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!

Watering and waiting

Well, after a flurry of 12 hours straight of work last Wednesday, plus a little bleed-over into Thursday, I got the job done. I've been breathing since then and frankly, I've been putting this blog post off just because I didn't want to think about it anymore, but I think I'm ready now. However, instead of the typical narrative format, I'm going to give a more outlined approach a try, so here goes.

This is what I did:

1. Mowed the lawn at about 1-1.5 inches or so.
   

   

   Front yard after mowing.

2. Raked up the excess grass.
3. Rented an aerator and began aerating the lawn. Whoops - proceeded to run over 3 sprinkler heads (they survived!).
4. Marked the sprinkler heads.
5. Finished aerating the lawn, making 4 passes in different directions where possible.
   

   

   Front yard after aeration.

   
   

   

   Backyard after aeration.

6. Applied roughly 10 lbs of Scott's starter fertilizer (24-24-4, w/5.7% slow release N) on the front yard, and 3.78 lbs on the back yard (roughly 1-1.25 lbs of phosphate/1000 sq ft.) using a broadcast spreader.
7. Rented a power overseeder and attempted to make 2 passes at half the seeding rate in opposite directions.
   

   

   Front yard after overseeding.

   
   

   

   Front yard after overseeding.

8. Raked up excess grass.
9. Spread straw over bare areas.
   

   

   Partially mulched backyard.

10. Water (present tense since this step is still occurring).
11. Keeping mowed at 1-1.5 inches (did this once already last weekend).

This is what I learned:

1. Don't get too excited to aerate that you forget to mark sprinkler heads.
2. The aerator has a throttle - lower it. Before I discovered this, the machine was literally beating me up and practically dragging me across the lawn. Slowing it down made it much more enjoyable.
3. Was the soil too dry? I'll be honest, I pulverized the backyard. In the end, it was effectively tilled with hardly any existing grass left standing. Here is a shot after aeration showing that the cores didn't penetrate well and instead made more like cone shaped holes in the soil.
   

   

   Soil crumbled after aeration

   After making several passes with the overseeder, there was basically no grass left standing. It was a similar story for the front yard, but only in the areas I killed. I'm not sure, but I think if the soil was a bit more damp, both aeration and overseeding would have gone smoother.
4. Apply fertilizer at the slowest rate and make multiple passes in different directions. When fertilizing the front yard, after looking at how much fertilizer was in the spreader and how slowly it appeared to disperse at the lowest setting, I got lazy and bumped up the rate. I soon found that I was running out of fertilizer and nowhere near done with the whole lawn. I ended up having to apply 2 or 3 more pounds than was recommended, so obviously some areas got more than they were supposed to.
5. Don't rent that particular power overseeder again. Home Depot had two of them: one that was self-propelled and one that wasn't. To save money, I opted for the latter. It was difficult to maneuver and if I ever got stuck or stopped it would continue dropping seed, so I applied way too much seed in some places. The seeding rate was also basically arbitrary since it was dependent on how fast I pushed it, so I found it impossible to disperse seed at half the rate as I intended. In the front yard I was only able to make two passes on about 2/3 of the lawn. Next time I'll try the self propelled one.

Overall, I'd say the whole process went pretty well, despite completely terrorizing the backyard. I now very much hope that my experiment with supina bluegrass is a success. Projects like this make me grateful for winter.

Caring for turf in times of heat and drought

This post will be a summary of some recent heat/drought-related posts off the always informative Purdue University Turf Tips site. I don't want to forget this great information.

The first post is titled The Heat is On!. This post gives some great information about keeping your lawn healthy in times of heat and drought like we've had this year (and also last year) in central Indiana. Here's my takeaway points:

• Temps above 87 degrees will cause cool season grasses to stop growing (due to photorespiration which occurs instead of photosynthesis)
• Lack of water can cause some grasses to go dormant such as Kentucky bluegrass (but not tall fescue!)
• When in drought, any traffic on the grass can cause damage to the plants, so don't mow and stay off the grass as much as possible
• You can keep grass green through drought by watering about 1 inch per week
• To keep grass alive during drought, water with 1/2 inch of water every 2-4 weeks
• Irrigating in the morning is best

The second post is titled Turf: Dead or Alive? and provides information on how to determine if grass is still alive after a dry period has ended and there has been some rain that has otherwise greened up the lawn. If brown grass still remains in some places, don't despair because it might still be alive. To tell, pull up some of the dead blades and look underneath for new growth. If new blades are coming up, the grass will likely recover. I have noticed a few areas of our lawn that is still quite brown despite the rest of the lawn greening up after our recent rains and I've wondered if it is dead (even though I watered occasionally throughout the drought). I checked and there are a few blades of green that have and are come up, so I guess we'll see if it recovers!

And finally, another great resource related to irrigation is the Irrigation Practices for Homelawns (AY-7) publication (also by Purdue). Some takeaways from this publication:

• Overwatering can potentially cause just as much if not more damage than underwatering (resulting in increased crabgrass, increased disease, shallow rooting, and a waste of water)
• Water when the first visible signs of stress appear
• First signs of stress include a blueish-green color, and when footprints remain after walking on it (and later the grass will wilt and turn a grayish-green color, before turning brown and dying/going dormant)
• Water only when it's needed instead of a regular set schedule
• Most Indiana lawns need about 1 to 1.5 inches of water per week
• It's best to water all at once so that the water reaches the deepest roots
• To measure the amount of water applied, put a dish out and water for a set amount of time to calculate the rate
• The ideal time to water is 4-8am
• Dormant grass can survive up to 4-6 weeks without water
• Water 1 to 1.5 inches ever 4-6 in drought conditions (this conflicts with info above, so I'm not sure which is correct)

These posts and publications have been extremely useful to me and I'm very grateful for the information that Purdue has and continues to publish!

Blue Hollies planted

Last weekend I planted the Blue Holly bushes (yes, I am behind!):

Blue Holly bushes planted

I really struggled with the placement if them as I wanted to block as much of the irrigation valves as possible, but also I wanted it to look orderly. It seemed like the bushes should line up with the window, so that's what I ended up doing (approximately) and I'm hoping that the bushes will grow and fill in more. They still seem kinda crammed in there, but it works for me.

I followed the instructions given by the nursery for planting them. In a nutshell they are:

1. Dig a hole 2-3 times the width and no deeper than the root ball with the edges sloping downward
2. Remove any girdling roots, which are roots that circle the plant instead of spreading out radially from the plant (these can eventually choke the plant)
3. Create a mixture of 2/3 original soil and 1/3 peat moss
4. Place the plant in the center and fill in with the soil
5. Use water to settle the soil around the plant
6. Mulch 2-4 inches with hardwood bark mulch
7. Water thoroughly

I didn't end up mixing in the ammonium sulfate with the soil, but I did mix in peat humus and topsoil like I did with the Hydrangeas.

They are still alive after one week, so that's good. With the heat and drought conditions that we've had lately, I've watered them a few times with the hose on a trickle at the base of the plant.