More April Photos!

This one time I'm posting thumbnails; I don't often post four photos at once.  Click on any image to embiggen!

With the weather accelerating right past April and into July, I now have the flowering Cleveland pear trees, hyacinths, tulips, chionodoxa (early white and mid season blue), and just about everything else all blooming at once.  And regrettably, not lasting long and not looking very good when it blooms.  April blossoms simply can't handle the heat.

Here's a photo of the lawn from this afternoon.  It's fully awake, but seems to be wanting a little more iron:



This is the blooming Cleveland pear.  The blossoms opened Monday, and it looks like the tree will finish up tomorrow or Friday:



This parrot tulip isn't supposed to bloom until mid-May:



This is an Angelique tulip. They're mid-May bloomers, and generally don't have the slightly brownish color on the flower rib. It's blasting a bit in the heat:

Garden Feeding

I'm trying to transform the garden soil to the same standard (or better) than the lawn soil.  So I fed again with another 72 pounds of Milorganite, or 36 pounds per thousand, plus added 16 pounds of starter fertilizer to raise the phosphorus level in the soil.  The lawn is stabilized at 20 PPM, the gardens should be identical as they received the same treatment.  40 to 60 PPM would be better for gardens where I ask for a great deal of blooming all season long.

So far, that's a grand total of 117 pounds of Milorganite per thousand this year.  Although extremely high (and it will be struck with 50 pounds of soybean meal Friday), I'm trying to add as much organic food as possible before I mulch next week.

More Photos!

The lawn is developing quickly this year, although that should be no surprise when temperatures are over 75°. I've included a few bonus photos as well--jonquils, and a purple hyacinth that started to open this morning.  Click on any image to embiggen it.

I fed the roses and Thuja with a few handfuls of alfalfa, but I won't bother with the lawn this year. Growth is already excellent and I had to cut it yesterday.

Feeding the Lawn

Another 108 pounds of Milorganite went down today over the entire 7,000 square feet (for 15.4 pounds per thousand).

This year I'm trying to enhance the gardens as well, so I dropped 36 pounds per thousand through them.

Please note, if you're feeding with synthetics, it's far too early in Pennsylvania to even think about it--wait until mid May for better results.

Lighting System Revamp

I spent today rewiring my lighting system a bit--the clips seem to release a lot over the winter, so I clipped the wires and directly wired them to the 12 volt line.

Also, I noted that my entire southern face lighting burns out yearly. Some investigation shows I probably shouldn't have that in the 14 volt tap since it's close to the transformer and not much amperage. Let that be a word to the wise!

More Photos

Temperatures are holding in the high sixties this week, so development in the grass and gardens has been exceedingly fast.  Here's an image from today, post mowing it to remove the dead tips.  As always, you can click on any image to embiggen it.

You can see the color's darkened considerably in just a few days, and the grass is already mostly back.  Even the new seed is beginning to sprout!

The neighbors' lawns...not so much.



Bonus Shot #1:  A blue-blooming Iris Reticulata:



Bonus #2:  Purple crocuses!

First Mow

I just put the Robomower out for the first mow to remove the dead tips from the grass and expose the greener mat underneath.  Temperatures will be sixty or above for the rest of the week, so getting some sunlight down to the soil will help wake it up.  Not that it needs much help, the green edge is already spreading out from the curb and the gardens.  At this rate, by Friday the lawn will be back for the year, a month earlier than last year.

In other gardening news, I have plenty of blooming crocuses.  I'll have to take a photo later.

Soil Samples Taken

I took my soil samples today for UMass Amherst soil testing.  I'll be getting Test C, the standard soil test with organic matter.  I had also gotten test E last year, soluble salts, but I don't expect that to have changed since I don't use synthetic fertilizers.

The soil difference over the last year is pretty amazing.  There are very few remaining "sticky bits" of clay, and what remains crumbles pretty easily.  I even disturbed a few early worms!  Since half a ton of organic matter per thousand square feet went down on the lawn last year (much of that being chopped leaves), I would have expected some change.  This was a bit surprising, however.

The drying soil is fairly dark, so I'm hopeful that my organic matter tests will come back with good scores this year.  Last year I was at 4.6%, or tolerable but a bit low.

Let The Games Begin!

They're beginning a month later than last year, but we had some snow this year.  Additionally, the lawn probably doesn't need the organic material any longer (not after last year's addition of more than half a ton per thousand square feet).  I'll take my soil samples for U. Mass Amherst shortly.

I've cleaned the gardens to fully open them up for the sprouting bulbs.  The crocus should be blooming shortly, barring a sudden reverse in the weather.  The back burlap line is down, and I lightly frost-seeded the entire lawn with the mix I chose for the damaged front area.

I added 90 pounds of Milorganite (12.8 pounds per thousand) today as well, for 0.64 pounds of nitrogen, 0.26 pounds of phosphorus, and 0.51 pounds of iron.  That will activate over the next few weeks.

March Lawn Photo

The last blizzard is melting away nicely, and the grass is being exposed.  Here's a photo, plus a bonus--the gardens are beginning to sprout.  If you look closely, you'll see the earliest of the jonquils and crocuses.  Here and there I have an early tulip sprouting as well.

February Lawn Photo

I took this one yesterday before the snow but after the extended cold period we had.  The lawn is definitely in winter mode at this point and will stay there for a month or so.  On the up side, this is the shortest winter period the lawn has shown (and the weather is pretty average this year), and even so, it's greener than last year at this time!

Winter Seeding

I winter-seeded the bad areas of the lawn (mostly the front area where the Township damaged the grass in October and November). There were a few small holes from Poa annua incursions as well.

Winter-seeding involves dropping normal levels of seed, preferably just before some winter weather (although that's not required). We're slated for some snow tomorrow into Friday, possibly. The new seed will sprout as soon as it can, usually around April 10th or so here, and it then has about 2 1/2 months to prepare for summer.

I split my winter seeding into three parts. Part one was dropped back in late November when temperatures became cold enough that the seed wouldn't sprout. Part two was today. Part three, if I can do it, will be in mid to late February. However, one winter seeding sometime during the season would be just fine, and it can be done atop the snow if necessary.

The lawn isn't looking bad for January. For the most part, it looks the same as in December, except a bit paler. Winter color this year is excellent and temperatures have been normal. First feeding isn't slated until March of this year, but that will depend on the weather.

December Photo

The lawn's starting to lose color for winter, which is fairly normal. It's still the greenest in the area, but I'm going to try spraying a little iron on it to put that into root storage for spring. That should accelerate spring green-up, as well as change the color a bit.

I sprayed yesterday with kelp, humates, and soil conditioner as well and that seemed to change the color to a bit darker this morning.

Kentucky Bluegrass Winter Seeding

I've done the first winter seeding (of three) of the lawn, including lightly scratching the soil and distributing seed by hand at about 1 pound per thousand.

Winter, or frost, seeding is done after soil temperatures drop under fifty (ours are actually about 48 right now, but descending fast). The seed won't germinate until spring, although normal freeze-thaw cycles will carry it into the soil fairly effectively. Unless the spring is quite dry, it doesn't need to be watered, but will require some coddling the following summer until it matures--usually the following fall.

Frost seeding isn't as effective as a fall seeding at the appropriate time (around Labor Day or a bit earlier here). However, it's more successful than a spring seeding would be, since I don't have to worry about hitting the correct window of soil temperatures. The seed will sprout the first instant it can.

I tend to divide the seedings into three--December, which is put down on scratched soil, as well as February and again in March, which are scattered as the soil is still frozen at that time. However, one seeding would be quite sufficient.

The mix I chose is a bit different this year:

Midnight II--a Compact-Midnight type. This was in my original lawn, and makes up 33% of the mix this time. This is one of the more available elite bluegrasses, and has been in continuous and heavy production for ages.

Brilliant--a Compact-America type, 20% of the mix. This is to replace the Moonlight in the original lawn which is now extremely difficult to get in sod quality from my preferred suppliers. I have no experience with this grass, but the color should be comparable.

