Your 8th Annual SNE Lawn Thread

[S&P]

i have some single peonies that finished blooming a couple of weeks ago and some double peonies that are nearly done or in full bloom (white ones)

[Professional Lurker]

Lol, for the last 2 yrs I've been waiting to seed various parts of our lawn thinking we'll get "the rains" and it never came, although we did get some late last Fall. I kinda want to get them to do it now since they are less likely to do it in the Fall if there's at least some growth. Strike the iron when it's hot mentality. We're also leaving on vaca weds till next monday. I hope mother nature produces something end of week.

Lack of water was not an issue until couple days ago. Two weeks ago we had those damp/wet cold days for awhile. I think the cold is what prevented early growth. It is coming in more now, but still very spotty. A lot of it got washed away during some downpours. I'll hit it with the hose early tomorrow morning.

Any chance that you could put down some hay to help retain some moisture while the hydroseed germinates?

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[Lava Rock]

Any chance that you could put down some hay to help retain some moisture while the hydroseed germinates?

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Good idea, but I'd opt for straw to avoid the weed seeds.

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[backedgeapproaching]

Peat Moss would be best, stuff is great at retaining moisture. If you have the budget for it, I would get that down and over the whole area, especially knowing that you're not watering much.

 

[IrishRob17]

22 minutes ago, backedgeapproaching said:

Peat Moss would be best, stuff is great at retaining moisture. If you have the budget for it, I would get that down and over the whole area, especially knowing that you're not watering much.

 

Agreed.  I use peat moss when reseeding bare spots but not an area as large as that.

[Lava Rock]

Peat Moss would be best, stuff is great at retaining moisture. If you have the budget for it, I would get that down and over the whole area, especially knowing that you're not watering much.

 

Way to much money for that. 8000 sqft.

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[OceanStWx]

Looks like this  is about to have a lawn and be able to participate in this thread for a change. My wife and I just had our offer accepted on some land in PWM (increasing our elevation to 116 feet to boot) and will start building this summer. 

I would like to crowd source some tree suggestions though (attn: @tamarack). Apparently with the subdivision comes a requirement to plant a couple trees on the street.

[mreaves]

2 hours ago, OceanStWx said:

Looks like this  is about to have a lawn and be able to participate in this thread for a change. My wife and I just had our offer accepted on some land in PWM (increasing our elevation to 116 feet to boot) and will start building this summer. 

I would like to crowd source some tree suggestions though (attn: @tamarack). Apparently with the subdivision comes a requirement to plant a couple trees on the street.

Not a tree expert but in NNE, I always think a good maple is important to have on the property. 

[Brewbeer]

18 hours ago, Lava Rock said:

Way to much money for that. 8000 sqft.

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Do you have a stream on your property?  You could rig up something to water the grass if you do. 

[Brewbeer]

7 hours ago, mreaves said:

Not a tree expert but in NNE, I always think a good maple is important to have on the property. 

Yes, sugar maples would be the trees I would pick. 

[tamarack]

1 hour ago, Brewbeer said:

Yes, sugar maples would be the trees I would pick. 

Looks like this  is about to have a lawn and be able to participate in this thread for a change. My wife and I just had our offer accepted on some land in PWM (increasing our elevation to 116 feet to boot) and will start building this summer. 

I would like to crowd source some tree suggestions though (attn: @tamarack). Apparently with the subdivision comes a requirement to plant a couple trees on the street.

If the street gets much salt in winter, I wouldn't plant sugar maple within 50' of it - the species does not tolerate salt well at all.  Red maple will do better; it's not quite as nice nor long-lived as sugar maple, but neither is it ugly or short-lived, and its fall colors are second to none.  Pin oak is one of the hardier oaks as a street tree, and it has the brightest fall colors of any of the red oak group (plus choosing oak will get you some accusations of insanity from Mt. Tolland.)  Red oak grows faster and larger, but many of that species have rather dull coloration and their acorns are twice the size of pin oak's.  An interesting non-native (to Maine) that would probably do well at your location is tulip poplar.  There's a huge one in Topsham on Rt 201 just up from the downtown traffic light - on the right as one comes from Brunswick.  Showy blossoms, fast growth, long-lived but ask the nursery owner where it came from - SNE good, central Apps area, frost kill.  There are frost-hardy varieties; a large one is growing in downtown Farmington at the corner of High and Perham Streets.

