nw baltimore wx

Man, this game can't end soon enough for the Bills. In other news, I am jealous of the frost and freeze advisories in Maine.

About 3.5" this weekend and 52.25" for the year.

The CoCoRaHS site seems to be amiss so saving today's entry here so I remember. .03"

The details of that event are really sad.

The wet summer wasn't good to my tomatoes, but I did get a bumper crop of ornamental squash for fall decorating.

I love reading 007's tropical posts, but he better not screw up our winter with any of these fantasy hurricanes.

Very happy with the .16" total here. Last evening was pretty nice with all the thunder, lightning, and fresh breeze from nearby storms. Just under 6" for August, and 27.13" for met summer.

Tropical deluge in western Ellicott City

The rain train is incoming here.

Not much going on up this way either compared to what the D.C. crew got a couple hours ago.

We are out near Smithsburg and can confirm it’s a deluge

Brother, you'd love Asheville, NC. Spent a few days there this week and really enjoyed ourselves. We did some great hiking and went to about ten breweries (walked to most!) but didn't nearly get to all of them. Just a beautiful area. These two pictures were taken from the Deep Gap Trail on a hike from Mt. Mitchell to Mt. Craig.

Thanks for the responses! Man, we loved Asheville and the surrounding area. Just beautiful and your summer climate is way better than Bmore's. Anyway, I hadn't seen the responses until we got back home but we did go south one day on the parkway and we stopped into the Mt Pisgah lodge for a beer and take in the view, then we hiked Black Balsam for a couple miles up to the balds. Really beautiful. On the way back into town that day, we did the short and steep walk/hike up to Devils Courthouse. Another day we went north, hung out with a bear on the Parkway, then made our way to Mt. Mitchell and hiked from there to Mt Craig. We would have liked more time to continue on that ridge because it was gorgeous and felt so far away from anything. Just spectacular scenery you've got down there. While in Asheville we stayed in some condos just south of the hospital and directly across the street from Hi-Wire Big Top location, and got a lot of great advice from the bartender, Jeremy. Maybe it's because it was our first stop when we got into town and so close to where we stayed, but my gf and I really enjoyed that place and loved their juicy fresh ne style IPA. During our stay, we also stopped in One World Brewing, Asheville Brewing, Green Man, Funkatorium, Burial, White Labs, Fat Tire, Wedge, and Zillicoah. In most cases, we'd split a flight between us, and just hang out enjoying the scene. There wasn't a place we didn't enjoy, and though we didn't make it to Wicked Weed, their Funkatorium was memorable for the selection and quality of sours. As a homebrewer, I also enjoyed White Labs because they ferment otherwise the same beers in different yeast strains. I thought that was pretty cool. And their pizzas are outstanding after a day of hiking. Though the taco truck at Zillicoah was really awesome too. Anyway, it was an excellent trip and already making plans for a return, maybe in the fall. eta: I'll be putting some photos in the Mid Atlantic Banter thread if anyone wants to see them.

This area has certainly had its share and then some. I don't understand groundwater but it's interesting to me that although Pikesville is locally a high point, there seems to be a high water table and a lot of springs in our neighborhood. We are right on the dividing line of the Gwynn Falls and Jones Falls watershed (we drain into Jones and a block away goes into Gwynn) so maybe that plays into our neighborhood drainage and standing water issues, but I have no idea. Maybe MNTransplant can explain it (I think his specialty is hydrology), but it seems counterintuitive to me. It's almost a miniature boggy Dolly Sods plateau around here! Anyway, we are happy to share.

We had 1.42" of surprise rain overnight. A very close neighboring CoCoRaHS reported over 3" which I'm happy to have missed.

Just .18" here but I'm not mad with that weekend setup still up in the air.

Drove out to Westminster this evening for dinner and on the way back we saw some decent distant lightning way off in the eastern sky. When I got home and checked the radar, I was surprised to see that the closest storms were nearly in Dover, DE.

If I was an airport, I'd be reporting a thunderstorm in the vicinity. Getting some decent rolling thunder here in Pikesville from that cell in downtown Bmore.

PSU may have an answer but it could be a lot of things. If all the fertilizer ponded in those areas, it could be fertilizer burn, but if it's a slow release, maybe not. If it's "patterned" or ring-shaped, it could be fungus from all the rain. If the soil is shallow, it could have died in the heat before the rainy pattern, but if this is the first year of it doing this, then I doubt it. On one side of my yard I have a mix of grasses that I'm slowly converting to all tall fescue by overseeding each fall, but every year by this time, there is an early season grass that goes dormant to the point of looking really dead. It could be that you have patches of something similar. You also mentioned that it's by the street so even something as arbitrary as winter road salt could be causing problems by messing with the soil and killing off desirable turf. At this point of the summer there isn't much to do but let it go and then in a month aerate, add nutrients, and seed with whatever works we'll in your area.

