Lava Rock

50 minutes ago, Dr. Dews said:

everything is awesome

 

the world is great

1 hour ago, Baroclinic Zone said:

46F this AM.  30s right around the corner now.  

Not on our hill. Usually late Oct, before 32f.

Wth. Showers and 50f

Lol, not a drop from Dorian, but rained last night and again now.

Glad I bailed out on my ride because of the supposed rain.

I've got a big bike ride tomorrow morning starting at 6am from Portland and doing a loop down to Kennebunkport and back. Would be on the bike till ~2pm. I can't seem to get a decent frcst on when the rain is going to start/end. NWS calling for showers, ending by late morning, but local news saying 1"+ RN in the area we're riding. Big difference between showers here and there and steady rn. I know there will be some winds (~20kts). If it's gonna be steady rn most of the morning, I'm not going to ride. Gotta make a decision by tonight.

46 minutes ago, dendrite said:

I think I’d relax on the pesticides but that’s just me. I find it hard to believe they wiped out every bit of greenery like that.

It's not hard to believe actually. The areas prone to damage are where the insects are most active are those that are sun exposed and have the highest soil temps. The randomness of how the brown/dead spots start in July, then proceeds like a tidal wave across the lawn is pretty good evidence. Plus the fact watering has no effect, as evidenced by recent rains. I can see the bugs in the thatch, so I'm confident that's what it is. I have read that diatomaceous earth has some effect on killing the bugs, so I'll look into that as well. If anyone has other organic options, let me know.

3 minutes ago, Great Snow 1717 said:

What is more important to you, your lawn or your health? I would never use products like sevin.  There is no upside at all. Why not dig out the area and put fresh top soil down and then reseed?

why so the bugs can some back again? I've dealt with this multiple summers now, thinking all along it was drought and/or poor soil. Not to mention we've spent a fortune on new lawns, reseeding efforts. I'm not a big fan of chems, but in this case, I need to stop the infestation asap.

I'm going to spread some Sevin granules on the lawn. I have little doubt after seeing some bugs in the grass that all this damage is due to chinch bugs. Can't believe i didn't think if this sooner.

Quite the beut out there. 68/50

As I'm pulling some of our dead and dormant grass away with my hand I see a lot of little pieces of what look like sawdust

Storms north, storms south. Stuck in the middle...

9 minutes ago, OceanStWx said:

We all are for Dorian.

are we toast here for any storms? radar looks paltry.

50 minutes ago, backedgeapproaching said:

I honestly don't know how there isn't one spec of green in there..not even a little weed of anything, or some new grass tillering after recent rains. 

Your soil test doesn't seem that bad, is it perfect soil, no.  But you should be able to grow a decent lawn even with how it is. Low pH and Low Organic Matter, but that wouldn't strictly result in what you are seeing.  I did a soil test a few weeks ago, and have some major deficiencies, yet grass is thick and green.

If you are going to overseed, do it soon like Gene said.  Oct is definitely pretty late for you location for seeding.  If your established grass does bounce back, make sure to hit it with few Fall fertilizer apps.

We're cursed on Radon Hill. There are some green shoots coming through in some areas, so it seems like little water is the reason, but IDK, this stuff just pulls right out. There are also some bugs in the soil too, but they're not grubs. Meanwhile, on the other side of the house (below) where the crabgrass has taken over, it's just a mess. Heck, you can still see the outline of the erosion mat they laid down almost one year ago.

meh, doesn't look to severe to me. A bit of wind and a shower ATM in PWM.

4 minutes ago, wxeyeNH said:

Why don't you do it now?  Every day you wait is one less day grass has to establish.  Young grass is more susceptible to frost and you start all over again each spring.  Just my 2 cents.   Oh,  when we moved the house 6 years ago I did try some seeding in Sept.  Didn't work just the winter wheat that I threw on steep slopes came up.  Then hydroseeded the next May and with lots of watering that took

mostly time constraint. the area I want to seed is ~600sqft. I'll need ~24 bags of compost. I know I can get it delivered in bulk is cheaper, but I don't want to shovel it. Just dump the bag and spread it out, then seed. I just have this feeling I'm wasting my time though. I've tried seeding in Fall and Spring and rarely have any luck. I swear it's got something to do with the granite beneath.

2 minutes ago, wxeyeNH said:

Hi Lava,

I only skim this thread from time to time.  Just my opinion but if you are going to overseed you should do it ASAP.  Everything slows way down,  wasn't it last fall they hydroseeded too late?  If I were going to plant grass I would have done it a week or two ago.  Longer night and less sun angle starts cooling the soil.   Yesterday was the first day I mowed down to 3.5".  Normally I mow at 4" all summer.  Nights in the 40's will be common soon

Good luck

yeah, they seeded last Oct. I thought about doing it in the next 2 wks or so. Maybe we'll get an indian summer.

50 minutes ago, dryslot said:

12z Nam was quite wet with the rems of dorian though fwiw.

Not good. I've got a 125mi bike ride, starting 7am at SMCC on Saturday. It's the Lighthouse Ride, which goes all along the coast. I figure if it's not wet, it'll be breezy/gusty which adds to the pain.

9 minutes ago, dendrite said:

It's amazing how you were able to kill all of the crabgrass too. lol

I still like the compost idea Bob had. Keep upping the fertility.

lol, that's not crabgrass, just "regular" grass. We essentially have three different areas of grass around the property that over the years either represent the "original" lawn when we built the house, new lawn/hydroseed (backyard) which is 2yrs old and last year's topsoil/hydroseed (front yard). I'm going to do a soil analysis on all three and see how the organic matter compares, among other things. I kind of know what to expect on the original lawn as we've had it tested before, but I want to see how the two more recent lawn projects compare. My guess is they will all look similar and have low levels of matter and nitrate.

As an experiment, I am going to overseed a small area with compost in the next couple weeks and see how that does. Didn't I say I wasn't going to spend more time and money on this stupid lawn????

As I'm pulling some of our dead and dormant grass away with my hand I see a lot of little pieces of what look like sawdust

Aerial footage coming out of Abaco now is pretty unreal.
 

Should of walked around the corner, Throat punched him and ask what type of winter again?

Just overheard one of our vendors talking about how mild it's going to be this winter. I wanted to yell over the cube "STFU!"

31 minutes ago, dryslot said:

So you found it and its not lost anymore?

that's what my dad used to say when we went skiing to lost valley