Laziness provides opportunity

You saw yesterday how lazy I had been with the walkway, but that's nothing when compared to my approach to mowing the lawn this year. A dry July meant little lawn growth so no need to mow, but then the rains came so frequently we rarely had good mowing conditions. Then it was too long to easily mow, turtles could be hiding anywhere!

The end result is that the back lawn hasn't been mowed for at least 6 weeks, possibly longer. My bright green garden hose is back here, and you can't see even an inch of it -- it's right in front of you!

Read more »

Read more...

Winter lawn, far below

Yesterday I took my nephew to the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial here in St. Louis, home of the Gateway Arch, or as it's more commonly called, "The Arch". It has been a few years since I've done this, so was looking forward to having a look around.

The 4-minute ride up in the small, rotating tram cars is no thrill ride but part of the experience, and at 630 ft. (192m) tall you get a great view from the top.

Read more »

Read more...

Too long

Here's a riddle for you: what do you get when you start with a lawn that needs a mowing, watch it rain for three days straight, leave town for the good part of a week, then watch it pour down rain again the day after you return?

You get to see some interesting seed heads that you normally don't get to see.

Read more »

Read more...

Slightly forgotten: green driveway

If you've been reading my blog for a while, you probably know that I'm typically not a "take some photos and compose a post immediately" kind of garden blogger. My style is more "take a bunch of photos over a day or two (usually a weekend) then compose posts about them during the next several days". Oh, sometimes I'll take photos and post immediately, but it's a rare thing. Depending on how busy the photo session was, I may let photos sit for a couple of weeks before I get around to posting about them. Well, I've got a new personal record now, thanks to some forgotten photos I took... in early July!

While visiting my family in suburban Chicago this past summer, I noticed my sister's neighbors doing some work in their yard. Not just the normal suburban gardening of pruning, or mowing, or planting some flowers either -- something substantial and quite interesting.

Read more »

Read more...

Everybody loves clover!

Like many other non-lawn-obsessed gardeners (in other words, "normal people") white clover makes up a good portion of my lawn. Fortunately I like the way a good patch of clover leaves look, and love having the little white flowers everywhere.

Pretty much everybody else who visits my yard loves the clover too, but I'm not talking about human visitors. I'm talking about the four and six-legged visitors.

Read more »

Read more...

Bugleweed, essential in my lawn

In yesterday's post about the woodchuck, you can see a nice drift of purple flowers in the background in many of the images.

That's the bugleweed (Ajuga reptans) that my neighbor inherited when he moved in, and has spread in large swaths through his lawn and to a smaller extent mine.

Read more »

Read more...

Violet-colored lawn

My lawn is not the main focus of my garden. It's not what I want people to notice, and for the most part I think I've managed to divert their attention with the bamboos and such. I really don't want them seeing what's below their feet as they walk along, because it's a bit of a mess.

It's difficult not to notice my lawn right now though, as although it's got some green in it, it's also a lovely shade of violet. More like "a shade of violets" really...

Read more »

Read more...

Corn gluten test 1 update

A little less than a week ago I started a little test to see if the corn gluten I had purchased as a pre-emergent herbicide would have any effect -- there have been some studies done that produced conflicting results. I made up a little tray of soil, applied the corn gluten product to half of it, then sprinkled grass seed over the whole thing.

Remember that I had some doubts about my test, mainly that the corn gluten wouldn't  have time to break down before the seeds germinated. Those doubts appear to have been quite reasonable.

Read more »

Read more...

An experiment starts: corn gluten

Yesterday I posted about a lawn care task, specifically applying corn gluten as a pre-emergent herbicide. It's organic, safe, prevents weeds from growing, smells like corn-based snacks -- what more could a gardener ask for? Well, maybe that it actually works. You see, it was pointed out in the comments that another study was done, and its results questioned the utility of corn gluten as a pre-emergent. In fact, that study concluded that it had no herbicidal properties at all.

Although it's difficult or impossible for most of us to duplicate those studies that universities do -- we have everything except the time, experience, equipment, manpower, and funding -- in this case I think I can do a simple test to satisfy my own curiosity. So today I'm starting an experiment to see if the corn gluten works for me.

Read more »

Read more...

Time to corn up the lawn

I want to get serious about my lawn this year. Last year I didn't take very good care of it, and I regretted it later. Right now is the right time to put down a pre-emergent herbicide to keep any weed seeds that might be in my lawn from germinating. Since I'm almost entirely organic here, using harsh chemicals (both natural and man-made) only in the most extreme cases, I'm spreading corn on my lawn:

It's not whole grain corn, but a product made from corn gluten, which contains chemicals that prevent seeds from germinating. It also smells a little like corn chips.

Read more »

Read more...