As a rule of thumb, put deciduous trees south of the house, evergreens to the north and west.  Not an ironclad rule and mixed species N & W are fine, but it's good to get shade in summer and sun in winter, and maybe some windbreak from the cold NW-erlies.  White pine, white spruce, white cedar (often sold as arborvitae.)  I'd avoid hemlock - nice tree but hemlock woolley adelgid is killing it in some S.Maine locations.

Some history about sugar maple and salt:  Back in the early 1970s when downhill ski development in VT was going nuts, the state DOT made a commitment to "dry roads within 12 hours" after a storm, and implemented it with mega-use of salt.  After 3-4 years many of the old iconic roadside sugar maples began to die, and soon the cause was determined and DOT looked for safer methods.  

[dendrite]

I've been looking to put a few maples out in the backyard as well. What's usually the best bang for the buck size/price wise? I thought about trying to transplant a few in the spring after melt-out when they're still dormant, but I'm not sure how well they will thrive. Most of the maples on the periphery of my property are either seedlings or are "leggy" and wonky shaped searching for light.

[Baroclinic Zone]

I planted 2 sunset maples in my front yard about 7 years ago now.  They're both thriving and are about double the size now.  About 15' tall.

[Ginx snewx]

6 hours ago, Brewbeer said:

Yes, sugar maples would be the trees I would pick. 

Love me some chinese maples

[OceanStWx]

9 hours ago, tamarack said:

Looks like this  is about to have a lawn and be able to participate in this thread for a change. My wife and I just had our offer accepted on some land in PWM (increasing our elevation to 116 feet to boot) and will start building this summer. 

I would like to crowd source some tree suggestions though (attn: @tamarack). Apparently with the subdivision comes a requirement to plant a couple trees on the street.

If the street gets much salt in winter, I wouldn't plant sugar maple within 50' of it - the species does not tolerate salt well at all.  Red maple will do better; it's not quite as nice nor long-lived as sugar maple, but neither is it ugly or short-lived, and its fall colors are second to none.  Pin oak is one of the hardier oaks as a street tree, and it has the brightest fall colors of any of the red oak group (plus choosing oak will get you some accusations of insanity from Mt. Tolland.)  Red oak grows faster and larger, but many of that species have rather dull coloration and their acorns are twice the size of pin oak's.  An interesting non-native (to Maine) that would probably do well at your location is tulip poplar.  There's a huge one in Topsham on Rt 201 just up from the downtown traffic light - on the right as one comes from Brunswick.  Showy blossoms, fast growth, long-lived but ask the nursery owner where it came from - SNE good, central Apps area, frost kill.  There are frost-hardy varieties; a large one is growing in downtown Farmington at the corner of High and Perham Streets.

As a rule of thumb, put deciduous trees south of the house, evergreens to the north and west.  Not an ironclad rule and mixed species N & W are fine, but it's good to get shade in summer and sun in winter, and maybe some windbreak from the cold NW-erlies.  White pine, white spruce, white cedar (often sold as arborvitae.)  I'd avoid hemlock - nice tree but hemlock woolley adelgid is killing it in some S.Maine locations.

Some history about sugar maple and salt:  Back in the early 1970s when downhill ski development in VT was going nuts, the state DOT made a commitment to "dry roads within 12 hours" after a storm, and implemented it with mega-use of salt.  After 3-4 years many of the old iconic roadside sugar maples began to die, and soon the cause was determined and DOT looked for safer methods.  

Thanks!

I'm nearly positive this is what was planted by the subdivision two houses down. 

We are being sent the paperwork now, but as I understand it if the trees are put in the esplanade between the sidewalk and street the subdivision will take care of it. If it goes in our yard it is on us and we'll have some say in species. Figured I would be prepared  ahead of time on the species.

[S&P]

Put merit down on Friday before the rain. Vendor says you need a good .5" of rain to get it into ground and be effective.

[Lava Rock]

Well the guys came back and resprayed our hydroseed. Hoping it doesn't get washed away again tomorrow

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[CoastalWx]

Just a little nudity. A taste.

 

 

 

[Lava Rock]

Any chance of being able to rake back any hydroseed that has washed away? I'm so pissed. We got gulley washers like crazy

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[dendrite]

Mother nature is trying to send you a message. 

[mreaves]

23 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Mother nature is trying to send you a message. 

Yes, buy sod. 

[backedgeapproaching]

1 hour ago, Lava Rock said:

Any chance of being able to rake back any hydroseed that has washed away? I'm so pissed. We got gulley washers like crazy

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Yea-- they just sprayed yesterday, so nothing is sprouting, try to rake back into the washouts areas if you can. Better to have washouts now than at 2 weeks when stuff should be coming up and then got washed away.  Another reason why Peat Moss or some other top coat can help--it can help with runoff and washouts, but not totally prevent it.

