Heavy heavy lawn thread 2019

[IrishRob17]

2 minutes ago, Lava Rock said:

Cool, thanks

.
 

No problem. I don’t have a Davis prob either, NYS has a nice network of mesonets and I happen to be right in the middle of 4 different locations so use that for my soil temps and the Cornell map is in sync with those readings. 

[dendrite]

3 hours ago, IrishRob17 said:

Most likely. Soil temps tell the story of you know what they are around you but they must still be low if forsythia hasn’t bloomed yet. I put mine down once soil temps are consistently in the low to mid 50s. 

https://www.lesco.com/blog/post/2018-02-26/pre-emergent-application-timing-tips

 

3 hours ago, Lava Rock said:

I've got to get a Davis soil temp probe

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Mine has skyrocketed over the past week. From frozen solid 6" down to the current 52F. I've never had it climb that fast before. The plants are responding too with rapid grass growth and trees breaking bud.

[dendrite]

Even my zoysia is coming out of dormancy.

[dendrite]

April soil temps...2018 vs 2019. We were thawed out by 3/28 last year, but it was a slow climb. This year we were frozen through 4/13, but a 20F rise in a week took care of that.

[wxeyeNH]

Wow on the grass green up.  It was totally brown just 2 days ago and now the yard is green.  I have never seen it change so fast.  These endless hours of high dews and temps are doing their work.  

Next up is the forest.  Still waiting on forsythia or those Norway maples then everything goes all at once.   

[CoastalWx]

32 minutes ago, wxeyeNH said:

Wow on the grass green up.  It was totally brown just 2 days ago and now the yard is green.  I have never seen it change so fast.  These endless hours of high dews and temps are doing their work.  

Next up is the forest.  Still waiting on forsythia or those Norway maples then everything goes all at once.   

Forsythia really bloomed last week. Norway maples are starting to leaf out. Won't be long there.

[moneypitmike]

What a difference a week makes.....green, flowers, buds.  Flipping a switch.

 

What do folks do for striping (no, Kevin--I"m not looking for directions to the Blue)?  Did you buy an attachment?  Make your own?  Needing to buy a mower and want to be ready.  TIA.

[dendrite]

24 minutes ago, moneypitmike said:

What a difference a week makes.....green, flowers, buds.  Flipping a switch.

 

What do folks do for striping (no, Kevin--I"m not looking for directions to the Blue)?  Did you buy an attachment?  Make your own?  Needing to buy a mower and want to be ready.  TIA.

idk who you even are anymore

[dendrite]

Today we boo.

2 arundinaria gigantea 'macon' plants and 2 phyllostachys nudas.

[tamarack]

Some near-green on the south-facing field across from the house.  Our lawn was fully snow-covered 3 days ago, so still brown (with about 99% fewer molehills than last year - yay.)  Aspen catkins full length - at a distance look like mud-colored foliage.  Wood frogs began "quacking" last evening, along with a few peepers.

[Damage In Tolland]

21 minutes ago, tamarack said:

Some near-green on the south-facing field across from the house.  Our lawn was fully snow-covered 3 days ago, so still brown (with about 99% fewer molehills than last year - yay.)  Aspen catkins full length - at a distance look like mud-colored foliage.  Wood frogs began "quacking" last evening, along with a few peepers.

Spring has hit !

[tamarack]

1 hour ago, Damage In Tolland said:

Spring has hit !

Watched a short video on FB of Small's Falls, headwaters of the Sandy River, up towards Rangeley.  Roaring in good shape, and still a significant amount of snowpack there.  Going fast, but should keep waters fairly high for a few more days.

[Lava Rock]

Hydroseed starting to fill in now. Just need some sun to make it really spout. Gotta touch up the plow damage spot, lower left.

[wxeyeNH]

On 4/22/2019 at 10:48 AM, dendrite said:

Today we boo.

2 arundinaria gigantea 'macon' plants and 2 phyllostachys nudas.

