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I wasn’t quite happy with the lawn color in the Thanksgiving Day photos, so I’ve added iron twice since then for a grand total of 12 ounces per thousand. That would be very high for a non-elite bluegrass, although elite bluegrasses just turn very dark greens. That’s the last for the year, and this shot should last right into early spring. As always, click on any photo to make it larger. The standard shot: Across the back: The lawn’s doing very well for November, although I have a feeling that a lot of my winterizer washed through and got lost in the 2 1/2″ of rain we got. If I see evidence of that, I’ll do a partial re-winterization over the next few weeks. As always, click any image to embiggen it. The standard shot, with extra leaves. I sent the mower out to take care of it just after I took this shot:
A shot across the back, including the last of the trees that’s currently de-leafing all over the lawn. Myrtle (the robotic lawnmower) had just chopped through these:
The southern face:
Bonus Image! My Christmas cactus decided to bloom a little early this year:
I winterized the lawn today with Vigoro Super Green, which contains enough slow-release nitrogen to keep my lawn green over the winter (as it doesn’t tend to go dormant). This marks the last addition for the year. This year’s total organic amount is well down from last year’s 450 pounds per thousand, and far down from the 1,200 the year before. Updated December 4, 2011: I winterized for a second time and I’ve added some foliar nitrogen as well. I added the extra line and updated the information.
I’m already done with the gardens’ feeding for the year, so I guess it’s time to add the amounts for the year. In addition to the Milorganite, I fed with Miracle Gro 24-8-16 from May through early July at a bit under half rate weekly through my EZ-Flo irrigation system. From early July to mid-September, I used K-Gro from K-Mart 15-30-15 to encourage flowering. That was also at about half rate weekly through the EZ-Flo system. Organic additions were about 100 pounds per thousand less than last year, until you consider that 19 cubic yards of mulch went onto the gardens this year for an additional amount of 3,000 pounds per thousand square feet. That was an extraordinarily heavy addition of mulch.
The weather’s been pretty bad for the last two months with nearly constant rain, so color and density have suffered. Fortunately, the weather temporarily cleared, so hopefully things will improve. First, the standard shot. As always, you can click on any image to embiggen it. The gardens are still doing pretty well for October: The Impatiens don’t seem to mind the weather: Is that soyorganite? Perhaps! I tend to like applying a heavy mass of organics to the lawn in August to feed it in September when the grass really wants a nice dinner. I’ll do it again in September for October. I just applied 16.7 pounds per thousand of soybean meal, plus 17.1 pounds per thousand of Milorganite. The grand total protein is about 14 pounds per thousand square feet, or about 2 pounds of nitrogen (eventually) per thousand. Other elements are low except iron, which is almost 0.7 pounds per thousand. Don’t try this with synthetics or you’ll burn the lawn badly. For organics, it’s fine, and provides a nice base for fall. Well, July 31st and there will probably be another one later, but this will do for right now… It’s holding well through summer, although color is a little disappointing at this point. That’s fairly typical for summer, and I’ve been unable to add any iron for about a month.
We’re moving into a very, very hot period, so I took the July shots today post watering last night. I’m hoping it holds, but I figured I should photograph this before we hit a hundred degrees plus. I’ve been feeding normally (monthly), and applied the equivalent of 600 pounds per thousand of sawdust to the problem areas that don’t retain water as well. That’s helped this summer and reduced watering somewhat, and the long-term result should be to change the soil a bit to hold more water to begin with. Lawn color is OK for July, nothing stellar. Hot weather tends to decrease color a bit. It also desperately needs to be mowed, but I won’t do that until the weather breaks. Here’s the standard lawn shot. As always, click to embiggen it.
Here’s the back garden, which is doing very well this year:
The Double Knockout rose is doing well, but I cut it back in late June. The second bloom isn’t quite as impressive as it usually is:
I’m a major fan of the Teddy Bear sunflowers, but still waiting to see how good their late-season performance is. It’s possible they’ll stop blooming, in which case I’ll use about the same number next year instead of increasing them:
Here’s a closeup of one of the blossoms:
Colors continue to darken considerably, although I took this image under fairly heavy overcast and the visual hue is slightly lighter than this in sunlight (although not much). Growth rates are still incredibly fast and I very much need to mow the lawn. Unfortunately, with storms due, there won’t be time for that today.
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I added a huge amount of iron to the grass yesterday as temperatures are supposed to be reasonable, and rainfall is expected today and tomorrow. The amounts added were 21 ounces of ferrous sulfate per thousand, or about five times normal rate. I don’t recommend trying this if the following day will be sunny, temperatures exceed 85, or the dilution levels you use aren’t pretty high. The burn potential from this is extraordinary. Color’s improved, although not as much as I had hoped. Growth rates are still extremely high, and the grass could use mowing again. I just mowed two days ago. Here’s the photo. As always, click to embiggen it:
Color still isn’t stellar even after pouring on ferrous sulfate, but the growth rate and density are increasing quickly. I think the amount of kelp I’m putting on it has something to do with that. Still, I’m not displeased. I’ll apply iron as the weather allows and hope that growth shifts into summer mode at some point! The Tenacity white spots are completely gone and the P. annua and P. trivialis are dead. A few small spots survived, and those are currently being re-treated. As always, click the photo to embiggen it:
Bonus image–the June garden, doing very well comparatively:
The P. trivialis is definitely dying out, as is all the P. annua. It looks like no further treatment will be necessary this spring, as there’s no remaining unwanted grasses. Discoloration of the surrounding areas is minor in most places, although the northern face did discolor a bit more. In very few cases is it more than mildly annoying, and the grass should recover in June. For all photos, you can click to embiggen them, as always. P. trivialis, dying fast: Robin’s nest, discovered when trimming the Viburnum–I stopped and will continue the cut-back when the babies are out of the nest: The first of the Teddy Bear sunflowers, still only partially open. If these are as durable as claimed and rebloom as they’re supposed to, they’ll find much wider use in the gardens next year! What a difference a sunny day makes! The rose opened more fully, and the petals have turned cream with a yellow center. By tomorrow, I expect that the entire rose will be cream-colored. For its location, and the dark green leaves on the bush, this is perfect. The scent is still very intense and very sweet, and I had to brush a few pollinators away to take the photograph.
I added two Sunny Knockout (Rosa “Radsunny”) roses to the garden this year. So far, both are doing very well, even the wet and cloudy weather we’ve had. The first one bloomed today. The yellow rose will fade to cream with yellow, and eventually cream, making a nice contrast with the newly-blooming yellow roses. The scent is fairly intense and very sweet with a note of spice. As always, click the thumbnail to embiggen it. I’ve been using Tenacity for about three weeks to remove some P. annua and P. trivialis. Here are the update photos–as always, click to embiggen. This is a patch of P. trivialis, rapidly dying: Rare patches of P. annua. You can see there’s very little damage to surrounding bluegrasses: Bonus Images! A very happy Bolero marigold: An equally happy Magellan double yellow zinnia: And their friend, a spring-blooming columbine: Tag Cloud:alfalfa
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