# Cluelessone's 2022 Lawn Journal



## Cluelessone (Sep 23, 2020)

Never done one of these before, let's try it. This is going to be a combo lawn-n-garden type journal.

Problems last year:
-Armyworms
-Rust
-Armyworms
-Too high dose of growth inhibitor
-Armyworms
-Moles
-Armyworms

Goals for this year:
-Not have armyworms
-Not have to do such an extensive reno at the end of the season
-Edge the garden beds in a way that prevents mulch from ending up everywhere (and allows me to continue to suck at weedwhacking, because I really do suck at it)
-Preventative fungicide program
-Get all vegetables out of sight, behind the shed... veggies are ugly plants IMO

So, this is where we start.


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## Cluelessone (Sep 23, 2020)

Yesterday I put those castor oil granules on the back half of the lawn as a preventative (even if they don't work they'll make me feel better since I at least tried). I also spread some gypsum on the heaviest clay areas of the garden - didn't put any on the lawn.

The lawn is hungry and I have fertilizer, but with hard frost coming soon I am hesitant to put any down yet. I missed the last two fall nitrogen blitz feedings and it shows. I was tired and burnt out.

I have pretty extensive damage to the back half of the yard from playing fetch with my dog. Worth it.  ... but I will try and fix it. I will also try and fix the areas where the older vizsla peed - she's got nuclear pee and kills the grass.

Tulips are going bezerk - I'm glad to see them as I was worried voles would get them and there's $200 worth of them back there. I don't even like them, I plant them for my mom. She's excited.

First crocuses are blooming, and we have a lenten rose.


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## ionicatoms (Mar 8, 2020)

What is your plan for armyworms? GrubEx, Acelepryn?


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## Cluelessone (Sep 23, 2020)

ionicatoms said:


> What is your plan for armyworms? GrubEx, Acelepryn?


I haven't totally decided.

I was really hoping to avoid GrubEx and the like - I've had a dog pass away from cancer very young. While I don't know that the lawn chemicals caused it, I'm sure they didn't help.

I might have my hand forced though, as I can't take losing 2/3rds of my lawn again. If I do go that route, I'm going to do it in sections and fence it off to keep the dogs off of it for 2 weeks+.


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## Cluelessone (Sep 23, 2020)

Sedum are poking their heads out, Lupine is making an appearance. The tulip apocalypse continues. More crocus.

I've got a strip of grass along the north fence that really needs to be mowed - the sun reflects off the fence and makes that ground warmer than the rest of the yard. I'm holding off until after this weekend, it's supposed to be a low of 24F.

Used up the remaining fertilizer spikes on some of the young trees - I did the sugar maple, ironwood, tulip poplar, and red maple. I need to get a new box to get the serviceberry and the dogwood, and the trees up front.


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## Cluelessone (Sep 23, 2020)

I remeasured my lawn areas yesterday, as I had some minor burning last year. I had added some garden beds on the south side of the yard.

Grand total 11,322 sqft - that will be for weed/pest control. Total that I plan to fertilize 10,023sqft - I don't fertilize behind the fence by the forest preserve. I think that's how I got moles is my ground was so nice that the worms went crazy and then the moles came.


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## Cluelessone (Sep 23, 2020)

I now have all my seeds started. Some heirloom tomatoes were started a couple weeks ago, Juliet tomatoes, zucchini, summer squash (two varieties), cucumbers (3 varieties, trying to find the most resistant to mosaic), some basil, and some of my great-grandmother's sweet peas. I put preen down nearly everywhere in the garden, so if I want stuff to grow I have to start it indoors. Two sections of garden will not get preen, because I'm going to grow sunflowers and zinnias in those spots. Otherwise - no self seeding, please...


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## Cluelessone (Sep 23, 2020)

Everything is starting to green up. I mowed the strip by the fence as it's always taller (reflected heat).

I put fertilizer spikes on the remaining trees - the service berry, the dogwood - and also up front got the bushes and the japanese maple.

I bought all my edger blocks for the side of the house project. I also got 10 bags of sand to try and fix some pooling water issues - it may not be enough, but it's worth a try before I go full-bore on french drains or adding another popup.

It's supposed to rain for the next week, so I won't be doing much other than the spring tractor maintenance.


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## Cluelessone (Sep 23, 2020)

Found a window to aerate yesterday. I didn't get to do it in the fall because the ground was too hard.

Today I'm going to rake the plugs out of the wet spots and add some sand. Then I'm going to take the mower around and bust up the plugs as best as I can, then spread Milo.


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## Cluelessone (Sep 23, 2020)

I also completed the edger project. It looks goofy where I stopped, but I'm going to remove some of the blocks after I get a good soil/grass base growing. The ground level was too weird to not have some kind of solid edging.


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## Cluelessone (Sep 23, 2020)

Wild tulips are going for it. Traditional tulips are not far behind. I have a million things to do and never enough time (and at times, motivation). Hopefully the warmer weather towards the end of the week will perk me up.


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## Cluelessone (Sep 23, 2020)

Yesterday I mowed front and back. I need to fix the bed edging in one spot where I constantly drop the mower in the bed and scalp the bajeezus out of the grass.

I added more topsoil/sand to some low spots. I'm letting it fallow for now, then I'll plant some grass and attempt to keep it alive through the winter.

I put down some of the old Scott's granular weed killer in the far back, between the fence and the property line (I'm backed up to a forest preserve). Last year, I let a thistle grow in the forest preserve really close to my property line, because I thought the gold finches would like to eat the seed. Yeah, turns out that seed spread all over the place and I have about 150 thistle babies I'm dealing with.

Today, I will put down GrubEx and then lock my dog in the house while we wait on the rain to push it into the soil.


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