Is this the same bamboo that I see down in Maryland?  What a disaster down there.  When I grew up there was none.  Then people started planting it.  It spreads like crazy with roots that make it almost impossible to stop.  It seems everywhere now.  About 10 years ago the neighbors next to my folk's house decided to plant a small amount to camouflage their trash can container.  It has spread rapidly covering up about 1/4 of the backyard going now into my folk's property.  They have hired professionals to try to irritate them, even brought in a small backhoe but they can't get all the roots and it's out of control.  It is now banned in the state.  Be careful with this stuff.

[dendrite]

Probably...unless you’re referring to japanese knotweed. But it has a lot more difficulty thriving up here given our relatively extreme winters. It’ll die back every winter here whereas it remains evergreen down there. You also need to maintain control of it. Cutting off the new shoots where you don’t want them helps control the spread. My bamboo from last year looks a little rough right now.

[backedgeapproaching]

As Gene said, before I moved to VT I noticed a lot of Bamboo in SE PA. Looked to be getting out of control in spots. Definitely pretty invasive down there.

[moneypitmike]

15 hours ago, dendrite said:

Probably...unless you’re referring to japanese knotweed. But it has a lot more difficulty thriving up here given our relatively extreme winters. It’ll die back every winter here whereas it remains evergreen down there. You also need to maintain control of it. Cutting off the new shoots where you don’t want them helps control the spread. My bamboo from last year looks a little rough right now.

Japanese knotweed is the worst.  We had a ton of it in the area we had converted to lawn.  Getting rid of it was a slow, painstaking process.  The first thing we did was put down a landscape cover below the loam we brought in.  That helped, but this shit would still grow underneath it/between the seams.  I used to go out wiht my coffee in the mornings and yank out the little shoots.  Doing this over time (a couple seasons) and frequent mowing we were able to get it under control.

The stuff is just horrible though.....grows up to 4"/day.

[moneypitmike]

The front lawn seems to be coming in pretty nicely with the exception of one patch which is brown/barren.  I wonder what the former owner might have spilled there.  I had dropped fertilzer and seed on the lawn over the last couple weeks.  Hopefully that will take care of that patch (maybe 5 x 5).  Fearing it doesn't, I welcome recommendations on how to repair a patch of lawn like that.

Meanwhile, just gave the go-ahead to a landscaper for our backyard grading project.  I'm not sure if the amount of loam is a good indicator of how much of a disaster this is--but the project is calling for 32 yards of it.  He doesn't expect to tackle it until late May/first week of June.  Of course, I'm hoping for sooner!  Photos to come once this begins.

[#NoPoles]

Omg, Bamboo is a disaster. Invasive species. It is easier to control in climates where the soil freezes for a certain period of time over the winter. But, borrowing from Jurassic Park, Life Finds A Way!

My boss wants to plant some in the park here in Nashville. Oddly enough, the park was built on land owned by the Gordon Jewish Community Center. The Holocaust Memorial is maybe 20ft away from the park boundary. I am shocked this was approved as OK. So now the powers that be want to put up a vegetation wall...and they have settled on Bamboo...this is going to be interesting!

[moneypitmike]

4 minutes ago, #NoPoles said:

Omg, Bamboo is a disaster. Invasive species. It is easier to control in climates where the soil freezes for a certain period of time over the winter. But, borrowing from Jurassic Park, Life Finds A Way!

My boss wants to plant some in the park here in Nashville. Oddly enough, the park was built on land owned by the Gordon Jewish Community Center. The Holocaust Memorial is maybe 20ft away from the park boundary. I am shocked this was approved as OK. So now the powers that be want to put up a vegetation wall...and they have settled on Bamboo...this is going to be interesting!

disaster.  lol at JP reference.  so true.

[dendrite]

I’d call it aggressive moreso than invasive. When I think invasive I think of something that can propagate and spread multiple ways. Running bamboo has aggressive rhizomes. As long as you properly plant it with proper containment methods (bamboo barrier, etc) it can be properly contained. Then you have the clumping bamboos that don’t spread much at all. My bamboo is in my chicken run as I’m trying to give them some form of grass that is representative of their paleolithic history. They all originated from the tropical red jungle fowl. So yeah, you can’t just throw it in the ground and let it go out of control. And up here in zone 5 it takes quite a beating. 

