Cheater!

The lawn is having some slight issues coming back from this summer's damage. Root growth has been excellent from what I can tell, but top growth is slow and spreading is very slow.

So I applied 4 pounds per thousand of 29-0-4 (4.8% of that is slow release nitrogen) today and I'm currently watering it in. It works out to just about exactly a pound of quickly available nitrogen per thousand square feet.

The weather is still a bit on the warm side for grasses, and very warm for late September. Our daily high today was 82°, with estimated highs ranging from 73° tomorrow to 83° on Wednesday. That's limiting the lawn's recovery, but we're also running out of time. While frost and freeze may be late, I don't think they'll be all that late.

I could be wrong about that. I hope I am.

I should see the initial impact from this application by Tuesday or Wednesday, with faster growth continuing for a number of weeks.

Seed Starting

I'm putting together a seed-starting unit for next spring. Every year, I need about seven full flats of annuals in the gardens, and our local nurseries always have the same old things available. This will give me a lot more latitude on what I add, although some of the old favorites will still make an appearance.



That's the unit, a standard shelf with open gridwork for air and light transmission between the levels. I hung a T12 work lamp on each level, with 2 40 watt bulbs in them. One warm white and one cool white should give a good enough spectrum for seed starting and initial growth. With minimal distance over the sprouts, I should have around 1,000 foot-candles. That's a bit low, but should be workable.

I put aluminum foil behind the unit for additional light reflection. Mylar would probably be better, but I had Reynolds Wrap on-hand!

I've been collecting seeds from the garden for storage. At the moment, I have Melampodium (Showstar), Bonfire salvia (although they probably reproduced with the Red Hot Sally), and French marigold seed (of random colors as I have a wide mix).

Germination testing on the Melampodium is going well. I suspect the others require a dormancy period before testing, so I'll try those in December or January, early enough to order seeds if they fail.

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!

Highest Feeding Point

The weather still says summer with highs of 94 degrees or better through the week (exceedingly odd for late August). However, the grass will begin consuming massive amounts of nitrogen in September, so the year's heaviest feeding went today.

I applied 14.3 pounds of soybean meal, plus 15.4 pounds of Milorganite per thousand square feet. That will supply 1.77 pounds of nitrogen, 0.44 pounds of phosphoric acid (equivalent), 0.29 pounds of potassium, and 0.62 pounds of iron.

The next feeding will be applied in two weeks, but that will be somewhat lighter.

More Lawn Feeding

We have showers coming through today, so I ducked out between the raindrops and fed the lawn for the second time in August.

This time, I used 14.3 pounds per thousand square feet of soybean meal, and 5.1 pounds per thousand of Milorganite. That works out to a grand total of 1.26 pounds of nitrogen, 0.24 pounds of phosphorous, 0.29 pounds of potassium, and 0.21 pounds of iron per thousand square feet.

Technically, this feeding was completely unnecessary--it brings my August total to 2.37 pounds of organic nitrogen per thousand square feet. However, with the damage done to the lawn by the hot and dry summer, plus the fact that fall lawns are very hungry, this can only help it out.

The current grand total is 159 pounds of organics per thousand square feet, yielding 8.92 pounds of nitrogen. September's feeding will be similar, and I'll back off in October and November.

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.

Lawn and Garden Photos

Here's the standard lawn shot from today, June 17th (as always, click to embiggen):



And here's the front lawn damage. It's closing fast!



Here's an overall shot of the back gardens. I still have a bit of mess from the last thunderstorm:



Bonus shot! A blooming Asiatic lily:

Lawn Photos

I've updated my lawn photos (finally). This is just post-mowing, so you can see the robot's sort of random lines in the lawn. Color is good, but not quite perfect yet.

Click on any photo to see the larger version!

Here's my standard shot:


The front township damage from last year is finally closing off:


Here's a photo of the southern face and garden. The clematis looks pretty good, but I'm afraid the dogwood it's climbing up is a lost cause--it's probably Dogwood anthracnose fungus, which means the tree will die.

Frost Damage

Regrettably, I lost all the Melampodium (fortunately, I only had 8).  Temperatures last night dropped to 31, and I barely managed to hold off a frost.  Melampodium is extremely unhappy even at 35.  I purchased replacements for those today when I ran out for this year's heliotrope.

It also looks like a dozen or so marigolds were frost-burned in the northeastern garden.  I'll need to replace those as well when I can go get the Janie marigolds.

It's a shame, but at least I only lost 20 plants out of 850 or so, and they're easy and cheap to replace.

On the up side, it looks like we're clear of frost for at least a week, by which time a frost becomes extremely unlikely!

Frost Warning!

Surprisingly, most of us in Pennsylvania and areas northward are under a frost or freeze warning for tonight.

If you have tender annuals in already (I do), watering the gardens before dark, including the surrounding areas, will help limit the temperature drop and keep the frost off the plants. See "A Veil of Frost Protection," about 3 posts down, for more information.

Update:  That reference above was a tease, and I hate teasing.  Here's a reprint of the same information:

There are a few ways to protect gardens from an unexpected frost.

The most common is to cover the plants, which is not realistic in my case–there are too many, and in areas that are too large.  With all the burlap I have on-hand, I might be able to cover 1/3 of the garden that’s at risk.  Additionally, it must be promptly removed in the morning or the plants may end up baking under the covering.

In my case, I ran the watering systems on the grass for twenty minutes and the garden for the same.  Raising the humidity to nearly 100% at 45 degrees makes temperature drops difficult.  The dew point is higher, so as temperatures try to drop the water has to condense out of the air, releasing a large amount of heat and helping to protect the plants.  Additionally, the condensed water settles on the plants and soil at the temperature at which it condensed, helping to stop further drops in temperature.

The veil of frost protection woven by applying water is delicate and can be overcome if temperatures fall under 32°, but most unseasonable frosts can be overcome this way.

Sub-Zero Rose

[caption id="attachment_261" align="alignleft" width="151" caption="Margaret Chase Smith Sub-Zero rose"][/caption]

I planted a new Margaret Chase Smith Sub-Zero rose to replace the  Double Knockout rose I lost over the winter.  As it turns out, the bud union (the swelling at the bottom of the stem) should be planted 1" underground for Zone 6 and 2" underground for colder locations.  I planted the Double Knockout's bud union at ground level or slightly above, in an area with intense winter winds.

Milk On The Lawn

I applied 4 ounces per thousand of whole milk (pasteurized and homogenized) today to test whether it enhances the soil and lawn quality.

Done with raw milk (straight from the cow) it seems to work. This will see if processed milk from the grocery store (cheap and easily available) is also an option.

The Veil Worked

The recorded lows around me, generally within a degree of agreeing with my outside thermometer, reached 31 to 32 degrees.

My recorded low temperature in the garden was 39.6 degrees, more than warm enough for what's currently in.

I successfully maintained a temperature differential of around 8 degrees.

I'll be doing the same thing again tonight as the same low temperatures apply.