December Lawn Photos

It's been a while! Well, I'm back now!

Very shortly, I'll release the feeding schedule for the lawn and gardens for the year, but I'll wait until I'm sure the weather isn't going to flip on me again and warm up severely for a while. If it does, I may have to tap a bit more winterizer onto the lawn.

For now, photos will have to do.

First, the standard shot. The color is good to excellent, quality is excellent.


This is down the front yard to include the neighbors' lawns. There's no color comparison, although they all look pretty good for early December. If you look closely at the far point near the corner in mine, you'll see a sizable knockout area where I killed out some P. annua (it was cold enough at the time that I doubted Tenacity would work). That will fill back in next April.

Late May Photos

The lawn is doing exceptionally well this year except for color. This photo is post iron spray the last two days.

The gardens are flourishing even more than normal! The photos below are at one week old.

As always, click any image to embiggen it.

Post iron spray, color has improved here. I certainly have no complaints about density or growth rate!


Week one photo:


A garden friend coming to visit (and eat my plants, but that's a risk I'm willing to take):


Some very happy columbine blossoms:


An equally happy yellow Magellan zinnia:


Its friend, a scarlet Magellan zinnia (the color is a bit on the orange side as opposed to a pure scarlet, actually):


And a yellow Knockout blossom. There are about 200 others on the bush that look just like this one:

May Photos and Experiment

The May photos for the lawn and gardens are below. The gardens were just planted, so as always this early in the season look rather sad and sparse. This will rapidly change.

I'm trying SumaGreen Turf on the lawn and gardens this year, a biological product with many different types of bacteria in humic acid. I had wanted the reference shots for today as I applied late in the day yesterday. Changes should take place over the next four weeks.

As always, you can click on any image to increase the size.

The May lawn. Density and growth rate are both excellent, although color isn't wonderful at the moment. I haven't had much time to keep up with the spray iron.


The purple rhododendron, which seems to be very happy where it is. It's tripled in size in the last two years.


The magnolia bloomed nicely earlier, and the rose bush behind it should be along shortly.


Newly-planted gardens always look sparse, and I just finished this yesterday.

Late November Iron

I wasn't quite happy with the lawn color in the Thanksgiving Day photos, so I've added iron twice since then for a grand total of 12 ounces per thousand. That would be very high for a non-elite bluegrass, although elite bluegrasses just turn very dark greens.

That's the last for the year, and this shot should last right into early spring.

As always, click on any photo to make it larger.

The standard shot:


Across the back:

October Photos

The weather's been pretty bad for the last two months with nearly constant rain, so color and density have suffered. Fortunately, the weather temporarily cleared, so hopefully things will improve.

First, the standard shot. As always, you can click on any image to embiggen it.


The gardens are still doing pretty well for October:


The Impatiens don't seem to mind the weather:

August's Lawn Photo

Well, July 31st and there will probably be another one later, but this will do for right now...

It's holding well through summer, although color is a little disappointing at this point. That's fairly typical for summer, and I've been unable to add any iron for about a month.

July Lawn Photo

We're moving into a very, very hot period, so I took the July shots today post watering last night. I'm hoping it holds, but I figured I should photograph this before we hit a hundred degrees plus.

I've been feeding normally (monthly), and applied the equivalent of 600 pounds per thousand of sawdust to the problem areas that don't retain water as well. That's helped this summer and reduced watering somewhat, and the long-term result should be to change the soil a bit to hold more water to begin with.

Lawn color is OK for July, nothing stellar. Hot weather tends to decrease color a bit. It also desperately needs to be mowed, but I won't do that until the weather breaks.

Here's the standard lawn shot. As always, click to embiggen it.



Here's the back garden, which is doing very well this year:



The Double Knockout rose is doing well, but I cut it back in late June. The second bloom isn't quite as impressive as it usually is:



I'm a major fan of the Teddy Bear sunflowers, but still waiting to see how good their late-season performance is. It's possible they'll stop blooming, in which case I'll use about the same number next year instead of increasing them:



Here's a closeup of one of the blossoms:

Ironing the Lawn

I added a huge amount of iron to the grass yesterday as temperatures are supposed to be reasonable, and rainfall is expected today and tomorrow. The amounts added were 21 ounces of ferrous sulfate per thousand, or about five times normal rate.

I don't recommend trying this if the following day will be sunny, temperatures exceed 85, or the dilution levels you use aren't pretty high. The burn potential from this is extraordinary.

