41 new of 172 responses total.
I've been thinking about calling dandelion seed stalks "ugly". I was at the St. Louis zoo a couple of days ago, and got a bit annoyed at other visitors (and their kids) calling this or that animal "ugly". Yes, there was a gecko that did not look like Bambi, but I am sure that in the wild the species is rerproductively successful - and indeed those dandelion stalks *are* reproductively successful. They are, in fact, marvelous instruments of that - what's "ugly" about that? Nevertheless, I have an aversion to their appearance, but now recognized that that is MY fault - perhaps genetic, but overcomable with education and tolerance.
Uh, oh- not only is the creeping charlie still carrying downy mold from the snowball bush around the yard, the leafcutters are eating my mountain ash tree again. <sigh> Now what? Oh- creeping charlie is also called: Ground Ivy, Gill run over the ground Alehoof and various names I've forgotten. Pretty common stuff... I think the violets have *almost* out-competed it in places. I'm sure pleased with the clover in my yard- almost enough to want a bee skep.
Dandelions are truly amazing plants! I have pulled budding dandelions out by the roots, tossed them into the wilderness between us and our neighbors only to have them caught by some branch and just dangle there. Within 24 hrs. that same uprooted dandelion will have flowered and turned to seed while hanging there! This year my kids picked several dandelion flowers, laid them in a plastic pie-tin and filled it with water. It sat around outside for several days but most of the flowers managed to bend their heads up and go to seed, all without the remainder of the plant!
Yep, dandelions are truly amazing plants. I've read that if any part of the root remains in the ground, the plant can regenerate from it. That's why they have special tools for pulling dandelions that facilitate getting the entire root (which tends to go quite deep). Ants and centipedes sure are amazing animals, but I don't tolerate them in my house. Don't feel much motivation for tolerating dandelions in my yard, either, or adjusting my attitude towards the esthetics of their appearance.
Yes, adjusting attitudes *is* more difficult than spraying poisons. Ants and centipedes can be health hazards. I doubt that dadelions are (also, they are not in your house - I presume you tolerate ants and centipedes outside?)
Centipedes, yes. Ants -- well, it depends.
By the way, I have it on good authority that certain people have formed the impression that I use pesticides and herbicides extensively. This is not true -- I recognize the hazards to the environment and use them quite sparingly. If the weeds aren't too bad in a given year, I won't use them at all. If things are getting out of hand, I use a little. I try to limit my use to a maximum of once a year, and as I said I'll skip years when things aren't getting out of hand. My usage sounds not unlike Rane's, actually.
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The impression might be conveyed by a seeming great interest in Lawn Care. I tolerate the stuff, but would prefer alternatives, such as a real meadow.
I got some of that Eco-Lawn seed mixture recently. I'm thinking of seeding a couple of bare patches in the backyard (bare because we left cut sod from building the new veggie beds there too long -- like for about 6 weeks...) with this stuff, and seeing how I like it before putting it over the whole front lawn (projected for this fall).
Every five years or so I trim the sod that grows onto the sidewalk with my spade. I found that these trimming make *great* sod to patch barren spots in the yard. I just lay them in the bare spot, soak them with water and walk on them, while soaking wet, to make sure they are in intimate contact with the barren soil. Doing this is important as otherwise the sod will dry out easier. Ants and centipedes can be a health hazard? How so?
They bite.
Centipedes bite? OK. So do dogs, cats, mice, hamsters, some large carnivores pet fish, snakes, spiders, etc.
Oh, you mean the Nashunal Zoo?
All I know is the guys come and spray some stuff and leave little signs warning people not to even go near the grass, much less walk on it, and it's green and lush all summer long, and I give lots of money to the various "green" people when they come around.
We don't keep any indoor animals that bite loose. Ants and centipedes would be OK if they agreed not to bite, or stayed in their cages. Our spiders don't bite, so we don't do anything about them.
Re #144: Also professional boxers.
ROTFL!!
We don't keep those.
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Sure - but the curator is away at camp for two weeks.
