Those are some nice late season photos with the low sun angle. I enjoy your photos, which usually have some interesting nature captured somewhere.
FWIW, if you can wait until the ground is frozen (and the grass is definitely dormant) to fell the tree, it will cause less damage to the surface with the impact (assuming it will land in a turf area).
Thanks. I don't have a monoculture striped lawn with tight concrete edging so I try to show things that I think are interesting and somewhat eye catching.
I normally wait til after the holidays to fell trees around the lawn so to not have an untidy mess for the holiday visitors. This particular tree is close to the gravel driveway and that's the direction I plan to drop it.
Here's where the home builder damaged the base.
The limbs have been dying and dropping with high winds or heavy rain. It's a safety hazard. A limb could fall on someone's head. I marked some obvious dead limbs; I'm sure the remaining live ones will die in time.
Last edited by Powhatan on Sun May 09, 2021 7:51 am, edited 2 times in total.
Looks great. I often wish the lawn season was a few weeks longer where I am. We are wrapping it up now, over the next week or two here.
Thanks. It's an okay lawn for being mostly forage grass
I checked for top growth today and nothing detectable new. There's several more leaves that fell and I almost decided to mulch mow the leaves, but there's a wind & rain Nor'easter system coming through tonight that will drop more leaves.
Instead of mowing today I tuned up my Stihl chainsaw to get ready for next month. I changed out the spark plug, air filter, fuel filter, replaced the guide bar, sharpened the chain, and put in fresh gas mix.
Used the leaf rake to remove most of the remaining straggler fallen tree leaves and pine needles. Winterized push mowers. Season is done.
2020 End of Season Summary
Seed:
Dormant overseed KY-31/NoMix/Fine fescue/Clover.
Irrigation:
Non-irrigated yearly except for poa trivialis kill patch areas and cover crop mix area new grass establishment.
Fertilize:
Spring - synthetic, Summer - organic, late Summer & early Fall - hybrid (synthetic with organic ingredients), and late Fall - synthetic. Yearly amount ~2.50#N with a split 1#N as final "winter" application in Nov for total ~3.50#N. I may not do a "winter" app next year.
Broadcasted two ~.85#K apps during Summer months to help with plant health & stress. If next soil report again recommends additional potassium I will broadcast during Spring so grass will have the nutrient before Summer stress sets in.
Fungus - No synthetic fungicides used:
Mowed with sharp blade at lower HOC 3.25" to encourage air flow during the fungal disease favorable reveal period. Bag mowed if disease suspect or seen.
Sprayed organic neem oil on new forming brown patch, pythium blight, and rust disease areas to smother disease pathogen spores to help limit spreading.
Weeds:
Spring - granular dithiopyr PreM, Fall - granular pendimethalin PreM.
Hand-pulled mostly. Sprayed selective herbicide on nutsedge, glyphosate non-selective on poa trivialis, and Mirimichi Green PRO Weed Control non-selective on various weeds bordering the lawn. Poa trivialis continues to be the primary weed.
Insects:
Spring - granular Scotts GrubEx. Spring & Summer - granular organic EcoLogic Lawn & Yard Insect Killer to mostly kill the ticks. Sprayed neem oil on june bugs seen on bushes.
Soil Amendments:
Sprayed last of N-Ext RGS & Air-8 that I had on-hand. The Air-8 didn't seem to loosen the soil.
Tried different granular products - Broadcasted HumiChar, Scotts Foundation Soil Improver, Jonathan Green Love Your Soil, and LESCO CarbonPro-G. I plan to use the LESCO CarbonPro-G product next year
Filled in lawn low spots with top soil.
Spring
Summer
Late Summer
Late Fall
The holly trees are pretty but those leaf thorns hurt when they poke.
The next day ...
Last edited by Powhatan on Tue Feb 23, 2021 6:15 pm, edited 2 times in total.
Low air temp this morning 23F. Soil temp 39F @ 2" depth.
Hand-pulled some poa trivialis, mouse-ear chickweed, hairy bittercress, and orchardgrass weeds. Some earthworms came up with the poa triv clumps. The poa annua must be blending in very well; I didn't notice any last year till late Dec and early Jan.
Collected soil sample to send to Va Tech soil lab next week. Soil temp 43F @ 2" depth. Collected cores at ~4" depth from 12 random areas. Last sample I sent in two years ago in late Jan, my sample was tested three weeks later after the priority farm samples were completed, so this time I'm hoping my sample is processed sooner. I suspect the pH will need to be raised with lime; the last lime application was 3 to 4 years ago.
Hand-pulled some small poa annua weeds, first time noticing them this year. They were in an area known to grow poa a. Some of the leaves had the identifiable crinkle.
What is the big deal about poa trivialis? I understand it grows best under wet conditions which is probably why I have none here!
In my lawn it's considered a weed. Once you have it infesting your lawn it's very difficult (sometimes impossible) to remove. It spreads via seeds and prolific stolons. At times you think you killed it off only to have it come back again. There's no selective herbicide for poa triv labeled for turf grass that I'm aware of. Here's one example TLF member fighting it: viewtopic.php?f=9&t=23730
I don't think I have any poa triv or poa annua. Plenty of orchard grass right now. I'm not one to nuke and it does stay green through the winter. Maybe I should let it grow into a hay field, harvest it and sell it to the local farmers, LOL!
Seriously, the only thing I really hate is crabgrass because it dies off in the fall as soon as temps go down into the 40's, then leaves bare areas prone to erosion. And then there is the quack grass that is infecting my garden beds. That stuff has some long rhizomes that seem to go forever - aaaarrrrrgh!!!!!!
Tier 1 - I just want something green. Perennial "weeds" that stay green year round are welcome.
Those are some nice late season photos with the low sun angle. I enjoy your photos, which usually have some interesting nature captured somewhere.
