another image across the back, showing the bits of garden that have washed into the patio's brick.  So far, August has featured heavy and frequent rain.


The Easter Egg plant on the deck is maturing nicely.  These are most of the way there, although the orange tones will deepen through September.  I should be able to harvest seeds for next year starting September 15th, as the oldest eggs (which started to grow in June) turn orange with brown spots and begin to fade.


Follow the Yellow Bloom Road.  This is the upper leg of the back garden, done all in yellow this year.  With the milder winter we had, I had tons of volunteer Melampodium (the small yellow blooms) that were transplanted over here.

Mid-August Photos

We're pretty much at peak on the gardens for the year, although things are still a bit delayed and I'm expecting a good show right through September.


The salvia always do well, and our older dog appreciates that.


I like the Babylon dahlia, although I wish they were a bit taller.


The general garden image, along with our younger dog.


Easter Egg plant are a fun addition to any garden.  Right now, the "eggs" are white, but they'll mature to yellow, then gold, and finally orange in September and October. 


The northern face of the back garden.  It's very red this year...

Late July Photos

We've had about three inches of rain since Sunday, which has restored the grass and pushed the gardens into growth.  At this point, they're pretty much caught up with late July and look pretty good.

The grass is definitely recovering, but still shows signs of the drought it was in through June and into July.  Regardless, it'll recover fully by fall (assuming rainfall) and no harm done.









The Profusion scarlet zinnia are doing incredibly well.  They're redder in person, and this one is a bit more orange due to all the reflected light off the house.



The northward view of the back garden is maturing nicely.  I lost a plant in that hole, but it doesn't look too bad.


Standing on the river stone drainage area, there's a distinct orange path of flowers.


The southern side of the back garden is a bit spottier, but still doing pretty well.


The zinnia is a volunteer crossbreed between yellow and orange.  So far, it's breeding relatively true.


The front garden is a bit more constrained and less frenetic, but I still enjoy a lot of color and life out there as well!

More July Photos

Things are moving along, although slowly.  While I just posted images a few days ago, I took several this afternoon that are worth showing off.

Profusion scarlet zinnia are new to the garden this year, but very quickly earned an established place for future years.  They're much redder than the Fire, although not quite a scarlet except in more shadowed areas.  And they are, indeed, profuse.


The dwarf dahlia (purple/white and white) are finally moving along a bit, although not nearly as full and heavily blooming as they would normally be.


The black-eyed Susans are starting, while the rest of the garden is still gearing up.  Normally, this would be approaching peak, but that looks like it'll be very late this year.

Mid-July Photos

The lawn has improved a bit as rainfall resumed on July 4th, although it remains dry.  The next week or two looks to be somewhat wetter, fortunately.

The gardens are still behind where they should be, which would be approaching peak in a normal year.  This year, peak won't be until mid-August.










It looks OK from the top of the deck.


Although generally small, individual Magellan scarlet zinnia are doing very well.

The red Profusion zinnia are doing extremely well!  They're still small, but very colorful.


And from the bottom of the bed, the garden is a bit haphazard, but pretty.

Late June Photos

Even with no rain (or, perhaps because of the increased sunlight and adequate water via irrigation), the gardens have taken off.  While the Fourth of July is the traditional day for photos for the real start of summer, I took a bunch this evening.

A lot of the dahlia bulbs are second-year, so they're blooming much earlier.  This Blue Boy normally wouldn't blossom until late July.


The same is true of the Sun Lady dahlia.  These highlighter-yellow bloomers are some of my favorites!


The Babylon Red dahlia is new this year.  Although supposedly a late-season bloomer, these are doing very well in late June.  The flowers are pretty large and even redder than they look in these images.


The gene-mixed yellow/orange zinnia bred relatively true, so I'll be saving more of these for next year.  They're a nice tangerine color.


The northwest face of the garden.  It's a little spotty, and I just transplanted Melampodium and Easter Egg plant into the areas well, but the zinnia are starting to look nice.


This is one of the parent plants for that orange/yellow zinnia.


I really like the French Vanilla "white" marigolds.  They were perfect last year, they're a hit again this year.

No Rain

We're getting rainfall in occasional drips and drops, but nothing appreciable. The grass is starting to go dormant, although I'm maintaining the gardens, of course.

You can water, about an inch a week total on most northern (and most southern, for that matter) lawns, done either all at once, once a week, or half the amount twice a week. Mow as long as you can tolerate the lawn to preserve water, and try to mow very early in the morning or just before sunset to minimize water lost to bleeding.

If you'd rather not water, that's fine for northern lawns, at least. Bluegrass will go dormant and incidental rainfall is usually more than enough to keep the roots alive. Rye and fescue will stop growing and are tolerant of weeks of little to no rain, although they have no dormancy mechanism as such. For southern lawns, Bermuda will go dormant and the mechanism is at least as good as bluegrass'.

If you see the dry spell coming, stop mowing. Even if the lawn is a little long, don't mow it. Longer grasses use less water, and shade their soil better, slowing evaporation of the water that remains.

Try to minimize the wear on the lawn during the drought. Normal usage isn't a problem, but a game of football might not be the best idea. Grasses that aren't quite fully dormant will take damage, as will fescue and rye that can't go fully dormant.

Don't feed. That's a good summer rule to begin with, but skip even the organics.

And other than that, don't worry too much. Grasses can tolerate a summer drought just fine and, worst-case, you may have to reseed in some places in very early fall.

Images Down

PostImage has had some problems lately and has changed their domain.  As time wears on, I'll work a bit on restoring old posts--but not very hard or very much.

Things Are Really Underway...

I got distracted by any number of things and could either do the work or talk about the work.  I did the work.  :-)

The lawn's been fed (soybean, as always) as of May 1, and the gardens were planted shortly thereafter, once I was sure all chance of frost is past.  Rain's been relatively consistent, with just a short June dry spell so far that had no real consequences.

The Babylon Red dahlia are doing extremely well.  I hadn't expected them to blossom this early!




A new addition this year, the scarlet Profusion zinnia look like they're going to be incredible.

Things are Underway

I haven't blogged because I've mostly covered things in previous years.  I'm moving dates around a little bit, so the blue and red salvia are both starting later this year.  They were crowding each other out a bit.

I moved the ageratum earlier as it had a very slow development last year.  This year, it's already starting to get rootbound with 2 months left to go before planting.  I'll pinch them back if I have to and they'll be just fine.

I took a few photos of the setup downstairs. Again, click on any image to embiggen it. This is the sprouting area in my home office. The red/white light is a set of 12 volt, total of 12 watt, LED strips I cobbled together and mounted on flexible vinyl. I use that to illuminate my wintered-over flowers as well as to help new plants sprout.



Only one deck is currently in use downstairs, out of six. The second will come online sometime late next week, probably. After that, it moves fast. We're currently 8 weeks out from last frost.  On the left are Easter Egg plant and ageratum.  The right is the newly-sprouted heliotrope (which is not going well) and the blue salvia (which is just small and will be fine).



This is a wider view, also showing my very messy working area.  My better half won't come downstairs until I clean all this up, so we're talking May.

The Cycle Starts Anew

Yesterday, Groundhog's Day, marks six weeks until the official Spring Equinox...and about 12 weeks until the annuals are planted.

It's time to start the seeds that require the longest development time, like vinca, ageratum, heliotrope, and the like.  I started the first set (vinca, ageratum, and heliotrope) last week, with the heliotrope continuing on the heater this week with the Easter Egg plant.

The heliotrope, so far, has 5 of 24 plants sprouted, but typically takes a long time and has a very low germination rate.  I put dozens of seeds in each cell.