2018 Mid Atlantic Lawn/Garden/Pool Thread

[Ellinwood]

I decided to go with the tall fescue seed (Scott's), and after a little over a week it began to germinate this past weekend when the weather was just about ideal for it. At about 1-1.5" length now. Going to have to do another round of seeding in a week or so once this first batch has established itself. Neighbor gave up on trying to seed his last year and just mulched it all this spring The grass is going to look so much better once I've got it all in.

[ThePhotoGuy]

I am glad that I started with a greenhouse this year. Small cherry tomatoes (pea sized) has already formed on a few plants. Should be able to pick potatoes and onions in about 3 weeks. 

[Eskimo Joe]

On 5/8/2018 at 12:07 PM, Ellinwood said:

I decided to go with the tall fescue seed (Scott's), and after a little over a week it began to germinate this past weekend when the weather was just about ideal for it. At about 1-1.5" length now. Going to have to do another round of seeding in a week or so once this first batch has established itself. Neighbor gave up on trying to seed his last year and just mulched it all this spring The grass is going to look so much better once I've got it all in.

This video is my bible:  

 

[MN Transplant]

After 9 years of deer having their way with our garden, I say come at me bro.

 

[Eskimo Joe]

^that's a nice setup.  We are eventually going to have 4, 4' x 10' raised beds in our dream house.  

[MN Transplant]

2 hours ago, Eskimo Joe said:

^that's a nice setup.  We are eventually going to have 4, 4' x 10' raised beds in our dream house.  

Thanks.  Yeah, we have two 4x8’, one 4x4’, one 2x8 (raspberry bushes), and two 2x4’.  It is pretty convenient.

[mappy]

Looks like mine -- chicken wire around the whole thing to keep the deer/rabbits out. 

Super pumped about my new space. 10x10 area out in the yard. We have used the spot as a burn pit too for brush and the like, so the soil should be really awesome. Tilled it all up, laid down the weed paper, then cut out the holes for the plants. Planted: 2 cucumber plants, 2 types of tomatoes, 2 bell peppers (green and orange), zucchini, sugar baby watermelon and spaghetti squash. 

Really looking forward to taking care of this baby this year. I've wanted a nice garden space since we moved in, but just hadn't found the time to make it happen. It was my number one thing to tackle this spring and I think it turned out great.  

[Eskimo Joe]

For those of us with several raised beds, your best friend will be drip irrigation or those slow soaker hoses.  It really makes watering a lot easier and cuts down on the water bill in the height of summer.  We have a timer that waters our tomatoes between 4am and 6am every 3rd day and it cut out water bill n half last summer.  The whole outfit cost us $65.

[MN Transplant]

51 minutes ago, Eskimo Joe said:

For those of us with several raised beds, your best friend will be drip irrigation or those slow soaker hoses.  It really makes watering a lot easier and cuts down on the water bill in the height of summer.  We have a timer that waters our tomatoes between 4am and 6am every 3rd day and it cut out water bill n half last summer.  The whole outfit cost us $65.

Yeah, I have to get on something like that.

 

 

[nw baltimore wx]

I don't know how I missed EJ's lawn video above but I totally ageee with the fall aerating. The aerator in the video is the exact one that three of my buddies and I chipped in for about 15 years ago and it's still going strong.  We circulate it between us every fall and though I don't throw a top dressing over the lawn after aerating as in the video, I do seed right away. The holes provide the perfect environment for the grass to germinate and after a week or so, the whole lawn looks like a bald man that joined a hair club with bright green sprouts coming out of every hole. As far as dethatching, I've never done it but if I did, I'm not sure that I'd do it in the spring because of I've read that you want to disturb the lawn as little as possible in the spring to keep from helping any seeds germinate. 

Anyway, thanks for the video EJ, and the reason I am posting is because with all the rain recently, and more to come, I can see the first signs of fungus issues in my yard. It looks like yellowing patches. If anyone else wants to treat it or prevent it, I've had good success with Scotts Diease Ex. It's not a fertilizer but a fungicide, and can be used once a month if the problem persists, though in the couple of times I've used it, I've only ever had to do one application. 

Finally, one more unrelated thing. I've been using my pickup truck as the weed and hedge clipping pile for the past week or two and haven't been able to get to the dump. As I finished up cutting the grass this evening, I noticed a bunch of baby praying mantises all over my truck. It seems that I harvested an egg sac in the hedge clippings last week and it's hatching this evening. Now I've got to pull the tarp out of the truck and let it sit in the driveway for a couple of days because I don't want to share my new pets!

eta that my allergies are the worst that I can remember in years.

[MN Transplant]

We've reached the beautiful time of year where the grass is growing faster than the weeks, and I can fool myself into thinking that this is the year that my lawn won't look like crap by August.

