Lawn surgery

Hot off the heels of the last application of Tenacity, since most of the creeping bentgrass is now dead (or at least appears to be dead) I didn't want to waste any time since this is the ideal time (for central Indiana) to plant grass seed. But before I did, I wanted to make sure that it's ok to plant so soon after spraying. I found an FAQ page with these questions and answers:

On which grasses has Tenacity been tested for use at or prior to seeding?
Tenacity is safe for use at or prior to seeding on Kentucky bluegrass, tall fescue, perennial ryegrass, and centipedegrass. Application at seeding can be made to fine fescue only if it is less than 20% of a seed mixture.

What are some of the unique benefits of Tenacity herbicide?
Tenacity has pre- and post-emergence activity on 46 dicot and monocot weed species. It can selectively control perennial monocots such as bentgrass and nimblewill and annuals such as crabgrass and goosegrass in many turfgrass species. Tenacity can be applied at the seeding to prevent weed germination and allow the turfgrass species to establish without weed competition.

I remember reading that, but I had to double check because it just seemed so counter-intuitive seeing as it turns mature Kentucky bluegrass tip white, so you'd think that young grass would be even weaker and more susceptible. Apparently not, which is fine by me!

I went ahead with planting some seed on Monday (9/2).

For this project I ended up using up a bunch of remaining stuff I had on the garage from previous years: some Scott's starter fertilizer, a bit of GreenView Grass Seed Accelerator (left over from this project), and hesitantly/fearfully the seed I used for last years reseeding. The other stuff should be fine, but the seed had a sell by date of 4/13 and of course is over a year old. I did a search online regarding the use of expired seed and the (completely unofficial) general consensus I gathered is that most of the seed should be fine as long as it was stored properly (e.g. not exposed to moisture), but to expect germination rates to be be lower (more so the older it is). As I often tend to do, I decided to take the risk, but put down more seed than I normally would to hopefully compensate. If 25% of the seed germinates, I'll be happy. We shall see.

Also "reused" in this project was the dead carcasses of the dead creeping bentgrass in lieu of straw or some other mulch, because I 1) didn't have enough of the Greenview Grass Seed Accelerator left, 2) didn't have any other mulch, and 3) was lazy and didn't feel like going to the store and buying any (I firmly believe that laziness is a prime fuel for creativity). In most places the bentgrass was pretty thick, so it just makes sense to me to use it, plus it made the project easier and cheaper - win, win... maybe?

So I used my manual tiller to loosen up the soil underneath the dead bentgrass and the pulled it back to reveal the soil below as seen in the following photos:

After this, I generously dispensed some seed into the soil using a handheld spreader, and then added some starter fertilizer also using the handheld spreader. Then I mixed it all up a bit into the top layer of the soil, covered it back up with the dead bentgrass clumps, and finally matted it down a bit by walking on a board I laid over top of each area. After which, the finished product looked like this (not much different than before!):

In some areas where there was more soil exposed, I put down
some of the GreenView Grass Seed Accelerator

In addition to the bentgrass areas, I also seeded some other areas that seemed to have died this summer (apparently I didn't irrigate enough!).

North side of the driveway (after tilling)

By the road (after tilling).

By the road (after seeding).

Closer shot of the previous.

As usual, I now anxiously await germination - which I hope does in fact happen! In the meantime I'll be irrigating to keep the soil moist.

I just can't seem to go a year without reseeding - maybe next year!

I'll report back upon germination, or lack thereof.

"Dormant" seeding again...

So, on somewhat of a whim a few weeks ago (March 5) I decided to put down some seed in the backyard - much like last year, only 2 weeks earlier, but ironically it's much warmer, so there's nothing dormant about it. Go figure.

I purchased the same seed as last year: SS6000 shade mix from SeedSuperStore.com, a 80% mix of 4 varieties of fine fescues (although 2 varieties are different from the batch I got last year) and 20% Bewitched Kentucky Bluegrass.

19.96% Predator Hard Fescue
19.66% Zodiac Chewings Fescue
19.80% Garnet Creeping Red Fescue
19.85% Bewitched Kentucky Bluegrass
19.80% Intrigue2 Chewings Fescue

Unfortunately, I really didn't give the grass I planted last year much of a chance when I destroyed it with the overseeder last fall... but let's try to forget about that. New beginnings... again.

As soon as the seed arrived, I put it down. I didn't do any soil preparation hoping for some more below freezing temps to help expand and contract the soil and allow the seed get deeper into the ground. Yeah, I think there have been two nights of below freezing temps since then. One of which was the first night (one of the reasons that I wanted to get it down so quickly):

Seed on frozen ground the next morning

Otherwise it's been too warm for even below freezing nights, so due to rain in the forecast I decided to help work the seed in the ground in places where I could do so without harming the existing grass. I went to Lowes and purchased a hand tiller and tilled almost the whole lawn by hand. It took me over an hour, but I felt like I could sleep better knowing that the rain wouldn't wash or displace the seeds away as easily and it appears to have worked (granted the rain wasn't terribly heavy). It also should help the seed to germinate better (that was one of my mistakes last spring, not working the seed into the top layer of soil).

I then used the rest of the GreenView Grass Seed Accelerator that I leftover from the 2010 front yard project, but it wasn't enough so I picked some more up and put most of it down as well. This should also help with germination and hopefully help deter erosion (probably not as effectively as straw, though).

So far, I don't see any seeds germinating. I wouldn't expect it so soon anyway, but with the warm weather we've been having I wouldn't be surprised to see it either. This is how the backyard is looking as of yesterday:

And just for the record and comparison (because I think that the Poa Supina has already started greening up), these shots were from a few weeks earlier (February 27th):

Other than the small amount of fertilizer that is in the mulch, I haven't put down any starter fertilizer. I have some in the garage. Should I put some down??

