First Mowing

Lawns have greened up quickly in the last week or so with the warmer weather. So I got out and mowed for the first time of the season yesterday. Although most of the lawn didn't need it yet, I mowed the front lawn anyway to mulch up some leaves from the oak that fall and gather on the lawn during the winter.

Here are some photos of the front yard (after mowing):

Most of this grass didn't need mowing

Lots of weeds

Note the patch of the dubbed "new invader" on the left (patch of lighter colored grass).

Not much growth here

Overall, not looking too great. Lots of weeds again due to thinned turf. And it seems like the new grass planted in the fall of 2011 is again being slow to green up. This lead to the fungus problems last year. I'm not about to let that happen again, so I decided to be more proactive this year and applied a generous portion of fertilizer along with a pre-emergent crabgrass application (which also contains fertilizer). I ended up putting down about 4 lbs of Endure Crabgrass Preventer Plus and about 6 lbs of Espoma Organic Lawn Food which in total comes to roughly 1.15 lbs N/1000 sq. ft. (0.475 from the Endure and 0.675 from the Espoma). I applied more liberally to the younger grass. In addition the Espoma also contains some Phosphate and Potash (8% and 6% respectively). Lots of rain is in the forecast, so we shall see how this turns out.

On to the backyard:

Still a sad sight in the backyard considering how nice it was last spring and early summer, but I have hope that I can get it back, even if I have to plant more seed this fall. It's knowing when to fertilize that's the tricky part.

In other news...

The phlox is sprouting:

I trimmed back the hydrangea tree again:

The hybrid tea rose bush is growing:

The hydrangea bushes are growing:

The Sedums are sprouting:

And it appears that the Boxwoods are doing just fine after last years drought as I see new growth on most of them (and flowering on some):

The second from the right is the most iffy.

I guess I haven't mentioned this before, but I lost one Holly bush due to the drought last summer (despite watering them). It's visible in the last two photos above (the middle Holly in the upper right of both photos). I'll have to replace it this year. I don't think I lost anything else due to the drought, thankfully.

That's all for now.

Calum Memorial Garden is in bloom

Since we purchased most of the flowers for it in spring last year, the garden is mostly filled with spring-time bloomers, so here are some photos taken yesterday:

Bleeding hearts

Bleeding hearts

Tiarella

Tiarella

Jacob's Ladder

Epimedium

The woodland phlox still hasn't quite bloomed yet, but has some buds.

These painted ferns aren't part of the Calum memorial garden per say, but are close by (and they're just so cool looking):

Japanese painted fern

Japanese painted fern

More plants!

We got lots of new plants this past weekend - all of them gifts!

I'll start with some plants that my parents brought for us. First is a beautiful hydrangea plant:

Hydrangea macrophylla 'Endless Summer'

This plant like part sun and grows to 5 feet high and 4 feet wide. I'm thinking about putting it on the north side of the house that was recently "renovated", but still working on that.

They also gave us another beautiful fuchsia hanging plant which we hung on the front porch:

Fuchsia hanging plant

This plants also likes part sun, so I'm hoping that it gets enough there.

Next, my mom and I made a visit to a nearby plant nursery, and of course we couldn't leave empty-handed... and my mom insisted on paying.

Here's what we bought home:

Japanese Painted Fern 'Pictum'

Creeping Phlox 'Candy Stripes'

Goat's Beard 'Misty Lace'

Calibrachoa hanging plant

The fern, creeping phlox, and goat's beard haven't yet been planted (speaking of goat's beard, I should introduce him to his dwarf relative). I hung the hanging plant in the back yard. It needs full sun, so I'm really hoping it does ok there.

I'm planning on trying to find a designer to help figure out what to do with the north side of the house, and what to replace some of the old overgrown bushes in the front yard with. Until then I'm going to hold off on planting anything in the front yard.

Thanks again to my parents for all the plants!

Tall fescue, rose bush, & daisy kit updates

Quite a few updates today:

First of all, thanks to my wife for the guest post. I look forward to following her vegetable project! Also, just to make it very clear: I'm no plant whisperer! I have quite the knack for killing plants, which is why I think this tall fescue extermination project has a very high probability of success!