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Spring is here with a vengeance, so it's time to revive this item. Haven't done much to the lawn yet this year, except to mow it once or twice. Everything's growing at a great rate, including the weeds. Dandelions have made substantial inroads, so I'm afraid I'll have to zap 'em with weed&feed. In general I don't like to use herbicides, but one application every couple of years seems to keep things well enough under control. The dandelions are having a field day all over town. I blame El Nino.
I've already mowed 3 times. And I'll have to do something about the dandelions, next year.
Gave the lawn the weed & feed treatment. The weeds are under reasonable control. No more herbicide treatement is planned for the rest of the season. The grass is growing at such a rate that I have to mow it every three days just to keep up. Because of the early fertilization, I'm postpoing the Grandma Putt treatment for a bit. Plan to do it at the end of May.
Hm, here it is Memorial Day. If the weather stays dry today, I'll mow the lawn, do the Grandma Putt treatment, and throw on a little Milorganite for good measure.
Oh, great. Our very own chunk of radioactive intoxicated green space. ;-)
Hey, if one bag spread out over the entire lawn is going to cause a radioactivity problem, then I pity the poor folks who work at Franks. They've got bags and bags of Milorganite piled high and deep there...
Well the lawn has been Milorganited -- it required two bags, not one -- and given the Grandma Putt Spring Lawn Tonic as well. The exact recipe was given earlier in this item, but in brief, the lawn tonic consists of ammonia, beer, listerine, epsom salts, and dish soap mixed together and applied to the lawn with a hose-end sprayer. Yummy!
The 1999 lawn care season has begun. Time to revive this item. Only thing I've done so far this season is apply some fertilizer containing crabgrass preventer. That plus all of our rain and mild temperatures have caused the grass to green up nicely and grow like crazy. It could really use a mowing.
Our grass (and weeds) definitely need mowing, but it's way too wet to mow, alas. We have a low spot in the yard that is acting like a miniature swamp right now. Should dry up by tomorrow, though, so maybe we will mow then.
Wow, I've noticed lots of grub damage this spring. How did you guys fare?
Yes, there has been a lot of grub damage this spring. My parents thought the crows were doing it by pulling out the grass in their yard but I showed them the grubs and told them the crows were going after them. We had a smallish invasion in the strip between the curb and sidewalk. The kids and I raked through it with small gardening tools and found several hundred grubs. Do these things multiply or is it just part of the life-cycle for some insect? I imaging some insect lays the eggs and this year a lot of the hatchings survived.
No, grubs don't "multiply". I think most are beetle larvae - June Beetles, perhaps.
Re resp:162 - Although the grass was a bit damp, last Wednesday I decided the front lawn was getting just too shaggy and mowed it anyway. And now it needs another. Is there no end to this madness? Speaking of madness, it will soon be time to give the lawn its spring Grandma Putt treatment. See resp:0 for the recipe.
You could rip out the lawn and plant low-maintenance groundcovers. That would end the madness. What does grub damage look like? I don't know if we have any. I did find a grub when I was weeding my perennial border (and squished it with my shovel). Most lawn grubs are the larvae of japanese beetles. They can be controlled with applications of milky spore disease (I believe it's some kind of bacterium or other organism that kills the grubs, but doesn't harm earthworms and other good bugs).
We are fortunate not to have a problem with grubs. They don't seem to like the radioactivity from the Melorganite. What a relief, eh? ;-)
(Reports of radioactivity in our lawn are greatly exaggerated... ;-)
(Do you know that for a fact?)
I would like to announce that in just a couple of weeks we will be moving out of our house and into a condominium, where Big Brother (aka the "condo- minium association") does all the lawn care. I have mowed my last lawn. It's over, finnissimo, done. You may express your congratulations or condolances, whichever seems appropriate. Actually, I'm quite happy about the change. But, obviously, I will have little more to say about lawn care.
So what will you do with your special lawn elixir? Bottle it and sell it for sexual disfunction?
You have several choices: