Lawns

[F, Calla & Luca]

Spring has sprung and so has the lawn. Last fall I seeded bare patches with a tall fescue blend. Actually I seeded nearly all of the growing season since we had so much rain. The fall before I had someone slit seed for me but the machine didn't work well and it was patchy at best, Between doodles and things the yard takes a beating.

I do not have sprinklers and never irrigate my side field so we are dependent on nature. I also use no herbicides or pesticides for my, the doodles' and the earth's well being. I did buy milky spore disease, which is toxic only to the Japanese beetle grubs, and I will sprinkle that around soon since I haven't done it in many years and something appears to be digging for grubs.

I had seeded patches again about two weeks ago and wanted to give the seed some time to settle in. The older fescue patches looked gorgeous but like small hillocks, lush and dark green. The weeds were taking over. The doodles had decorated with chewed sticks. It rained yesterday, but this afternoon was dry, so I decided to mow. I posted some good guidelines for mowing on the main page. Here they are:

"Mowing grass too short causes stress, discourages deep  root growth, and results in rapid loss of soil moisture. Letting grass grow too tall causes excess grass clippings that can smother the turf. Raise the mowing height during the hot and dry season. A higher setting reduces moisture loss and encourages deep root growth.

Keep your mower blades sharp and clean, and mow when the grass is dry. Mow over leaves so they will decompose along with grass clippings. Collect leaves and grass clippings for mulching or composting if they are too heavy or wet for grass-cycling.

We recommend mowing your lawn at a height of 3-4" high during the Spring / Summer.

Last cut in the Fall should be 2 1/2" high.

Optimal watering times is between 3am to 10am. Secondary would be at 4pm to 6:30pm."

The lawn is now mowed into submission  : ) It took longer than usual because some areas needed to be mowed in more than one direction. The hillocks are lower and I predict they'll mostly blend in soon. This is a lawn that never has clippings picked up, grass and leaves, and I have lots of leaves, are all mulched by the mower into the lawn. This method is not for those who want perfect Kentucky Blue grass lawns. But it works well for me in the northeast and it is earth friendly. Other observations are that you never find all the balls and yes, there is always one pile of missed poop : ( But you do get a lot of thinking done when mowing.

Before:

After:

And then I have time for the flowers.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

that's what I'm wondering too. I might still go see it, and if I love everything else, I can also fix the yard up to my liking. Good thing I have a cousin who does landscaping.

 

I told my agent what you said about drainage. She said this:

This is a little more difficult.  But we look at the grading from the house to the outer edges of the property.  We look for drainage and we look for signs of bad drainage – puddles, no grass growing, moss, etc.  We will be able to have a pretty good idea of any issues when we see the yard!

[F, Calla & Luca]

Sounds good. The yard is small but it could be fine with some planting in the far corner and grass all over the rest for the doodles. Wherever you end up we are happy to offer free advice and really that's a bargain : ) And a landscaping cousin, perfect.

[Donna K & Quincy]

LOL, yep, let them poop on the lawn next door, works like a charm for my neighbours.

We have a small area outside our fenced yard that is sort of a no man's land, but we have landscaped it and keep it mowed and watered. We had permission from the person who actually owns it to go ahead and fence it but I couldn't convince DH to do it. We always take Quincy to this area on leash to go potty, now the funny thing even when we are in our fenced backyard Quincy will go to the gate and asked to be taken outside the yard to potty. Our lawn is lovely.

The only way to keep your yard looking nice is to do what F said and make one area a designated potty area. To train them to use that area you may have to take them to that area only for awhile. Of course there is always fake grass.

Are you having any luck with the house hunting.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

thanks. Yea, that's what I was thinking. No luck yet, so far we are just exploring different neighbourhoods and house styles. My agent is very patient with me, which is exacty what I need.

[Sherri, Sophie, Winston, & Kitty]

and yea, it's not grass but at least it won't get muddy!

[Nancy, Ned, Clancy, and Charlie]

We had our grass seeded with tall fescue also.  We have clumps like you do, but the seeding did not take at all in the areas where our grass had died. So we still have dirt, dirt, dirt in about half of our small yard.  :-{

[F, Calla & Luca]

Thanks.