Unplanned plant purchases

Today we went to the Indianapolis Museum of Art gardens to enjoy the nice weather. And it was lovely. I walked around the gardens taking pictures of the names of various plants that were planted in areas that seemed to have similar lighting conditions to areas of our yard, mostly shaded to part sun. I'll save those for another post someday as they aren't too terribly exciting. But what is exciting is that we purchased some plants today! This was entirely unplanned. We ventured into the plant store that they have on the grounds and we couldn't resist purchasing some. Then since we needed some potting soil, we stopped at another gardening shop on the way home, and of course I couldn't help myself again and purchased even more. I don't have photos of all of the tags of the plants yet, but here's a photo of them:

New plants!

A total of 15 - better keep me away from plant stores or we'll go broke rather quickly.

I do, however, have plans for the majority of them. Most of them will end up in small garden that we are planting in memory of our son who died at birth in a miscarriage earlier this year. The spot we chose for this garden is next to the deck in the back yard. It's a shady location that gets an hour or two of direct sun a day, thus most of the plants we purchased are shade tolerant or partial sun. I like them. There's something about shade loving plants. They just seem more peaceful to me for some reason and I think for the purposes of this garden that is fitting as there was nothing more peaceful than looking into the eyes of our son. We named him Calum Saul - Calum meaning "resembling a dove" and Saul meaning "one who was prayed for". One of the plants I found is called "Praying Hands" Hosta and I just had to get it - the leaves of the plant are folded upward together and I guess someone thought that looks like praying hands - I don't know if I really see that, but I got it for the name anyway. We also got a couple of bleeding hearts - one that has red and white flowers and another that are all white.

Other than the plants for the memorial garden, I also got some annuals for our patio that I'll put in a pot (the yellow and orange flowers on the right in the photo). I don't remember what they're called.

So when we got home, the work began. The future Calum Memorial Garden is currently home to a large hosta and an intermingled mess of pachysandra and lily of the valley. He's a "before" photo:

Future Calum Memorial Garden location.

This is also the location where I planted the phlox last year. I'll be transplanting that very soon to a more sunny location.

We began by carefully digging up and separating the pachysandra and lily of the valley. And you heard me right - I said "we" - I am overjoyed to say that my wife decided to join me in this project! It was wonderful having her out there with me and I told her that she looks like a natural gardener. I'm hoping that this is the beginning of a shared love for gardening!

Once we had dug them all up, my wife began the task of transplanting some of the pachysandra to a couple other areas of it in our yard that were sparse. We're hoping that it survives and eventually fills in those areas. We still have quite a bit of it left and of course there's also the pile of lily of the valley plants. I'm not sure if we'll try to transplant those somewhere else or not. We obviously didn't get to it today, so we may lose our opportunity anyway.

While she was planting the pachysandra, I dug up the hosta and moved it to the north side of the house. I ended up splitting it in two and replanting it in two spots there. I have plans to create a walkway through  for that area connecting the front and back yard. My idea is to fill the area with shade loving plants (the area is full shade) and there are already a number of hostas planted there. We'll see if the new hostas are able to get re-established there. The soil is very compacted and contains a good amount of clay and roots from nearby trees. It was difficult to dig the holes.

So after a good day's work, the Calum Memorial Garden is almost ready for planting. The only things left are to transplant phlox and possibly the other hosta (in the upper right of the photo). I noticed that I forgot to purchase some forget-me-nots (the irony...), so I need to remember to plan a spot for those in the garden once we get to planting it; if the weather isn't too rainy, we should be able to do that tomorrow!

Ponding improvement

The area near the driveway where I transplanted some grass a few days ago seems to be ponding less now during heavy rain.

A shot during the rain showing much less ponding.

There is a new area of ponding closer to the driveway now, but it's small and I can probably transplant some more there to improve it. Also I think mulching the area by the decorative grass should improve that area as well. I'm planning on ordering a truck full of mulch soon.

Grass update

We'll start with the backyard. The grass is growing, but still very slowly and very thin. Fine fescue is so fine. It's hard to see that ever filling in, but we'll see. Here's some shots (there's not a whole lot to see):

Still thin and patchy, but you can see the fine fescue more clearly now.

This area (NW) seems to be getting more green. It used to be mostly dirt.

Now on to the front yard... With each mowing I am more and more impressed with how well the new grass has been filling in. I'm very excited about it. More and more areas are looking really nice and the patchiness continues to diminish, as well as the weeds. There's still the very contrasty tall fescue, but hopefully that will start to die off soon. To my eyes it seems lighter in color so I wonder if it's on it's way to turning yellow/brown (i.e. dying). I'm really excited to see that grass go.

Here's a few shots of the front yard after a fresh cut:

Still thin near the driveway, but slowly getting thicker.