[Eskimo Joe]

On 5/21/2018 at 7:27 PM, nw baltimore wx said:

I don't know how I missed EJ's lawn video above but I totally ageee with the fall aerating. The aerator in the video is the exact one that three of my buddies and I chipped in for about 15 years ago and it's still going strong.  We circulate it between us every fall and though I don't throw a top dressing over the lawn after aerating as in the video, I do seed right away. The holes provide the perfect environment for the grass to germinate and after a week or so, the whole lawn looks like a bald man that joined a hair club with bright green sprouts coming out of every hole. As far as dethatching, I've never done it but if I did, I'm not sure that I'd do it in the spring because of I've read that you want to disturb the lawn as little as possible in the spring to keep from helping any seeds germinate. 

Anyway, thanks for the video EJ, and the reason I am posting is because with all the rain recently, and more to come, I can see the first signs of fungus issues in my yard. It looks like yellowing patches. If anyone else wants to treat it or prevent it, I've had good success with Scotts Diease Ex. It's not a fertilizer but a fungicide, and can be used once a month if the problem persists, though in the couple of times I've used it, I've only ever had to do one application. 

Finally, one more unrelated thing. I've been using my pickup truck as the weed and hedge clipping pile for the past week or two and haven't been able to get to the dump. As I finished up cutting the grass this evening, I noticed a bunch of baby praying mantises all over my truck. It seems that I harvested an egg sac in the hedge clippings last week and it's hatching this evening. Now I've got to pull the tarp out of the truck and let it sit in the driveway for a couple of days because I don't want to share my new pets!

eta that my allergies are the worst that I can remember in years.

A great way to prevent mold and fungus during wet periods is to bad your clippings as you mow.  When the clippings are wet, they trap moisture to the ground and cause neck rot of the grass blades.  I bag my clippings if we've had extended periods of wet weather and it's almost stopped any bald spots from coming out during our usual May monsoons. 

[nw baltimore wx]

4 hours ago, Eskimo Joe said:

A great way to prevent mold and fungus during wet periods is to bad your clippings as you mow.  When the clippings are wet, they trap moisture to the ground and cause neck rot of the grass blades.  I bag my clippings if we've had extended periods of wet weather and it's almost stopped any bald spots from coming out during our usual May monsoons. 

Yeah, I bag too. The fescue in my backyard is so ridiculously thick that when it stays wet for extended warm/hot periods like we've had, some type of fungal damage is inevitable. It's not bad from a distance, but when you're on top of it, there's no doubt something yucky is starting to grow. You can see the areas of yellowing in this picture. I got some fungicide today at southern states that'll fix it right up.

[nw baltimore wx]

Does anyone know a way to kill or control common English ivy? If you look at the picture above, I've got a lot of it creeping in under my Leylands on two sides of my yard from my neighbor's yards. They aren't deliberately growing it, so I could kill it, but I don't know of anything that I can use that won't kill everything else. Right now my plan is to run my edger along the neighbor's edge of the property just deep enough to cut the ivy and then pull it all out, but that's going to be a lot of work, and then I'll somehow have to control it to keep it from running back in. Not to mention that I'll probably end up with poison ivy for the rest of the summer.

Anyone have suggestions?

[Eskimo Joe]

9 hours ago, nw baltimore wx said:

Does anyone know a way to kill or control common English ivy? If you look at the picture above, I've got a lot of it creeping in under my Leylands on two sides of my yard from my neighbor's yards. They aren't deliberately growing it, so I could kill it, but I don't know of anything that I can use that won't kill everything else. Right now my plan is to run my edger along the neighbor's edge of the property just deep enough to cut the ivy and then pull it all out, but that's going to be a lot of work, and then I'll somehow have to control it to keep it from running back in. Not to mention that I'll probably end up with poison ivy for the rest of the summer.

Anyone have suggestions?

All sweat and elbow grease.  It's like mint.  Just pull until you can't pull anymore.

[CAPE]

I cant be bothered with attempting to maintain a "nice" lawn here. Just too many issues- I am in the woods, completely surrounded by big trees. Plenty of moles around. The soil is silt/sand and very well drained. I re-seeded last fall and put down pre-emergent and fertilizer in mid March. I now have a lush looking "lawn" that includes the grass(turf type tall fescue custom blend for this area), lots of clover, and plenty of dandelions and other weeds. And I am totally good with it. I could try to kill the clover, but then when we go hot and dry in mid summer, I will likely be looking at dirt, so I wont do that. I might put down another bag of fertilizer just for the heck of it- my soil is probably lacking in nitrogen which would explain the proliferation of clover. I have totally embraced the clover though, and the moss- both are green! Good enough. Better than looking at thatch and dirt in July.

[mappy]

Any pool people here? We are with out a working pool. When we opened, we decided to drain the pool this year, and have water brought in (we are on a well, and our water is pretty contaminated by runoff due to salting operations during the winter). In doing so we found a lot of plaster damage. I don't think the pool has been resurfaced since it was installed (1990s), so I assume it's pretty standard wear and tear. However, for three weeks now, we have not been able to get anyone to schedule an estimate to figure out the cost of getting it repaired. We can't even get calls back. I know its a busy time for pool companies, but jesus. 

Figured I'd ask to see if anyone here has experience with pools/plaster/resurfacing work. 

