Planting time!

Wow, it has been a while - a whole season in fact!

But you didn't miss much. Here's the summary: drought.

From May 2nd through August 3rd we received a total of 2.06" of rain. Also during this period we had extreme heat with 9 days over 100 degrees and 42 days in the 90s. To make matters worse, on July 13th a watering ban went into effect, prohibiting watering of lawns and limiting watering of plants. Up until that point I was irrigating about 2-3 times per week, but even that wasn't enough to keep the whole lawn green, particularly the areas that got the most sun. This was particularly devastating for the backyard since supia bluegrass doesn't like it dry, and I had just planted the fine fescue earlier in the year (this is why fall is the preferred time to plant).

Since then, however, we have received 13.64" of rain, enough to prompt the lifting of the water ban on September 5th!

But the damage is done. The backyard lawn now looks like it looked back in March, worse actually. Here's a look as of today:

It's not a pretty sight, but I'm hoping for a big comeback like what happened this spring as some of the bluegrass survived. I'm not planning on do any renovations in the backyard for this reason, so we'll see! I must admit that this damage probably wasn't entirely due to the drought - I fertilized it earlier in the season (before the watering ban), which it did not like (whoops)... but I'll save that story for another post.

The front yard fared much better than the back, but not without some damage. Here's a look:

Possible grub damage

Possible grub damage

This patch was killed by leaf rust

As a followup to the fungicide application back in May, it seemed to take care of the problem and I haven't noticed anymore since, which is great! However, it did do a number on the grass it infected and most of it died, so the patch noted above can't be blamed on the drought - it died well before.

The rest of the yard isn't looking too shabby:

As noted, some of the damage might actually have been from grubs. I'm not certain it was necessarily the drought since the majority of the rest of the grass went dormant and survived just fine.

Now what you don't see in these photos is the seed I put down on Thursday in those dead areas. I used the same approach for planting it that I used with the fine fescue in the spring:

1. With a hard-toothed rake, I removed as much of the dead grass as possible, working up the soil beneath as much as possible
2. Then I put down the seed, just eyeballing the amount. I'd say I probably put down about 3 lbs.
3. Next I used a hand-held tiller to work the seed into the top layer of the soil where it was feasible (basically just the most damaged areas where the soil was more exposed)
4. Finally I pat it down and walked over the areas to pack the loosened soil back down (and then 2.79" of heavy rain occurred last night to mat it down even more!)

The seed I used I found at a local nursery:

Endure Execu-Turf Premium Sod Blend

19.90% Midnight Kentucky Bluegrass
19.90% Nu Destiny Kentucky Bluegrass
19.86% Sudden Impact Kentucky Bluegrass
19.84% Beyond Kentucky Bluegrass
19.79% Ruby II Kentucky Bluegrass

I thought it was a good find with some good varieties! We'll see how it does. I noticed that it's the same brand as some good quality fertilizer I've used before.

I will probably put down some fertilizer at some point soon, too, but I haven't figured that out yet (as usual), so I'll save that for another post.

I'll be keeping my eye out for germination!