Next to the road still needs some work, but other than that it's looking great.

The contrasting colors is so obvious...

 

One of my favorite spots. Very thick turf. I could use that as a pillow.

  

New grass next to the side walk by the road - getting very thick! Mmm!

I'll end with a couple of shots of a tulip that happened to come up and bloom this year under the oak tree.

Pretty color.

Looking straight down (if you look closely,
you can see a tiny spider on the right side).

Ducks

A duck couple came by for a visit as I was finishing up on Sunday.

I saw some again this morning with 3 little chicks trailing them as I was leaving for work. I don't know if it was the same ones or not.

Grass transplanting

When I did the front yard grass project last year I noticed that some grass had started growing in the flower beds from seeds that had landed there. I decided to leave it and allow it to grow and eventually transplant to any bare patches.

Well, it was growing very well and starting to not look very good because I couldn't mow it, so I decided to try and transplant some of it.

Most of it I moved to down by the road where there were some very bare spots where the seed didn't grow for some reason.

Grass transplanted to near the road.

I transplanted some to next to the driveway where another patch was that seems be a little lower than the surrounding ground that pools water when it rains. I tried to build it up a bit so it wouldn't do that, and also so there'd be grass there.

Grass transplanted to next to the driveway.

There are quite a few more patches left, and a little bit more grass that I can transplant. I left some that is growing in the flowerbed under the oak tree. It'll be more difficult to get that out since the daffodils are intermixed, so I saved that for another day.

Hopefully it takes!

Rose bush is planted

I planted the rose bush today. I decided to put it where the holly bush is, so I dug that up first. I'm hoping that it gets enough sunlight there.

Rose bush after planting.

The directions say to water 3-4 times per week. I probably won't have to do it at all this week since we are forecast to get a lot of rain this week.

I look forward to (hopefully) watching it grow! It will be a very special plant to us.

Rose bush in the mail!

Someone recently gifted us with a rose bush a few days ago which arrived in a box in the mail (it amazes me that plants can be sent in the mail). The instructions said to immediately let it soak in water for 12-24 hours. Coincidentally, I had plenty of options for doing this as I already had bins and buckets outside catching the water that overflows out of our faulty gutters!

Rose bush soaking in rain water.

I let it soak for what turned out to be 36 hours or so (directions said 12-24 hours) before I could call them and ask what to do after that, but before planting. They said to stop soaking it and just keep the roots wet and that we'd have up to 2 weeks to plant it. So, it is now sitting next to the bin with the roots wrapped in wet paper towels until we decide where to plant it.

And that is the big question, and the big struggle for me entering this growing season. I don't know in the slightest how to plan a garden. Part of the problem is that I don't know what areas of the yard get the most light. That would at least help to narrow the options for this bush, but in general, I don't have the knowledge or vision to plan a garden. In any case, I must make a decision soon.

I have a few ideas. The rose bush needs 4-6 hours of sun, so I can easily rule out the backyard and sides based on that. It also grows to 3'6" wide and 5'6" tall. That really narrows it to these two locations to the left or right of the front step:

Two placement options for the rose bush.

On the right is some sort of holly bush and on the left is what looks like it might be a creeping juniper or some type of low evergreen plant, so one of these would need to go. I wouldn't be opposed to removing either of them as neither of them look that great, but they aren't too bad either. We are leaning toward replacing the holly bush with it, though, as I think it will have a similar shape. However, the other side likely gets more sun, but perhaps not significantly much more.

Weather permitting, I'll be taking on this project this Sunday.

Certainty

Well, I've been known to go a little overboard when it comes to the lawn, and when I discovered that there is a selective herbicide for controlling tall fescue in Kentucky bluegrass, it was essentially love at first sight. This was after four hours of trying to pull it up by hand with a weeder (some might also call this going a little overboard) and my desperate resolve to try to pull it all up gradually over the course of the growing season. I couldn't believe my eyes to find that there are actually products that can be used for this very purpose! After doing some online searching, I found that Certainty Turf Herbicide seemed to be the most accessible to purchase and found some on ebay for cheaper than most online retail stores. It's not cheap at $100 for 1.25 oz bottle, however, in comparison to the hours of manual pulling that was my alternative, I consider it a steal and didn't think twice about it.

So here it is:

Certainty Turf Herbicide - 1.25 oz

The incredible (and embarrassing) thing is that this tiny bottle that is about the size of a prescription bottle has enough in it to treat our whole front and back yard about 25 times, and I will likely only be applying it twice to just part of the front yard (for now).

I am planning to make the first application tomorrow. I'll only be applying it to just the old grass as the grass I planted last year is still young and may not be able to withstand it and plus it doesn't have much tall fescue mixed in it.

