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.

Plant Swap Plants-Update

I've been potting up more plants for the Central Indiana Plant Swap on May 16th.  Here's the updated list of the plants that I will bring:


Perennials

• 6 Siberian or Japanese iris (purple)
• 4 moonbeam coreopsis
• 3 lamium (either pink pewter or purple dragon)
• 6 sweet woodruff
• 3 hellebores/Lenten Rose (either pink or cream)
• 6 monarda/bee balm (Jacob Klein-red)
• 3 purple coneflower
• 1 salvia (May Night-purple)
• 6 short bearded reblooming iris (yellow, purple, or light blue---probably purple)
• 3 hardy geranium (dark pink) (Max Frei)
• 1  lily (stargazer)
• 1 daylily-probably blacked eyed stella, but I'm not certain
• 1 snowball viburnum
• 8 Stella d'Oro daylilies
• 3 ruby red stella daylilies
• 3 rosy returns daylilies
• 5 pink or red hardy hibiscus
• 3 drumstick allium
• 3 lamb's ear, Helen Von Stein (large leaves, clumping rather than spreading)
• 5 black eyed susans
• 6 heliopsis 
• 3 unknown small variegated hostas
• 3 unknown solid small green hostas
• 3 sweet autumn clematis
• 1 fern
• 3 light pink hardy geranium

Unknown small variegated hosta

Unknown small solid hosta

Basil

• 3 sweet
• 3 lime
• 3 lemon 
• 3 thai

8 red or yellow raspberries

Tomatoes

• 3 Fred Limbaugh
• 3 Henderson Wins All
• 3 Bloody Butcher
• 3 Japanese Trifele
• 3 Chocolate Stripes
• 3 1884
• 3 Supersweet 100
• 3 Orange Russian
• 3 Roma
• 3 Black Krim
• 5 Brandywine
• 10 Black cherry

Hardy light pink geranium

Wordless Wednesday

Outsmarted by a Cocker Spaniel

One would think that I could outsmart my dogs.  Cockers are not known for their intelligence. It's a good thing that they are so sweet. As I posted last month, I'm having problems with my dogs running along the fence that borders my alley. In the past they haven't done this, but now they have this new destructive habit.  They have been trampling my oriental lilies, bee balm, and delphinium.


Last month, I rearranged the bed to create some daylily speed bumps. I was hoping that the day lilies would provide enough of a barrier that my dogs wouldn't beat a path at the back of the bed.  I was wrong, and Stevie from Garden Therapy was right. Her comment to the posting was "Good luck! I hope they don't see it as an obstacle course now!" My dogs totally see the day lilies as added fun. Maybe Stevie is a garden dog therapist : )

My new plan is to install hurdles. I bought some cheap garden fences at a home store and installed them throughout the back of my perennial bed. A few years ago, Peanut, the dog picture above, could have easily cleared these hurdles.  He's older now with a little arthritis, so he's not much of a threat. Marci could never be coordinated enough to jump the hurdles. She is rather clumsy and has been known to fall off the bed. I really hope that this new idea works.  I don't want to have to restrict my dogs' access to the back yard.

Harvest Monday

I finally got to harvest something that I planted this year. My volunteer lettuces were ready to cut today.

I filled a colander with an assortment of lettuces. I also pinched off some basil and flat leaf parsley from plants that I bought at a farmer's market this weekend.

I used the lettuce to make a salad to share with my neighbor, Gaynell, and her husband, Ken. I rinsed and dried the lettuce. On top of the lettuce, I placed avocado, tomatoes, and crumbled goat cheese. To finish the salad off, I sprinkled the fresh chopped flat leafed parsley and basil. I made a dressing out of pomegranate balsamic vinegar and blood orange olive oil. We ate the salad with pork loin that was marinated in a Hawaiian barbecue sauce.

Wet Weekend II-The Veggies

Today, I wanted to plant my tomato seedlings.  I looked at the weather forecast until our frost free date, May 10, and the predictions indicate that it shouldn't get below 45 degrees.  I know that the predictions aren't perfect, but I can always plant my plant swap tomatoes if a frost kills my planted tomatoes.  The plant swap isn't until May 16th, so I will have my replacement tomatoes should anything go wrong.

Instead of planting tomatoes, I took pictures of my vegetables.  Tomorrow will be my first day for lettuce harvesting.  I finally have enough to make a salad.  

My container potatoes are looking beautiful.  They are getting tall enough that it's time to add some more organic material to the pot.  I'll probably sprinkle in some aged compost and some leaves.

Maybe I will be able to do some work in my garden on Tuesday.  On Monday, I'm sure that the soil will be too wet to work with or walk on.

Wet Weekend I-Perennial Gardens

I haven't accomplished much in my garden this week other than to raise a strong crop of weeds.  Work has been hectic and it's been raining.  Since it's raining today and supposed to rain tomorrow, I decided to post some photos of my perennial gardens and give an update of how my veggies are growing.

Today, I should have been planting my annual flowers.

Since it was raining, I decided to take pictures of my shade bed instead. This bed is on the north side of the front of my house.

This hosta is sagae.  I love its 3 foot tall vase-shaped habit.

In this back corner of the shade bed, I used to have a compost pile.  It was fairly well hidden from the street by a viburnum and a Japanese maple that the previous owners planted.  Neither the maple nor the viburnum have done well because they get too much shade.  The maple is now dead and the viburnum is   pitiful.  One of my spring projects will be to replace the Japanese maple with a pagoda dogwood and plant some hostas.

I think that the bright green in the pagoda dogwood's leaves will brighten up the corner.