That said, I think the tall fescue is starting to succumb to the herbicide. My observations are that the grass has gotten even lighter in color (almost yellow), is not growing nearly as quickly as it used to, and when I look closely there are even some completely brown/dead blades. This about right on schedule according to the instructions. Here's a few shots:

Dying Tall fescue about 2 weeks after Certainty herbicide application.

Note the many dead blades.

Needless to say I'm very excited.

In other exciting news, our new rose bush is beginning to grow leaves! Here's a few shots of that:

I haven't had to water it yet since we have had a steady amount of rain lately.

And finally, an update on the daisy grow kit planted back on March 22nd: they're still growing! I gave it some fertilizer a few days ago according to the instructions (once they reach 2-3 inches). I'd guess they're up to 3-4 inches now:

Daisies after 6 weeks.

And finally (for real), so far it appears that no other plants have been infected by the fungus (or whatever it is) and the phlox doesn't appear to have any new spots on its remaining leaves, thankfully.

That's all for now.

Calum Memorial Garden is planted

The sun came out today for just a little bit and allowed the temperature to reach 72 degrees, so my wife and I got out and worked on the memorial garden for our son and planted the plants that we purchased yesterday.

I started out by digging up the phlox and transplanting it to the front yard. My options for where to put it were limited, but I snuck it in near the hydrangea tree:

Phlox transplanted to the front yard.

It will hopefully be more happy there. However, prior to moving it I noticed that the lower leaves of about half the plant had some dark speckles on the leaves.

Dark speckles on lower leaves of Phlox.

I thought that it might be the powdery mildew disease that Phlox are prone to getting and it might be, however, upon looking at photos of the disease online, it doesn't look very similar, being not white and all. In any case I pruned off every leaf that had it. The really interesting thing is that those speckles weren't present yesterday. I looked at a zoomed in photo taken yesterday and they don't appear to be there:

Photo of the same plant just yesterday with no speckles present.

I did a quick online search and found a forum post with pictures that look similar (yes, quite the scientific diagnosis). According to the responses it's leaf spot fungal disease / septoria divaricata fungus and is spread from the soil. This would make sense since we were digging up plants there and soil was flying everywhere and I know some landed on and near the phlox plant. We also had rain last night that could have splashed it up onto the leaves. I'll be keeping a close eye on the other plants we just put in in that area. I need to get some mulch ASAP to help prevent it from getting on the plant leaves. I can't believe how quickly that infected the plant. I hope it survives because I really like it, and of course all of the new plants that we just labored over.

Anyway, I also transplanted the other hosta that was behind the phlox to the north side of the house along with the other hosta I transplanted over there yesterday. Boy are there a lot of roots over there. I could barely find a spot to plant them (oh and I almost cut our cable line...). Here's a shot of what that area looks like now:

North side of the house with hosta transplants.

There'll be a stone pathway through there soon someday.

And after deciding how to arrange the plants (which was borderline random), my wife and I got to planting them and this is how it ended up:

Calum Memorial Garden

To finish it off we are going to get an engraved stone to put in it.

Here is the list of plants that we planted:

Wild Sweet William, Woodlan Phlox
'Blue Moon'
(Phlox divaricata)

Jacob's Ladder (Polemonium reptans)

Tiarella 'Jeepers Creepers'
Creeping Foam Flower

'Praying Hands' Hosta

Dwarf Goatsbeard
(Aruncus aethusifolius)

Bleeding Heart
(Dicentra spectabilis 'Alba')

Golden Bleeding Heart
(Dicentra spectabilis 'Gold Heart')

White-flowered Epimedium
(Epimedium x youngianum 'Niveum')

New Guinea Impatiens
(Impatiens hawkeri)

Who names these things?? Woodland Phlox - hey that sounds nice; Jacob's ladder - sure, I can buy that; but Jeepers Creepers? Dwarf Goatsbeard? Huh??

Anyway, in addition to the garden, my wife put together the pot of Begonias for the patio:

Pot of Begonias.

Brigitte & Nadine Rhine Begonia

They look lovely! My parents gave us a pot of yellow begonias as a house warming gift in 2007 and they bloom beautifully all summer long! That is why I bought them.

And finally to wrap this long post up, I planted another pretty hosta that we purchased next to some other hostas in the backyard:

It's the lighter colored green one in between the two large ones
toward the left center.

Hosta 'Orange Marmaloade'

Good luck, plants.