I thought that I might be able to use this on the backyard eventually, however, it says in the instructions: "Avoid application of this product on stands with a high percentage of perennial ryegrass or fine fescue." Since I just seeded at about 80% fine fescue, this may not be an option for back there.

I was perplexed when the instructions said to add a "nonionic surfactant" to the mix of water and herbicide. I had no clue what this meant, so I asked a very qualified family member who explained that the surfactant helps the herbicide spread out on the plant instead of beading up. He said that dish soap can be used for this purpose; and also, that dish soap is a base so it will keep the pH up, which is another thing the instructions warned about. Good to know.

So, tomorrow I'll have to figure out how to evenly spray exactly 2 gallons of the mixture over about 1000 sq ft using a hand-held pump sprayer - should be interesting. And in about 2-3 weeks, results should be visible with yellowing/browning of the leaves. The Kentucky bluegrass may be stunted and show some yellowing as well, but it should recover in a few weeks. After 3-4 weeks (May 12 - May 19), it'll be time for the second application, assuming that the existing Kentucky bluegrass isn't too stressed by it.

Daisy progress

The daisies continue their growing! Here's a shot I took yesterday:

Daisies in the window.

I hate tall fescue

Nah, I don't really hate it. I just don't want it in our yard at all. I'm not even sure if it is tall fescue, but it appears to be. It has course, thick bladed leaves that aren't soft and smooth like Kentucky bluegrass and it just doesn't look very good, at least not in a mix with Kentucky bluegrass. To me it  looks very similar to crabgrass.

Here's the deal. The new grass in the front is starting to grow quite well in some places and is looking much better. However, there is a contrast in colors between the old and new parts of the lawn and it's really bugging me and making me wonder what to do about it. Here's a shot that shows it:

Contrasting colors. Note the darker green of the new grass
toward  the front vs. the brighter green old grass behind it.

 I was afraid of this happening. However, I think I might know the main cause of this: tall fescue. The old grass is "infested" with tall fescue. This grass has always bugged me. It's a lighter color than the other grass and grows must faster. This is part of the reason I went so crazy last year tearing up the lawn - about all that was left in some of the areas was tall fescue and I wanted it gone. Here's a closer shot of the edge of the new and old grass showing the tall fescue:

Note the thicker blades are brighter green color of the tall fescue.

If it weren't there, I don't think the color contrast would be nearly as evident, if evident at all.

Something must be done about this, of course. I can't stand by and let the tall fescue ruin my dream. So today, I decided to pull some of the more obvious ones, like this patch:

An ugly tall fescue orchardgrass patch.

One thing led to another and soon enough I was at it for about 4 hours pulling as much up as I could. It looks so much better once removed, even with a vacant spot in its wake. I much prefer those spots to the tall fescue.

The problem is that in those 4 hours, I barely made a dent and there are some areas that have so much that I might as well just kill it all with roundup and reseed. I definitely don't want to be doing that, at least not a large area like last year, so I'm thinking that if I keep with it all throughout the season, little by little I might be able to pull it all up by hand. And perhaps the thicker areas I can just kill and reseed this fall, if the areas is not too big. I'm certainly not lacking in motivation to go this route.

However, I was doing some searching on the problem and it appears that there might be a product that selectively kills tall fescue without harming Kentucky bluegrass! This got me very excited. The product is called Certainty Turf Herbicide or Riverdale Corsair and there are probably others. The active ingredient appears to be Sulfosulfuron and I found a publication of a study using a it on tall fescue and some other grasses. This sounds very promising and sounds much better to me than countless hours of manual pulling. Now I just need to find where I can purchase it.

Oh, and one more little side note. There's also tall fescue throughout the backyard as well. That's another reason I believe it's in fact tall fescue because it is also a shade tolerant grass and would need to be to thrive back there.

This is how much I pulled in the end:

To the "compost" pile!

A good 50-75 lbs worth, I'd say.

Backyard grass progress

Well, I figure it's time for an update on the backyard grass project. It seems to be going very slow... and I'm starting to wonder if it's going to succeed. I've been trying to keep the existing grass mowed to about 1.5", mowing every few of days. Here's a shot of what things looks like now:

Close up view. New grass in the middle.

Yard view. Still thin, but new grass is becoming more evident.

I won't be too upset if this project fails. Come fall, I'll just try again, probably killing the existing grass first, but that's getting ahead of things. We'll see how this turns out. What I have found is that it seems to be difficult to grow grass in areas with existing grass. The same thing occurred in the front yard grass project. The seed planted near other grass didn't grow as well or at all. I have also noticed that the grass seems to prefer growing near the straw. My guess is that it's helps keep the area shielded from the sun and more moist.