What else am I growing??

I have noticed this other "grass" growing in some of the newly seeded areas. In fact, there was some in the picture I posted the other day.

Up until now I have assumed that it was just leftover grass that I missed when I sprayed with RoundUp. But there is quite a bit of it and I couldn't believe that much could have survived what looked so utterly dead. Frankly, I'm a bit upset about it since it looks similar to the grass I was trying to kill in the first place - could it possibly have survived RoundUp?? I wondered. So today I took a closer look to see if perhaps I could ID it and what I found was rather peculiar. Look closely:

See it? How about in this photo of some I pulled up?

That's right, it's the straw. I am also growing straw. It's only growing in the areas where I put down straw.

So what is it really? I'm not total sure. I'm waiting for a call back from the place I purchased it, but it sure looks to me like wheat.

As long as it's not perennial and doesn't produce any more seeds, I don't think it'll be a problem. The odd thing is that I used straw from the same place earlier this year and I don't recall this happening, but perhaps conditions weren't good for germination at that time of the year. Though, I do remember noticing that the seedheads appeared to be void of seeds.

I guess I'll need to find a new source for my future straw needs.

Landscape alteration

A few days ago our landscape was altered. We didn't have a choice in the matter. The creek in our backyard was eroding its banks and threatening to invade people's property so they hired a company to place large stones at select bends in the creek to help slow the erosion, and it so happens that one of those places was right next to hour house. I can't complain too much because I don't want the creek any closer to our home, but I could have done without the means of getting the stones back there, which involved cutting through the brush on the south side of our house.

I happened to have a photo that I took a few days before they did this, so I could do a before and after to show the extent of the change:

Before & After

Now, this side of the house I have more or less left alone since we moved in. The brush from the forest was overgrown and the bushes next to the house were as well, so I figured it was a good match and left it that way until I had the time and energy to take on that project. But now the project is semi-forced upon me, or at least I'm seeing it as an opportunity to take it on since it is now pretty much a clean slate over there.

Yesterday I dug up some of the landscaping bricks that were over there (most of them were completely buried and in some cases jammed between roots that had grown around them) and am planning on using the rest of the remaining mulch to just mulch that whole area. Then, I'll have another area to put some more plants - yay! Here's my plan:

That area gets a decent amount of morning sun, especially with much of the surrounding brush removed. Unfortunately, there's a stump and a whole bunch of roots there, too. I'm going to try to dig it up, but I might not be able to - we'll see.

So, this will be my new project and will allow me to finally get the mulch pile off of our driveway.

Lots of mulch.

Today we had a special delivery of 10 cubic yards of mulch in our driveway. I put down a 8x10 foot tarp and it is completely buried.

10 cubic yards of mulch.

 A big pile of work next to my new wheelbarrow.

I finished up for the night a bit ago at around 9 because I couldn't see much anymore and I was being swarmed by mosquitoes. I came home from work early at 4 so I could get to work on it. Today reached a high of 87 degrees and was very humid (70 degree dew point) - it was great.

I got the Calum Memorial Garden mulched first, then pretty much the whole front yard, and then part of the side. I still have some areas in the backyard that I plan to mulch, but I need to pull some stuff first. I think I might end up with some extra.

However, this seemed like a logical time to make some changes so I could mulch some more areas... I ended up pulled up the other 2 holly bushes (they were in the worst shape of them all), so now we have no more holly bushes. And I was very close to pulling up the overgrown bushes in front of the window, on the left in this picture:

Current front yard landscaping (you can see the new mulch on the left).

But I held off... for now. My wife and I discussed it and I think we're going to pull it up along with creeping juniper next to it (I'm not strongly opposed to it, but my wife doesn't care for it, and it is probably the area of the yard that gets the most sun, so it has potential to house some sun-loving plants). I don't have much planned other than removing them and mulching, though, and that's kind of a problem. Here's a visual of my current thinking:

The game plan.

Remove the two bushes and split the decorative grass into two and transplant them over to that area. The problem with the decorative grass where it is now is that it's too big and blocks the view of the rose bush behind it next to the garage. It also blocks a sprinkler head that is there. I know "twos" aren't typically a good design, but I feel like it would look better than keeping it as one. Perhaps I could break it into three, or plan a third type of grass with it. I don't know. Or maybe this is all just a bad idea. The upside is that it would give us some of the more sunny areas to plant other things.

I think I'm going to do it. And if worst comes to worst, we can always try again.

Here's a rough idea of what I'm thinking:

What the executed plan might look like.

If this is accurate (and it's probably not), then the grass may not be enough to block the view of the irrigation system back-flow valve that sticks up about a foot and a half or two. We may need something a bit taller.

Here is a blank canvas for pondering ideas:

What should fill that void?

I'd say that area gets part to full-ish sun. Anyway, I don't know what to do... time to sleep.

Forget-me-not

For some reason, I can't for the life of me remember anything having to do with forget-me-nots. First, I forgot to purchase some for our memorial garden, so I said I'd have to make sure to save a spot for one when planting. Well.... I forgot! So, once I actually remember this plant, I'll have to find a spot to squeeze it in somewhere.

In other news, yesterday I attempted to measure the areas that I want to mulch (everything, basically) and calculated it out to be approximately 1000 sq. ft. So, to cover all of that area with 3" of mulch, I'll need about 9-10 cubic yards worth. I was about to place an order, but decided to hold off since we don't have a wheelbarrow or cart and there's no way I could effectively spread all of that around without one. So, this will soon be my next yard project.