Fertilizing and Overseeding the Lawn

I'm making a concerted effort to use as few chemicals in my garden and lawn as I can. About the only chemical that I used now is Roundup, and I only use that for poison ivy. I also used a chemical fertilizer with potassium this spring for my purple tomato seedlings because I needed a fast acting source of potassium.

I'm not a big fan of massive lawns. My garden space is larger than my lawn. I probably have about 250 square feet of lawn. For the last couple of years, I have done nothing to my lawn but mow it and sprinkle a couple of grass seeds in bare spots in the spring. It doesn't look very good. I don't expect it to be immaculate, but there are patches of dirt showing through and a lot of broad-leafed weeds, especially in the backyard. Consequently, I am going to experiment with organic lawn care this year. I'll share what I'm learning along the way and I will show you the results. I'm also hoping that I can get feedback and help on creating a nice lawn from people who read this blog.

My front yard looks better than my backyard.  A couple of years ago, my neighbor, the landscaper, installed a perennial bed for a client.  They didn't want the sod that she removed, so she brought it to me. It looks pretty good on the sunny side, but the shady side of my front yard has several patches of dirt.

Today was fertilizing and overseeding day.  To prepare for this day, I purchase mushroom compost, sun grass seed, and shade grass seed.  I also dug out all the weeds that I could find in the lawn except for clover, which helps to fix nitrogen into the soil.

First, I set my mower blade as low as I could and I mowed my grass.  I usually set the blade high so that the taller grass will shade out some of the weeds.  

Then, I adding about an inch of mushroom compost over the top of the lawn.  I created piled rows of compost across the lawn and spread the compost through the grass with the flat side of the rake.  After that, I used the pointy side of the rake to scratch the compost into the top of the soil.  My lawn soil has not been amended for years, so I really need to improve the quality of my soil and give the grass seed some fertile media in which to grow.

It's easier to spread the compost with the flat side of the rake.

Next, I sprinkled grass seed in the bare spots and gently raked them in.

Finally, I watered the lawn well to help the compost settle at the roots of the grass and give the grass seed  a moist environment for germination.

After the new grass grows to about 3 inches, I will mow it for the first time.  I will raise the blade high so that the taller grass will shade out weed seeds and make it more difficult for them to germinate.  I will also mulch the grass clippings into the lawn with my mulcher mower.

Saturday's To Do Wish List

Spread mushroom compost over front lawn and over seed the bare spots.

Plant strawberry plants in the strawberry pot.

Dig up the raspberries that have grown out of the bottom of the raspberry pots.

Weed.

What chores do you have on deck for this weekend?
Please post a link to your chore list or a project that you are working on in the box below so that we can go to your blog to see what you're up to.

Ground bees!

Today when I was out in my garden, I noticed that there were hundreds of bees swarming over my lawn. Then I saw their mounds and holes. Terrible things ran through my mind. I went inside to find information on the Internet about ground bees. What I found out was reassuring.

Apparently, ground bees come out for about 4 weeks in the spring and then go dormant until the next year. They are not aggressive. Since I don't have much risk of getting stung by them, I can just leave them alone this year.  They are attracted to dry ground that has bare spots. If I fill in the spots with some grass seed, then I should create an inhospitable place for the bees next year.  I was going to grass in the spots anyway, so this remedy is no big deal.

Of course, if they turn out to be aggressive, I may be able to encourage them to move on by soaking the ground every day for a couple of days.  They don't like wet soil and will leave.  At least I hope so.

Edging the Beds

Today, I spent some time edging my flower beds after work. I needed to edge them to keep the grass from taking over the beds and give the beds sharper definition. I edge the beds every year before I mulch them, so that the trenches will hold the mulch back from spilling into the yard.  I'm not a big fan of artificial or stone borders.  I like a nice, clean edge.

I had grass encroaching on my plants.  It was a 'joy' to reach into my rose bush and pull out the stray grass.  Thank goodness for garden gloves.

I also had grass growing into my beds.

Here's the trench that I made.

First, I make a trench along the edge of the bed.  I usually do this with a hand trowel. This year, I did it with my large spade, because I want some extra dirt to put into the raised beds that I am going to build in the hidden garden at the end of the alley. After I made the trenches, I patted the sides smooth to pack in the loose dirt clumps.  

Here's all the dirt that I collected for the raised beds.

After chopping the leaves, I spread them over the beds making sure to give the perennials a little leaf free space around their crown.  I also pressed the leaves into the trenches to give the edges a finished look.  The lawn still has some finely chopped leaves left and I raked them in as best as I could.  In a couple of weeks, the microherd of bacteria will have broken the chopped leaves down so that I can't see them.  These leaves will serve as fertilizer for the lawn.  If you want to know more about using leaves for compost for your lawn, here's a link to an excellent article about it in Fine Gardening.

Leaves and composted horse bedding have been staples as mulch and fertilizer in my flower beds for years.  This year, I am going to try them on my lawn.  When I moved into my house 5 1/2 years ago, I had terrible clay soil.  Now I have beautiful soil because of the chopped leaves and compost.  I hope that they will perform the same kind of magic for my lawn.  The best part of using leaves as fertilizer and compost is that they are free!

During this whole process, I had to chop the leaves to use as mulch.  I made a mistake last fall.  Usually, I chop up the leaves that fall from my oak tree and spread them over the beds.  This year, I waited too long and I was lucky to get the leaves onto the bed at all.  I didn't get around to chopping them up with the mower.  I just ran over the leaves in the grass once with the mower to pick them up off the grass and I spread them over the top of the whole leaves that had fallen on the garden.  I usually follow this step up by running over the beds with the mulcher function on the mower.  However, I didn't do it last fall.

Today, I raked the leaves out of the beds and ran over them a few times with the mulcher mower.  Then I ran over them again to pick them up so that I could spread them on the beds.  This option was not ideal.     During the raking, I damaged some of the smaller plants.  The chopped up leaves aren't as fine as they would have been had I done all this in the fall.  By spring, the chopped up leaves have really started to break down.  Overwintering whole, the leaves broke down some, but they are not as attractive as they would have been had the chopped up leaves gotten exposed to winter weather.  This fall, I will start earlier.