[CoastalWx]

Man it's hard not to disrobe when I look out the window. This is the best my yard has looked since I've been here. Thank you consistent rain. 

[Ginx snewx]

On 6/20/2017 at 9:00 AM, CoastalWx said:

Man it's hard not to disrobe when I look out the window. This is the best my yard has looked since I've been here. Thank you consistent rain. 

Raise your hand if you had to mow twice this week. Lush lawns everywhere, just filled with leaf debris and gypsy poop here but that is winding down

[Lava Rock]

Here's our hydroseed results now. Looks better than it is. Weeds growing too , but expected. One thing that pisses me off is loam has thousands of rocks in it. Guy said he had to use 3/4" screen instead of 1/2" because it was too wet. I've been picking them out but it's ridiculous. Never seen loam this bad in terms of screening. He says they will " root in". Yeah right. They will be there forever.


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[SJonesWX]

9 hours ago, Lava Rock said:

Here's our hydroseed results now. Looks better than it is. Weeds growing too , but expected. One thing that pisses me off is loam has thousands of rocks in it. Guy said he had to use 3/4" screen instead of 1/2" because it was too wet. I've been picking them out but it's ridiculous. Never seen loam this bad in terms of screening. 
 He says they will " root in". Yeah right. They will be there forever.

looks like it is coming in pretty well. don't worry too much about the rocks, you will be able to rake some out with a leaf rake in a couple weeks. the rest you will never see. it is amazing how quickly they disappear.

[Lava Rock]

Hydro project coming in better now, but we still have a lot of weeds. Anyone identify the two below? I still haven't cut the new lawn yet. Would it be advisable to treat the weeds now or are the new grass seedlings too young to deal with the stress?

[Brewbeer]

The rule of thumb I've heard is to wait at least 3-4 mowings before treating for weeds. 

I'd probably wait until early fall, or next spring. 

[backedgeapproaching]

2 hours ago, Lava Rock said:

Hydro project coming in better now, but we still have a lot of weeds. Anyone identify the two below? I still haven't cut the new lawn yet. Would it be advisable to treat the weeds now or are the new grass seedlings too young to deal with the stress?

Yea, what Brewbeer said pretty much..you want to have 3-4 mows before doing any weed killer products.  Im not sure what those weeds are exactly, but you definitely have a lot of  weeds in there, anything that looks like it is a little thicker, even if it looks like grass, is a weed.   The actual grass will be coming up wispy thin initially.  So in the picture above even the stuff that might "look" like grass that is like a 1/8" or 1/4" thick is not grass. Its only been 10 days since they resprayed I think you said?  No way you are ready for a mow. Right now you would only be mowing weeds and then trampling those thin young grass seedlings. I guess its possible too that some stuff is coming up from that initial hyrdoseed they did a month ago or whenever that was.

For reference, this is what my lawn looked like about 3-4 weeks after seeding, hard to tell, but that grass is still super thin and pretty much falling over after a took a Reel mower to it. You can see my footprints because the grass is so thin, but it was getting long enough to mow. 

 

[Lava Rock]

 

12 minutes ago, backedgeapproaching said:

 

 

Yea, what Brewbeer said pretty much..you want to have 3-4 mows before doing any weed killer products.  Im not sure what those weeds are exactly, but you definitely have a lot of  weeds in there, anything that looks like it is a little thicker, even if it looks like grass, is a weed.   The actual grass will be coming up wispy thin initially.  So in the picture above even the stuff that might "look" like grass that is like a 1/8" or 1/4" thick is not grass. Its only been 10 days since they resprayed I think you said?  No way you are ready for a mow. Right now you would only be mowing weeds and then trampling those thin young grass seedlings. I guess its possible too that some stuff is coming up from that initial hyrdoseed they did a month ago or whenever that was.

 

 

 

For reference, this is what my lawn looked like about 3-4 weeks after seeding, hard to tell, but that grass is still super thin and pretty much falling over after a took a Reel mower to it. You can see my footprints because the grass is so thin, but it was getting long enough to mow. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

yes, your timing is correct. I thought about cutting this wknd, but will hold off. There are patches of grass from the 1st seeding that are ready to be cut, but only represent a smal % of the whole yard. Guess I have to look forward to a weed lawn this summer.

 

 

The other thought on cutting now is getting rid of the tall weeds which are going to block more of the sunlight to the grass. Is this a consideration?