Late August to first week of September. The warm temps will help germinate the seed fast and then you'll get a good 10 weeks or so of growth. Aerating helps a lot too. The seeds find their way into the holes which are a great environment for them. Keep it simple. When you aerate, do not remove or rake the plugs. Just aerate, spread seed and fertilizer, and keep it watered. Are you renting an aerator? If so, maybe you can find a neighbor or two that wants to split the cost, or do a half day rental. Aerating a townhouses lawn will take no time at all.

I wouldn't waste time or energy with fertilizer until you seed. Keep in mind that you won't use a full strength fertilizer either because it will burn the new grass. You'll want to use something for newly seeded lawns. If you go with the Scott's product, it's already got the fert in there. The reviews look good for that stuff but I'd still be curious to know the seed blends in there. From your description, tall fescues would do very well there. Also, if the crabgrass isnt covering the whole yard, you can spray it with something that's crabgrass selective and not lose the grass that you have. And if it isn't crazy bad, you can really ignore it for now and just aerate and seed in a few weeks. Crabgrass is an annual and will die with the cooler fall weather. Then simply control next year's crop in March. As far as the dog is concerned, I have no experience but I'd try to keep him off as much as possible. Lots of walks?!? And once the yard is established, you will likely get brown spots from Rover's urine, but that's part of having a dog.

Front yard.

Does your yard get full sun? Are you able to irrigate the area easily once you put down your seed this fall? Part of the crabgrass problem in the back could be from raking. There are literally thousands of crab grass seeds in everyone's yard, and once you put down a crabgrass control in the spring, you shouldn't rake the yard because it exposes new seeds. But that's a problem to take care of next spring and easy to control. I'm not sure how much time you want to invest in the new lawn, but if it was me, since it's probably a relatively small area, I'd use a sprayer and roundup and kill the entire backyard. I'd do that now, and then do another application in a week. A week after that second application you can aerate and fertilize/seed with whatever you use. I've never used the Scott's product you mentioned, but check the back of the package and see what seed blends are in there. You'll get a lot of differing opinions on what's best in this area, but I like the tall fescue blends for durability and dark green color. One caveat for tall fescues is that they like a lot of sun, One advantage is how thick it becomes and helps to keep weed seeds from germinating. Once you put down the fert and seed, keep it moist for several weeks, it doesn't have to be watered heavily, but wetting it in the morning and evening every day is really important. Once it germinates it is easy for it to die from drying out. By October, you'll be amazed at how great it looks, but it will still be a bit patchy. But through the fall and winter, the roots will continue to grow, and in the spring it will fill in nicely. On mid March you will want to put down a crabgrass control and fertilize. There's a lot of hate towards fertilizer these days but there are some organic ones that don't do the damage that the older ones did. I'll post two pictures below. The first is my backyard that was all dirt and I started from seed when I did a home reno 15 years ago. It gets full sun and is a blend of Rebel seed tall fescue and Pennington tall fesce. I aerate in early fall and overseed each year, then do a crabgrass control and a spring feeding. I also do a late fall feeding to promote root growth, but that's it (other than occasional grub control or fungus control as needed, which isn't every year though all the recent rain has put some spotty brown patches in the backyard). Oh, also important is cutting it high! The thick blades shade the soil and keeps weeds down. I spot weed by hand and occasionally with a sprayer. Very low maintenance other than mowing. The second picture is my front yard and used to also get a lot of sun but in the 15 years I've lived here, the trees have grown so much that it is now a shaded yard. Although still predominantly tall fescue, can see how it is struggling in areas and the fine fescues and other grasses (not nearly as attractive) are taking over. But I like the trees and shade, so I can live with it. Bear in mind that all of this is just one opinion and others will have other suggestions that I'll be interested in hearing too.

Maintaining a home is always expensive and if you’re anything like me, you always worry that you’re getting raked over the coals. But in the end, if after all is said and done, if you’re happy with the finished product, it’s worth it. In the past year I’ve had to replace my roof and also my sewer line. Talk about ouch. But just a reminder for those in the Baltimore area, High Stakes has a siding and roofing company. His price was competitive with our other estimates and I can vouch for the quality. We are very happy with our new roof.

Yikes