[Eskimo Joe]

28 minutes ago, mappy said:

Any pool people here? We are with out a working pool. When we opened, we decided to drain the pool this year, and have water brought in (we are on a well, and our water is pretty contaminated by runoff due to salting operations during the winter). In doing so we found a lot of plaster damage. I don't think the pool has been resurfaced since it was installed (1990s), so I assume it's pretty standard wear and tear. However, for three weeks now, we have not been able to get anyone to schedule an estimate to figure out the cost of getting it repaired. We can't even get calls back. I know its a busy time for pool companies, but jesus. 

Figured I'd ask to see if anyone here has experience with pools/plaster/resurfacing work. 

I have an above ground and found Van Dorn in Reisterstown to be very helpful.  Might be worth a call:  410-526-9990

[mappy]

22 hours ago, Eskimo Joe said:

I have an above ground and found Van Dorn in Reisterstown to be very helpful.  Might be worth a call:  410-526-9990

thanks! sadly they only deal with vinyl pools, but appreciate the referral all the same!

[poolz1]

Strawberry crop this season has been off the charts...double what we harvested last season. (2) 15x20 ground level gardens with about 30’ of raised beds that wrap around a large shed I built.

 

We do a good bit of canning but have never canned strawberry jam. I think we will give it a go this weekend.

 

I noticed that the title of this thread includes pools. I’ve owned a pool business for almost 20 years. I’m happy to offer some free advice/troubleshooting for some fellow weather geeks.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[mappy]

11 hours ago, poolz1 said:

Strawberry crop this season has been off the charts...double what we harvested last season. (2) 15x20 ground level gardens with about 30’ of raised beds that wrap around a large shed I built.

 

We do a good bit of canning but have never canned strawberry jam. I think we will give it a go this weekend.

 

I noticed that the title of this thread includes pools. I’ve owned a pool business for almost 20 years. I’m happy to offer some free advice/troubleshooting for some fellow weather geeks.

 

 

Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

I need more than advice. I realize it’s a really busy time of year for pool companies, but we cannot get anyone to come out and even look at our pool to tell us what kind of work/repair it needs. Been sitting empty for a month now. 

[poolz1]

1 hour ago, mappy said:

I need more than advice. I realize it’s a really busy time of year for pool companies, but we cannot get anyone to come out and even look at our pool to tell us what kind of work/repair it needs. Been sitting empty for a month now. 

It's def a crazy time of year....I assume you need a new liner if the pool is empty?  Is this an aboveground pool?  If you feel handy enough to tackle it yourself let me know and I can at least guide you in the right direction....

[Eskimo Joe]

If this keeps up I'm going to have to bag the lawn every time I mow for the remainder of the summer.  It's a swamp out there.

[dailylurker]

On 5/13/2018 at 7:44 PM, MN Transplant said:

Thanks.  Yeah, we have two 4x8’, one 4x4’, one 2x8 (raspberry bushes), and two 2x4’.  It is pretty convenient.

I've got a 50×60' fenced in garden. I've got a 7' tall fence. My garden wouldn't last the night without it. I call it "the cage". I've been working in the cage and seen deer standing outside looking at me. I stay humble in the eyes of the enemy, but once he retreated I promptly flipped them the bird. I'm growing lots of potatoes, corn, squash, zucchini and corn. Lots of silver queen planted this year.

[mappy]

8 hours ago, poolz1 said:

It's def a crazy time of year....I assume you need a new liner if the pool is empty?  Is this an aboveground pool?  If you feel handy enough to tackle it yourself let me know and I can at least guide you in the right direction....

It’s an ingrround pool and I feel we probably need it completely resurfaced. Lot of plaster damage over the winter 

[Eskimo Joe]

1 hour ago, mappy said:

It’s an ingrround pool and I feel we probably need it completely resurfaced. Lot of plaster damage over the winter 

Olympic sells a Zeron Epoxy Pool compound in like 5 gallon buckets.  You can buy them at Lowe's for ~75 a pop.  Just make sure the old stuff is scrapped away with a chisel or wire brush.  

[poolz1]

It’s an ingrround pool and I feel we probably need it completely resurfaced. Lot of plaster damage over the winter 

I respectfully disagree with Eskimo... But the explanation would be very long winded.

We do around 50 plaster pool renovations a year. I don't want this to come off at all as an attempt to drum up business... It really was just an offer for friendly advice. If you want to discuss further just send me a message.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk

[mappy]

On 6/2/2018 at 7:48 PM, poolz1 said:

I respectfully disagree with Eskimo... But the explanation would be very long winded.

We do around 50 plaster pool renovations a year. I don't want this to come off at all as an attempt to drum up business... It really was just an offer for friendly advice. If you want to discuss further just send me a message.

Sent from my SAMSUNG-SM-G920A using Tapatalk
 

all good! appreciate it!

[mappy]

garden update: doing great! have cherry tomatoes growing, a couple green peppers in early stages. some blossoms on the zucchini and watermelon. cucumber is finally taking off and starting to grow up my trellis'. 

[Eskimo Joe]

Deer leveled my tomatoes last night.  Mature plants eaten half the way down. Unreal.