Weeds

I sprayed for weeds late last week in the backyard. The front yard is surprisingingly free of weeds, so I think I can spot-spray there.

I did have one hit-your-forehead forehead moment. I had some weed killer left over from last year. I started with an Ortho product. I read the instruction and used a hose-end sprayer set at one ounce/gallon. That ran out about a third through the backyard, so I grabbed some Bayer concentrate, quickly scanned the instruction and saw the mixture was 1 1/2 ounce/gallon. So I changed the setting on my hose-end sprayer and finished up the backyard. That's when I looked more closely at the instruction and saw the warning "Don't use with a hose-end sprayer." Whoops! I did notice that the Bayer product was thicker than the Ortho, but it did get sucked up by the sprayer, so it appears to have worked. It's been three days and I am seeing the leaves wilt on both areas, so I think I'm okay. Not sure why the Ortho is supposed to mixed only in a pump sprayer. It was thicker, so maybe they are concerned about getting a proper mixture with the hose-end sprayer.

Ornamental Grasses

My colleague at The Forum, Tammy Swift, wrote a very informative article this past weekend on ornamental grasses. Check it out here. There are some great pictures and information on what kinds of grasses grow well here. One of the benefits of ornamental grass is low maintenance.

On a side note, I went to college with Tammy Swift a long time ago. I have no idea if she remembers me. I was kind of a wallflower back then and she was always obnoxiously loud so she may not have noticed me. :>)

Photo Courtesy of The Forum

Slow Growth

Watching grass grow is not the most exciting of pastimes; especially when it doesn't seem to be growing at all! It has been almost too cool over the past week for grass to grow. I should have a good amount of germinating seeds by now (it's been nine days), but I've got nothing.

I just don't think the ground is warm enough to promote quick germination. That's why Fall is such a good time to plant grass because the soil is warm from a summer of sunshine, but the nights are cool which helps to promote seed growth.

For those from outside of the region, you should know that we've had an extremely cool start to summer in Grand Forks. We've been well-below average. In fact, the average temperature is nearly 10 degrees below normal so far in June (see chart here). WDAZ's Meteorologist John Wheeler is promising a slow warm-up, so we'll see if we get some green growth. I need it to get started. I have some paint to watch dry as well!

Seeding

I worked on the seeding job off and on all day on Saturday and finally got it done. It always seems to take longer than you expect.

I used a lot more of the yard of dirt than I expected. I filled in a couple of low spots and then spread a thin layer out over the whole area.

My first dilemma was getting the seed mixture that I wanted. I consulted this article from the NDSU Extension service that recommends a mixture of Bluegrass (55-65%), Fescue (30-35%) and perennial Ryegrass (10-15%) for our climate. But I couldn't find a mix anywhere close to this after checking home improvement stores and a big box retailer. Now I didn't look far and wide, so I may have been able to find it with more looking, but I was getting a bit desparate on a Saturday afternoon to get the seed down. My solution was to mix a bag I found with about a 33-33-33 mixture with seed from a bag of pure Kentucky Bluegrass. I didn't do the math, but I figured that I got closer to the proper mixture that way.

So after leveling out the soil, I spread some starter fertilizer and followed that up with the seed. I used a hand spreader rather than throwing it out by hand in order to get an even distribution. I added some grass clipping to act as a mulch. Now I have to water it a couple of times a day for a few weeks. Since it's not pure Bluegrass (which has a slower germination), I should see some of the ryegrass and fescue coming up fairly quickly. I'll post some pictures soon.