tunafish

29 minutes ago, dryslot said:

Noted for later use.

Ok with that being the perception.  In fact, spread the word.  It sucks here.  Stay away.

4 hours ago, jbenedet said:

Good luck. 
 

Japanese beetles will leave only to return with higher numbers at some point in the day when you’re not aware.  
 

Only answer is to nuke em.

Been touting neematodes for years.  By far the most effective thing against grubs and beetles, and it's not a pesticide.

Better nuke the yard and woods with Lesco Oak Killer.

3 hours ago, dendrite said:

Awesome. Works in the winter too if you just hook it up to the exhaust.

True.  Used it to keep my resident rodents warm last winter.

1 hour ago, HIPPYVALLEY said:

A lot of cloud debris in W MA.  
 

 

Record setting ice-out date for Moosehead. 

80/62

21 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Spraying sucks. No.

Attract more dragonflies. 

And put up a bat house.  Best bang for your buck. 

18 minutes ago, Cyclone-68 said:

Did you happen to read the one comment below the post? lol Made me crack up. 

hockytreefiddle'd

66/52

3 hours ago, CoastalWx said:

Wet morning tomorrow.

If you cut yourself off a pint or two earlier, you just might wake up dry.

25 minutes ago, klw said:

That is my general plan.  I believe the pipe is already in place the water can't get to it because of how solid the "soil" is above it.

Yep, that'll do it. Might as well be frozen if it is that compacted.  

We had a huge issue in the Spring (or xmas) whenever we had a big rain on frozen ground.  Dug a French drain trench as described and 0 standing water since.

9 minutes ago, klw said:

Friday was a nice display of the compaction and drainage issues I mentioned recently about why I am having trouble maintaining grass in the area below.

 

Ouch.  Your best bet may be to move the papers, dig down a few feet and drop a weed cloth, perforated pipe, and crushed stone, top with pea gravel for the entire paver area.  Run that pipe to the woods if possible. If not, get past the house and dig a wide catch basin (there's a specific plastic part to drop in that spot, I can't recall the name).  Unfortunately with standing water like that you can't do a half solution.

11 hours ago, dendrite said:

Have you tried the ultrasonic repellents? I know they have solar ones now. 

I did last year.  Ineffective against both moles and groundhogs,  ha.

1 hour ago, jbenedet said:

https://rohrerseeds.com/products/st-gabriel-holy-moley-mole-repellent-10-lb?srsltid=AfmBOoqHunpQHPlH-DlrQqHVxYH_03x1GrCW_Nrmma3Bi4KuyIcXya_c

Neighbor put this down last year with pretty good success. 

Nice.  Purchased.  Thank you.

5 hours ago, dendrite said:

Outdoor cat?

The skunk I befriended handles most of the rodents. It comes for mealworms when the chickens free range so I have to set it out its own bowl every night. As long as i do that it behaves and leaves the girls alone. It does a good job keeping the yard clean and wiping out grubs too. For the first time there was very few japanese beetles here last year. 

That is pretty unconventional but very cool.  What a neat symbiotic relationship.

I don't think that's feasible in suburbia, but I wouldn't mind a neighborhood cat taking an interest.  There was one hanging around a few years ago that looked stray.  It made a run at the hens, ha.

8 minutes ago, dryslot said:

Install well underway.

You will love them on days like today.  The energy use and efficiency vs windows units is night and day.

87/66

What I assumed to have been brown rats that ate my carrot crop last Fall turns out to be Eastern Meadow Vole.  I've got a lot of them.  They carry ticks and will hurt the garden again if I don't deal with them.  

I'm not dropping rodenticide, and trapping proved ineffective last year.  They have a 20-25 day gestation period and once you trap one in their run, they stop using that run.

Other than predators (hawks, ermine, snakes), is there anything effective on these things?   

Anyone had experience with them?

1 hour ago, Modfan2 said:

Have the air on but debating whether to turn off or leave on; it’s slightly humid out but temp outside will be much lower thaw hat my air is set to

Debated this myself earlier.  If I open windows it won't be quite cool enough, so put the inverters on 64 and Quiet.  With the outside temps relatively cool they won't run a lot, but the air circulation when they do is worth it.

21 minutes ago, Lava Rock said:

Color me surprised. I've just accepted it's going to rain every saturday

Last dry Saturday was 4/19.  brutal.

1 hour ago, dendrite said:

@powderfreak has experience. What’s the estimate on this?

2.27". 

At the kids soccer game in the rain. Made 3/4 the way through the game before we had several claps of thunder.

Not a single person - ref, parents, coaches - considered calling the game until I said something.  Total f*cking morons.

3.03' event 

5.17" MTD

25 minutes ago, dryslot said:

Finally starting to let up some here as the low is starting to move slowly off to the NE, Up to 2.15" for the event.

Over 3" now, on top of the 2"+ from earlier in the week.

On 5/3/2025 at 7:47 PM, jbenedet said:

Thanks for the tip. That’s the way I was leaning. I’m really not a fan of using weed killers. I’m pretty much a get it out by the root only on weeds. But I couldn’t go this route because the whole area was basically infested. 

Last year, we had a large area we were transitioning from 100% grass/weeds to rougly 75% shrubs and perennials and 25% grass.

-Sheet mulched (Mow grass as low as possible.  Lay overlapping cardboard, wet it, then top with compost, soil) the entire area late July last year.

-Planted shrubs and perennials in the September. 

-Put down winter or "dormant" grass seed in late October. 

The grass seed just started sprouting a weeks ago. First time trying it, we'll see how it comes in.

But essentially no weeds. I'm convinced sheet mulching is the most effective at turning grass/weeds into new plantable space, with minimal weed regrowth. 

In 6 warm seasons we've turned about 2/3 of the half acre lot from grass into plantable soil.  Lot of work but better for us, pollinators, environment, and property value.

On 4/26/2025 at 12:02 AM, dendrite said:

Heh I didn’t do it on purpose…our old mower broke. That was the first run on the new one. Usually I will let it get a little long so that the clover flowers and reseeds itself, but not like the pic above. I wonder if any of that grass that went to seed will germinate this spring.

That's my threshold - once the clover flowers, I mow - probably 2nd/3rd week here.

This year I am pulling Dandelions, taproot and all, as I see them flower.  Pollinators get a day or two.  Not the ones getting choked out by grass or clover (I juat get the flower before it seeds), just the ones that are dominant flora in their space.  They've claimed too much territory for my liking.

Tried corn gluten for the crabgrass this year.  It's been time in the past, but I want clover and grass taking over the dandelion space, not crabgrass.