Backyard Lawn Update

I covered the front lawn in my previous post, now on to the backyard. Considering how the lawn looked after last year, I had no idea what to expect this spring, but my expectations where low. Well, I must say that I'm impressed! Still far from perfect, it's at least somewhat beginning to look like a lawn again!

I think this area will need some love this fall.

Another sparse area.

Kinda looks lawnish!

Utter barefoot bliss. This patch is the best!

Another area that needs some love.

I transplanted this patch by the brick in order to help
prevent erosion in this area during heavy rain. Need to
transplant some more.

And this is my favorite surprise. I noticed these little grasslings coming up in some of the bare areas throughout the lawn. While I'm not certain (yet), I think that these were actually from seed heads of the grass from when I mowed it last. It was seeding at the time and I wondered it it might be possible for those seeds to survive and germinate. I think some did!

New grasslings sprouting in a bare area!

Now that I'm aware I'm going to try to keep the lawn well watered and hope these little guys can survive the summer! I'll note that not all bare areas had so many sprouting, but I did see some in other areas of the lawn. It'll be interesting to see how things progress; perhaps there are more seeds that haven't germinated yet.

Front Lawn Update

Quick update on the front lawn. I think it's doing great. I'll let the photos show, but I'll note that the Ortho Weed B Gon seems have mostly taken care of the (possible) chickweed - it has taken several weeks, but slowly but surely the grass took over. And the 2011 grass finally greened up - guess it's just slower? It certainly seems significantly darker green than the surrounding kentucky blue grass... All in all I'm really happy with it! It's quite lush and thick in many more places than I remember and I see no tall fescue (however, I will mention that I pulled a good amount back around the first mowing from the north side of the lawn). I'd say the lawn looks the best it ever has since we moved in!

This area finally greened up!

Some patchiness, but generally pretty dense!

This has been the slowest to green up, and some areas still
aren't growing too much for some reason. Also the area of
lighter green is where I pulled the tall fescue from.

Freshly edged!

Note the striking difference in color despite both being kentucky
blue grass. Oh well, can't have everything!

Fairly patchy here. Recovering from the drought and weeds.

I think all my work has finally starting to pay off! Wish there wasn't the two color tones, but I'd rather that then have tall fescue and orchardgrass!

Actually I'm not so sure

That should be the new title of this blog.

I went out to take a closer look at the weed that has infested our lawn and I'm not so sure that it is prostrate knotweed. The flowering in particular seems different. Here are some photos:

Mystery weed - chickweed?

In any case I sprayed it with Ortho Weed B Gon Max (I bought it in concentrate because it was on sale).

I'll have to see if I can figure out what it really is. In the mean time I'll see if the weed killer can do the job.

Prostrate knotweed?

I haven't actually gone out to take a closer look to confirm, but it's very possible that the weed that has infested the front lawn this year and last is prostrate knotweed. Purdue Turf Tips had a post about the weed last month and it looks and sounds like what I see in our lawn:

Prostrate knotweed in grass?

I'm trying to figure out what to do about it (assuming this is what it is). The blog post suggests some chemical treatments:

2,4-D by itself will provide only fair control of prostrate knotweed, but when combined with triclopyr (Turflon Ester Ultra or Triclopyr 4) or dicamba (Banvel, Vanquish), it should provide excellent control in cool-season turf. There are many combination products that contain 2,4-D and dicamba, including Trimec 992 and SpeedZone. Combination products that contain 2,4-D and triclopyr include 4-Speed XT, Chaser, Chaser 2 Amine, Momentum FX2, Turflon II amine, and TZONE.

Most of these are professional products that aren't typically sold in stores and are often sold in bulk.

The Ortho Weed B Gon Max label lists the weed and (I think) shows 2,4-D and dicamba as active ingredients, so I may give this a try since it should be easier to get a hold of and not in mass quantity. It appears that Bayer Advanced All-In-One Lawn Weed & Crabgrass Killer and Spectracide Weed Stop for Lawns plus Crabgrass Killer also have similar labels.

Last year I sprayed it with Ortho Weed B Gon and they eventually yellowed (making them stand out even more) and died off. It took some time, though.

First step will be to confirm that this is in fact the weed in our lawn. Will report back.

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.