Color's improved, although not as much as I had hoped. Growth rates are still extremely high, and the grass could use mowing again. I just mowed two days ago.

Here's the photo. As always, click to embiggen it:

June Lawn Photo

Color still isn't stellar even after pouring on ferrous sulfate, but the growth rate and density are increasing quickly. I think the amount of kelp I'm putting on it has something to do with that.

Still, I'm not displeased. I'll apply iron as the weather allows and hope that growth shifts into summer mode at some point!

The Tenacity white spots are completely gone and the P. annua and P. trivialis are dead. A few small spots survived, and those are currently being re-treated.

As always, click the photo to embiggen it:



Bonus image--the June garden, doing very well comparatively:

Tenacity Update and Gardens

The P. trivialis is definitely dying out, as is all the P. annua. It looks like no further treatment will be necessary this spring, as there's no remaining unwanted grasses.

Discoloration of the surrounding areas is minor in most places, although the northern face did discolor a bit more. In very few cases is it more than mildly annoying, and the grass should recover in June.

For all photos, you can click to embiggen them, as always.

P. trivialis, dying fast:


Robin's nest, discovered when trimming the Viburnum--I stopped and will continue the cut-back when the babies are out of the nest:


The first of the Teddy Bear sunflowers, still only partially open. If these are as durable as claimed and rebloom as they're supposed to, they'll find much wider use in the gardens next year!

Sunny Knockout Rose, Day 2

What a difference a sunny day makes! The rose opened more fully, and the petals have turned cream with a yellow center. By tomorrow, I expect that the entire rose will be cream-colored.

For its location, and the dark green leaves on the bush, this is perfect. The scent is still very intense and very sweet, and I had to brush a few pollinators away to take the photograph.

Sunny Knockout Rose

I added two Sunny Knockout (Rosa "Radsunny") roses to the garden this year. So far, both are doing very well, even the wet and cloudy weather we've had.

The first one bloomed today. The yellow rose will fade to cream with yellow, and eventually cream, making a nice contrast with the newly-blooming yellow roses. The scent is fairly intense and very sweet with a note of spice.

As always, click the thumbnail to embiggen it.

May's Lawn Photo

I can't say that color is stellar, but we've had a lot of rain and the lack of sunlight has lightened it somewhat.  Additionally, I haven't iron-sprayed at any decent level in quite a while.

Quality and density are excellent, although I noticed some P. annua in it.  I've ordered Tenacity to attempt to set that back.

The large blue tarp is part of the hardening off tents for 700 home-grown annuals. That's the one with the Wave petunias and Teddy Bear sunflowers.

As always, click the image to make it larger.

Updated Lawn Photo

This photo's from today, April 6, 2011. The lawn isn't completely back yet as evidenced by the more yellow areas in the center (where the sun doesn't penetrate quite as well and that aren't close to a warmed mulch bed or brick or concrete).

Still, compared to the neighbors'...well, it goes without saying.

The cheery daffodil are just a nice bonus. The chionodoxa (glory of the snow) are just blooming as well, with a few of the earliest tulips not far behind!

As always, click the slightly blurry thumbnail to make it much larger, and that image can be expanded again to about triple the size for detail.

December Photos

I'd tentatively say it doesn't look too bad for December first...

The standard shot. As always, click to embiggen, and you can click again on the larger version for a super-sized one.



Here's the front lawn, with a few leaves down in the latest wind storm today. I thought the contrast down the block was amusing. When driving up the street, there's one dark green patch...

September Lawn/Garden Photos

The lawn came through the (very) hot summer pretty well, although there are some scorched areas that are recovering. The gardens seem to be about three weeks ahead of their normal point, so I've been progressively removing plants that are reaching the end of their lifespans. What remains looks fairly shaggy for September, but seed production has been quite good.

Oddly, some volunteer plants that normally wouldn't begin to sprout until next year have already begun in the garden. Those will die out at frost.

As always, you can click to embiggen any photograph. Once on the PhotoBucket site, clicking again will make it larger still.

Here's the standard shot. Color is fair to middling for September, but starting to improve as the season cools and rain comes a bit more often:



Again, I found this amusing. The property line is sharp and there's definitely no doubt of where it is. There's some slight dormancy in here, but that's reversing:



Here's a photo of the garden. You can see the marigolds are giving up fast, but the salvia and cannas are doing well:



Bonus image! A nearly perfect aster (with a beetle of some sort noodling around in it):



Another bonus! An almost-perfect rose...no beetles on this one!

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.