Prosperity--A Compact type, 20% of the mix. This is to replace the Bedazzled in the original lawn, which is similarly difficult to get. I used this on the back line and it's slightly darker than Bedazzled, although not enough to notice.

Blueberry--A Compact type, 13% of th mix. I'm testing this as according to reports it's quite dark and a beautiful grass.

Moonbeam--A Compact type, 13% of the mix. This is another test grass, and again, quite dark.

To keep the darker colored grasses from being obvious, I also seeded a band around the repaired areas. The mix should blend fairly well, but if not I'll overseed with Blueberry and Moonbeam next fall across the entire lawn.

Final Fertilizer for the Lawn

I winterized the lawn today using Vigoro Super Green (35-0-5). It has a urea base, and about 1/3 of the nitrogen is slow release. As such, although temperatures are a bit high, it needs to go now. Urea needs several days to process in the soil before thinking about becoming available to the lawn, and by the time that happens our temperatures are projected to drop sharply.

Here's the entire list of items used on the lawn this year. Yes, the final total across the whole lawn is over 9,000 pounds...

Date	N	P	K	Iron	Organics	Other Notes
2/18/2009	0.85	0.43	0.43		42.7	Dog Food
3/1/2009	1.03	0.41	0.31	0.82	20.6	Milorganite, Sul-Po-Mag
3/14/2009	0.35	0.14	0.29		20.0	Alfalfa, Sugar
3/21/2009	1.38	0.54	0.33		83.3	Corn Meal
3/28/2009	0.10	0.00	0.20		10.0	Kelp Meal
4/4/2009	1.50	0.21	0.43		21.4	Soybean Meal
4/18/2009	0.14	0.06	0.06		7.8	Dog Food, Corn Meal
4/21/2009	1.71	0.61	0.17	1.97	30.9	Milorganite, Ironite
4/30/2009	0.70	0.24	0.10	0.93	12.0	Milorganite, Ironite
5/15/2009	1.47	0.48	0.27	2.16	24.0	Milorganite, Ironite
5/29/2009	0.82	0.23	0.12		11.7	Soybean Meal
6/3/2009	0.75	0.30	0.00	0.71	15.0	Cu, Zn, Mn, Fe, Milorganite
6/10/2009	0.91	0.34	0.36	1.80	58.3	Corn Meal, Kelp, FeSO4
6/25/2009	0.90	0.36	0.00	0.72	18.0	Milorganite
7/8/2009	1.73	0.69	0.20	1.32	68.0	Corn, Milorganite, FeSO4
7/22/2009	1.62	0.52	0.16	0.42	26.0	Soybean meal, Milorganite
7/31/2009	1.41	0.54	0.34	0.41	67.4	Corn, Milorganite, Kelp
8/8/2009	1.86	0.71	0.23	0.72	83.0	Corn, Milorganite, Compost
8/15/2009	0.83	0.30	0.20	0.21	50.0	Corn, Fe3O4, FeSO4
8/23/2009	1.97	1.36	0.36	0.41	62.3	Corn, Milorganite, Starter
9/1/2009	2.13	1.29	0.28	0.34	21.4	Soybean Meal, Starter
9/13/2009	2.06	1.27	0.41	0.25	21.4	Soybean Meal, Starter
9/26/2009	1.51	1.30	0.24	0.63	15.4	Milorganite, Starter
10/6/2009	0.77	0.31	0.00	0.62	15.4	Milorganite
10/14/2009	1.36	0.98	0.11	0.72	18.0	Milorganite, Starter
10/22/2009	0.77	0.31	0.00	0.62	15.4	Milorganite
10/29/2009	1.47	0.75	0.38	0.72	18.0	Milorganite, Starter
11/12/2009	0.90	0.36	0.00	0.72	18.0	Milorganite
11/17/2009	2.45	1.07	0.46	0.33	306.4	Leaves 2,145 pounds
11/23/2009	1.35	0.00	0.19	0.00	0.0	Vigoro Super Green
Total per K ft:	36.80	16.11	6.64	17.55	1179.8	9087 active organic total