Also, there is plenty of bamboo that is native to the southern US. That rivercane I just received is all US native and naturally grows near bodies of fresh water in the SE. It is actually important to the wildlife and ecosystem down there since it remains evergreen all winter. Unfortunately people have been wiping it out over the past century. 

But even out of control bamboo can be controlled. If you keep mowing down the soft new shoots each spring eventually the rhizomes run out of energy to keep putting out new growth. It takes a few years, but eventually it gives up. 

[dryslot]

On 4/21/2019 at 7:41 AM, moneypitmike said:

What a difference a week makes.....green, flowers, buds.  Flipping a switch.

 

What do folks do for striping (no, Kevin--I"m not looking for directions to the Blue)?  Did you buy an attachment?  Make your own?  Needing to buy a mower and want to be ready.  TIA.

There is a roller kit out there you can buy to mount on the front of the mowing deck of a tractor or the back of a self propelled mower.

[moneypitmike]

Just now, dryslot said:

They sell a roller kit you can mount on the front of the mowing deck of a tractor or the back of a self propelled mower.

Thanks, Jeff.

[dryslot]

6 minutes ago, moneypitmike said:

Thanks, Jeff.

They're different ones out there as well as these but they all basically do the same.

[TauntonBlizzard2013]

15 hours ago, moneypitmike said:

The front lawn seems to be coming in pretty nicely with the exception of one patch which is brown/barren.  I wonder what the former owner might have spilled there.  I had dropped fertilzer and seed on the lawn over the last couple weeks.  Hopefully that will take care of that patch (maybe 5 x 5).  Fearing it doesn't, I welcome recommendations on how to repair a patch of lawn like that.

Meanwhile, just gave the go-ahead to a landscaper for our backyard grading project.  I'm not sure if the amount of loam is a good indicator of how much of a disaster this is--but the project is calling for 32 yards of it.  He doesn't expect to tackle it until late May/first week of June.  Of course, I'm hoping for sooner!  Photos to come once this begins.

That’s a lot of loam. I’ll be doing my whole yard with about 25... granted it’s only a quarter acre lot... but still 

[moneypitmike]

7 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

That’s a lot of loam. I’ll be doing my whole yard with about 25... granted it’s only a quarter acre lot... but still 

The fact that my wife is agreeing to move forward with the project despite the cost of it speaks well to what an utter disaster it is. 

[tamarack]

11 hours ago, TauntonBlizzard2013 said:

That’s a lot of loam. I’ll be doing my whole yard with about 25... granted it’s only a quarter acre lot... but still 

Maybe -depends on lawn size.  32 yards will put 2" on 5,000 sq.ft.

[moneypitmike]

Might be wasting my money, but I'm putting some more seed down on the front lawn.  There are some bad patches there that suck the big one.

Any thoughts on how to best take care of those?  I had fertilized the lawn a couple weeks ago

Lastly, what are the thoughts on Lesco seed?  I just picked some of their sun/shade mix.   I used to use the west-county blend from Agway back in Shelburne.

[backedgeapproaching]

1 minute ago, moneypitmike said:

Might be wasting my money, but I'm putting some more seed down on the front lawn.  There are some bad patches there that suck the big one.

Any thoughts on how to best take care of those?  I had fertilized the lawn a couple weeks ago

Lastly, what are the thoughts on Lesco seed?  I just picked some of their sun/shade mix.   I used to use the west-county blend from Agway back in Shelburne.

Pics of the lawn? Also, pic of the lesco grass seed label?

[moneypitmike]

1 hour ago, backedgeapproaching said:

Pics of the lawn? Also, pic of the lesco grass seed label?

Here’s the disaster spot.  The picture makes the rest of the yard look pretty bad too.  It’s better in reality.not this area though!