14th Lawn and Garden Thread P Allen Smith 2024

[OceanStWx]

12 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Not really. Mine struggles to keep flower buds through winter, but the mild 23-24 gave me a heavy fruit set before the grey rats got them. I’m looking to get a Contender and PF-24C for next year. They’re 2 of the hardiest with late flowering. 

I had a great fruit set this year too, but I think leaf curl got me and the fruit shriveled up and fell off. I have one lonely peach left. (Redhaven)

[DavisStraight]

12 minutes ago, dendrite said:

Not really. Mine struggles to keep flower buds through winter, but the mild 23-24 gave me a heavy fruit set before the grey rats got them. I’m looking to get a Contender and PF-24C for next year. They’re 2 of the hardiest with late flowering. 

I don't know if it was the weather this past year, but I've never seen so many squirrels in my area as this spring and summer as they fatten up on my fruit. Every morning when I leave or come after work I see squirrels running all over the place.

[dendrite]

1 minute ago, OceanStWx said:

I had a great fruit set this year too, but I think leaf curl got me and the fruit shriveled up and fell off. I have one lonely peach left. (Redhaven)

PLC is rough. This old tree was here before I moved here so I’m not sure what it is, but I’ve never had PLC on it…just gummosis. 

Stone fruit in general is a PITA and requires a lot of care to get good fruit. Pawpaws and persimmons are nice because you just plant them and let them go…no need to even prune.

[mreaves]

1 hour ago, DavisStraight said:

I'll try that next year, I didn't realize squirrels ate peaches, but I saw one grab a small peach from the tree and run away with it in its mouth. 

 

[BrianW]

Anyone ever seen the New England Giant pumpkin guy that grows 2000lb+ pumpkins.  His pumpkin this year is putting on 41lbs a day.  He also sells seeds. 

 

https://beacons.ai/negiantpumpkin

 

[WxWatcher007]

Time to reseed right? How do I get rid of the crabgrass?

[Damage In Tolland]

3 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

Time to reseed right? How do I get rid of the crabgrass?

Yes on reseeding. You’ll never get rid of it in one season . You’ve got to get all of the seeds . You really need to spray it now to kill it . Do not use any weed killer on seed or new seedlings . Then reseed and hope the grass comes in thick enough and establishes a strong enough root system to choke it out next summer. And apply the pre - emergent when the forsythia are blooming in Napril. 

[CoastalWx]

8 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

Time to reseed right? How do I get rid of the crabgrass?

I killed mine last Fall. Reseeded that area in spring. Worked well and no crab grass.

[DavisStraight]

1 minute ago, CoastalWx said:

I killed mine last Fall. Reseeded that area in spring. Worked well and no crab grass.

How did you get rid of the crabgrass?

[WxWatcher007]

6 minutes ago, Damage In Tolland said:

Yes on reseeding. You’ll never get rid of it in one season . You’ve got to get all of the seeds . You really need to spray it now to kill it . Do not use any weed killer on seed or new seedlings . Then reseed and hope the grass comes in thick enough and establishes a strong enough root system to choke it out next summer. And apply the pre - emergent when the forsythia are blooming in Napril. 

 

4 minutes ago, CoastalWx said:

I killed mine last Fall. Reseeded that area in spring. Worked well and no crab grass.

Thanks. Had a beautiful lawn and no crabgrass in April. Not so much now smh.

[DavisStraight]

49 minutes ago, WxWatcher007 said:

 

Thanks. Had a beautiful lawn and no crabgrass in April. Not so much now smh.

Mine started out looking good too and just got inundated with crabgrass, I'm going to kill it soon and, in the spring, Ill overseed.

[SJonesWX]

7 hours ago, DavisStraight said:

Mine started out looking good too and just got inundated with crabgrass, I'm going to kill it soon and, in the spring, Ill overseed.

Over seeding in the spring is a bad idea. That is best in the fall, like now. Over seeding in the spring let’s the weed seeds get right into the soil.

[dendrite]

I think I’m going to seed some spots right before the first snow that appears to hang around for the season.

[DavisStraight]

1 hour ago, SJonesWX said:

Over seeding in the spring is a bad idea. That is best in the fall, like now. Over seeding in the spring let’s the weed seeds get right into the soil.

Ok, Ill revere my plan and do it now, I'll put down crabgrass preventer next spring, Never's been this bad, must have been the humidity.

[SJonesWX]

14 hours ago, DavisStraight said:

Ok, Ill revere my plan and do it now, I'll put down crabgrass preventer next spring, Never's been this bad, must have been the humidity.

good thinking. I didn’t have bad crabby this year which is odd because usually it is worse when it is hot and dry, like June and July was.

wrapped up my aerating and overseeding this morning. Pennington coats their seed with green shit, and it kept clogging up the tow-behind spreader, so it was a PITA. but it is done. No mowing for 3 weeks.

just a heads up, now that I have put down seed, it’s probably not going to rain for a while.

[BrianW]

Some great late season clematis blooms.

 

 

[moneypitmike]

On 8/31/2024 at 12:32 PM, WxWatcher007 said:

Time to reseed right? How do I get rid of the crabgrass?

I had put down new seed a few weeks ago up at Pit2 which had had a lot of crabgrass (and  other non-lawn type grass) appear and was really pleased to see how the seed mix has reclaimed the lawn.

