nw baltimore wx

Yeah, I bag too. The fescue in my backyard is so ridiculously thick that when it stays wet for extended warm/hot periods like we've had, some type of fungal damage is inevitable. It's not bad from a distance, but when you're on top of it, there's no doubt something yucky is starting to grow. You can see the areas of yellowing in this picture. I got some fungicide today at southern states that'll fix it right up.

I don't know how I missed EJ's lawn video above but I totally ageee with the fall aerating. The aerator in the video is the exact one that three of my buddies and I chipped in for about 15 years ago and it's still going strong. We circulate it between us every fall and though I don't throw a top dressing over the lawn after aerating as in the video, I do seed right away. The holes provide the perfect environment for the grass to germinate and after a week or so, the whole lawn looks like a bald man that joined a hair club with bright green sprouts coming out of every hole. As far as dethatching, I've never done it but if I did, I'm not sure that I'd do it in the spring because of I've read that you want to disturb the lawn as little as possible in the spring to keep from helping any seeds germinate. Anyway, thanks for the video EJ, and the reason I am posting is because with all the rain recently, and more to come, I can see the first signs of fungus issues in my yard. It looks like yellowing patches. If anyone else wants to treat it or prevent it, I've had good success with Scotts Diease Ex. It's not a fertilizer but a fungicide, and can be used once a month if the problem persists, though in the couple of times I've used it, I've only ever had to do one application. Finally, one more unrelated thing. I've been using my pickup truck as the weed and hedge clipping pile for the past week or two and haven't been able to get to the dump. As I finished up cutting the grass this evening, I noticed a bunch of baby praying mantises all over my truck. It seems that I harvested an egg sac in the hedge clippings last week and it's hatching this evening. Now I've got to pull the tarp out of the truck and let it sit in the driveway for a couple of days because I don't want to share my new pets! eta that my allergies are the worst that I can remember in years.

Fredrick county is this year's Ellicott City.

I need a decoder ring. On topic, picked up 1.20" from the overnight storms and up to over 2.5" for May.

Man, I don’t want any big hail. It’s looking awfully dark and ominous here. We are getting the outflow from in front of the storms now and it feels great. We’ve got it annual Black Eye Susan party beginning Friday morning and I guess after 12 years I can’t complain if we get a gulley washer, but hoping for the best.

Some of that storm went through here. 20 minutes of decent thunder and heavy rain. .25"

^^ Cute dog. Keeping it simple, sod on the left in the 16 X 12 area as well as the area to the right nearest the stone. I'd mulch around the tree in the back corner to the right. If you can get into the ground between the roots of the tree, that liriope can be re-planted or you can mulch the area between the stone and the tree roots to the right instead of sodding and put the liriope in there. Finally, I'd screw a bottle opener and cap collector on one of those 4 X 4 posts.

I'll put this at the top of my list too. I wasn't there when it happened but we lost power during the storm and went out for a drive to charge cell phones and ended up down there. Unbeknownst to us, the whole thing was playing out as we were making the 20 minute trip. My gf was reading aloud a few tweets saying there was a lot of flooding, but the videos weren't circulating yet and nothing prepared us for what we saw. We were on the Baltimore county side of the bridge near Oella and cars were piled up everywhere. Even watching the search and rescue teams carefully making their way through the wreckage, we still didn't appreciate the magnitude. It wasn't until the drive home that my gf made me pull over to watch the videos that were showing up online did we see the full scale.

It must be good. It's what they use at Augusta. Pine needles are nature's Holly Tone. So yes, helping.

Does the area get any sunlight? With an area that size, if you get any sunlight, I'd go with sod. There's a sod distribution center west of Burtonsville on Spencerville Rd that you can go to directly and pick up the rolls that you need and you'd have an instant yard. It's grown near Annapolis and I've had great success with it. The rolls are about 10 sq ft and I seem to remember them being under $5 a roll so you'd have a great looking yard for about a hundred bucks. If you only have a car, you might need to do a couple of trips because sod is heavy, but here's the website that you'll want to read through. https://www.southernstatesturf.com/sod/ Notice on the bottom that they recommend at least 6 hours of sunlight for the tall fescue but even without the sunlight, you can put it down and overseed with a fine fescue. I'd wait for fall to do that.

Does it have to be grass or would a nice green ground cover work for you? I'm not sure how big a yard you've got, but a smaller lot with nice ground cover with crushed stone paths leading to a patio seating area is very do-able and easy to maintain. But if you have a larger lot, kids, or are trying to make a play area, it would depend on the degree of shade. Fine fescues do well in shade, but they are not as desirable as tall fescues nor as durable. If there's enough light filtering through, you may get away with a tall fescue. The southwest side of the fence will probably be very shady but azaleas and rhododendrons do well in those situations if you want to put a garden bed along the fence.

General statement, but I agree that it's localized. I think it's also better that it's urban based since most of us in the 95 corridor use municipal water rather than rural areas where more folks rely on wells. Most people understand that for urban water supplies, our reservoirs are fed from afar, so a narrow strip of "severe drought" where the reservoirs are located has less impact here than in other areas of the region. I'm not dismissing how dry it has been, but if we are going to have a drought, two things stand out to me that make this situation bearable. The first, obviously, is that for now the severe concern is within an area where impacts are minimal, and secondly, if it is going to be dry, winter is a good time for it since water demand is lower. I'm pretty sure that if this was a June, July, and August drought, the beachin that would be going on in here would make wintertime Ji would sound optimistic.

The Milagro Beanfield War continues... November 2.00" December 1.03" January 1.20" Pretty remarkable that I've also had 8" of snow.

I just summed the past two and a half months, and less than 4" here since October 30. I have no idea what that means in term of a drought, but I'm pretty confident that going forward it means that I need to make sure my sump pump is working well in March and April.

Awesome! I hope that you don't mind, but I copied that image to the D.C. area obs thread with a nod to you, of course.

NiCe!!!

Good stuff!

The time lapse is awesome. I might have to set one of those up in the yard.

They were about about 20 mins ago.

Yeah, that was a fun day. I think one of my girlfriend's friends has a screenshot of us making snow angels. I need to get a copy.

Your January storm was pretty awesome. We road tripped down to OC for that one. Good times. If anyone down that way gets a look at the beaches, I would be interested in hearing how they are doing regarding erosion.

PD I February 5-6, 2010 February 1983 because of the crazy thundersnow January 2016 February 2003 January 1996 December 2009

Yep. Me too.

Yep.

And then it finally all disappeared. http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitalweathergang/2010/05/unbelievable_still_snow_at_bwi.html