Earlier this week I got out the hose to water since it was starting to dry up and rain was a few days away. So much work... needless to say, I was quick in calling the irrigation company to come out and turn it back on. They're coming Tuesday, so the new grass'll soon be getting much more frequent waterings, without me having to even think about it! Yay!

Starter fertilizer application

I decided to apply some starter fertilizer in the backyard. I'm fairly certain that the soil is fine on Nitrogen, but wasn't sure on Phosphorus, and that is an important ingredient for new grass. Without doing a soil test, I'm in the dark, but I decided to take the risk, but only applied about .84 lbs of P. The recommended rate is 1.5 lbs per 1000 sq ft. The backyard is somewhere between 1000 and 1400 sq ft, so it's roughly half of what is recommended.

I ended up using some Pennington Lawn Starter Fertilizer that I had purchased earlier this year.

Pennington Lawn Starter Fertilizer

18% Nitrogen (3.8% slow release)
24% Phosphate
6% Potash

Some rain that's expected tonight should hopefully help work it into the soil. Hopefully it makes the grass happy!

Crabgrass preventer application

I went to multiple stores trying to find a good preemergent crabgrass herbicide that didn't have quick release Nitrogen in it, but I couldn't find one. Ultimately, I ended up purchasing a bag of Endure Crabgrass Preventer Plus:

Endure Crabgrass Preventer Plus

The active ingredient is dithiophyr. It claims to be "extended release fertilizer", but when looking at the Fertilizer Analysis on the back, it listed 19% Urea Nitrogen, only 5.7% of that slow release.

19% Urea Nitrogen (5.7% stabilized/slow release)
3% Potash

It was better than my other options and I needed to apply it as soon as possible, so I went for it.

I only applied it to the front yard since crabgrass hasn't been a problem in the backyard, but also because it would prevent the new grass from germinating along with any crabgrass. The general rule is to never use preemergent herbicides along with seeding. This wasn't a problem for the front yard. I calculated the square footage of the front yard to be roughly 1600 sq ft., and the recommended rate is 3.5lbs/1000 sq ft, so I applied roughly 5lbs of it using a handheld spreader. I'll save the rest for next year, assuming it doesn't expire.

Pachysandra in bloom

I noticed the pachysandra were blooming and took a few photographs of them.

Grass is germinating

The grass seed that I planted in the backyard on March 20th is finally beginning to germinate - after about 18 days. I was thinking that it might happen later due to the cooler weather we experienced until about the end of March, but apparently that didn't make much difference.

Baby grass.

I never did get around to fertilizing it. I considered doing it today, but decided against it since I was afraid that it might be too much. I fertilized it in the fall and that should be enough Nitrogen for the whole year, but there was no Phosphorus in it. Perhaps I'll do it, but in a smaller dose than the recommended 1.5 lbs per 1000 sq ft. I'm just not sure what to do.

I also mowed today for the first time this year. In the backyard I mowed low at approximately 1.5" to allow the newly planted grass to get more sunlight. I mowed the front yard at about 3". The new grass in the front yard is still looking thin, but I think there has been some improvement. I've been wondering if it might be a good idea to fertilize it with some starter fertilizer since it didn't get much phosphorus last year.

Today, I sprayed Ortho Weed B Gon all over the weeds that have been competing with the new grass in the front yard. The weeds have grown quite happily since I last posted about it. This is my first attempt at addressing them; I think I shouldn't have waited, but we'll see if this works.

Additionally, it is getting to be time to apply a preemergent herbicide for crabgrass; in fact, it is time. According to the Control of Crabgrass in Homelawns Purdue Turfgrass Program publication, the average crabgrass germination date is April 21st in central Indiana and preemergent herbicide should be applied at least 2 weeks before this date. This will be going on my "to do" list for tomorrow. A note to remember for next year from the publication:

Purdue research has shown that these herbicides can be applied as early as March 1 and still be effective all season.

Hopefully I haven't missed the opportunity!

Moles!

The last few days I have been fighting with a mole.

Mole tunnel. Kinda hard to see, but it goes from the stake in the
upper left to the lower right (then further on into the yard - grr!)

This has been the battle sequence:

1. Mole digs tunnels in the yard
2. Later on Peter sees the tunnels in the yard, gets very angry, and stomps them down

The next day it begins back at #1. This has been going on for the last several days; I'm sure we're both getting tired of it. In years past, we've had moles and I've witnessed the damage they can do to a yard. So far, it's not too big of a deal because there is hardly any grass back there, but once the new seeds start growing it's going to get personal. I'll be researching battle techniques and formulating my plan of attack.

In other news, it looks like the Cooper's hawks are here to stay (there are two). They have been working  on their nest and it's getting bigger.