 

Not too sure on when it's best to seed again before the growing season ends and whether it's worth doing any type of pre-winter treatment.  I'm always leery of putting down fert......don't want to burn anything.

[moneypitmike]

How do you time spring treatment with using a preemergent?

Even though neither has a thin lawn, I have used this in the early spring at both Pit1 and Pit2.  I think it really does a great job.   That said I'd tempted to use a per-emergent in the spring too.  But, I'm afraid to overfertilize if I use the per-emergent too soon.  

End result is that I've never used the pre-emergent because of that timing concern.  

https://scotts.com/en-us/shop/grass-seed/scotts-turf-builder-thickr-lawn-sun-shade/scotts-turf-builder-thick-r-lawn-sun-shade-mix.html

[SJonesWX]

pre-emergent is best applied around the time when the forsythias bloom. A second treatment is ok about 6-8 weeks later

[CoastalWx]

On 8/31/2024 at 12:43 PM, DavisStraight said:

How did you get rid of the crabgrass?

I just sprayed it all in the fall. I ended up putting loam and seeding in April. Worked fine for me. 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

Aerate and reseed heavy. 

question though is which brand/type of seed…

[CoastalWx]

I used Johnathan Greene black beauty and it came up great. 

[RUNNAWAYICEBERG]

1 hour ago, CoastalWx said:

I used Johnathan Greene black beauty and it came up great. 

I used to and agree but with big lawn two 50lb bags hits the wallet hard.

[dendrite]

I’m going half meadow with the lawn next year. 

[backedgeapproaching]

41 minutes ago, RUNNAWAYICEBERG said:

I used to and agree but with big lawn two 50lb bags hits the wallet hard.

Honestly going with Scotts or Pennington isn't going to be that much cheaper I don't think.  You could probably use a "contractors mix" for the cheapest option from Tractor Supply or somewhere like that, but you are going to get a lot of weed seeds and undesirable stuff in there.  If you don't care about that really then maybe go that way. 

Otherwise price out Jonathan Green versus the Big Box store stuff and see what that actual cost difference is.

Also looks pretty Steiny moving forward, seems like you have a big yard so would be hard to keep the stuff watered. 

 

[tunafish]

1 hour ago, dendrite said:

I’m going half meadow with the lawn next year. 

We did that this year for the space adjacent to the gardens.  We've cut our lawn space on 0.4 acres down by 2/3 over 5 years between planting beds, wood chipped paths, and now a small meadow.  Looks great, zero maintenance, BUT, it's welcomed a brown rat population that I'm now fighting hard before Fall.  I don't need them in my coop or worse, house.

[tamarack]

1 hour ago, tunafish said:

We did that this year for the space adjacent to the gardens.  We've cut our lawn space on 0.4 acres down by 2/3 over 5 years between planting beds, wood chipped paths, and now a small meadow.  Looks great, zero maintenance, BUT, it's welcomed a brown rat population that I'm now fighting hard before Fall.  I don't need them in my coop or worse, house.

Rat traps, baited with PB.  When I worked up north, an old house next to our office trailer was demolished and its rats infested both the trailer and the detached garage, entering the latter by chewing a hole thru the rubber gasket.  First trap out there caught 2 at once and we nailed a few more before a short-tailed weasel (in full ermine coat - it was February) took up housekeeping.  I brought in all the traps and the 4-footed "trap" ensured that we never saw another rat.

[tunafish]

5 minutes ago, tamarack said:

Rat traps, baited with PB.  When I worked up north, an old house next to our office trailer was demolished and its rats infested both the trailer and the detached garage, entering the latter by chewing a hole thru the rubber gasket.  First trap out there caught 2 at once and we nailed a few more before a short-tailed weasel (in full ermine coat - it was February) took up housekeeping.  I brought in all the traps and the 4-footed "trap" ensured that we never saw another rat.

I've been using the standard mouse trap, sans bait, and just putting them in the obvious "game" trails I can find.  It's working well enough, although the pace has slowed some in the last week, but I am not taking that as a sign of their population dwindling, rather my luck is running out and I need to start baiting to attract them.  Thanks, I'll go rat trap/PB tonight.

[dendrite]

8 hours ago, tunafish said:

We did that this year for the space adjacent to the gardens.  We've cut our lawn space on 0.4 acres down by 2/3 over 5 years between planting beds, wood chipped paths, and now a small meadow.  Looks great, zero maintenance, BUT, it's welcomed a brown rat population that I'm now fighting hard before Fall.  I don't need them in my coop or worse, house.

We saw our first brown rat last week running back and forth from along the run and garage. Then on Sunday I found it dead near the garage with a puncture mark on its side. Then I went in the pawpaw area and found a dead vole laying in the open with the same type of wound.

Would my family of skunks be doing this? From what I’ve read they’re as good with rodent control as cats.

[tunafish]

1 hour ago, dendrite said:

We saw our first brown rat last week running back and forth from along the run and garage. Then on Sunday I found it dead near the garage with a puncture mark on its side. Then I went in the pawpaw area and found a dead vole laying in the open with the same type of wound.

Would my family of skunks be doing this? From what I’ve read they’re as good with rodent control as cats.

No kidding.  I never heard that about skunks.  I don't have any skunks (unfortunately?).  Not sure what else would so that and not eat it.  Coyote, Fisher, Snakes would all eat it.