Overseeding and Lime and Gypsum application

Today I have to go up to the John Deere/Lesco fertilizer store in Marlboro to pick up 8, 50 pound bags of Park and Athletic grass seed to do an over seeding at the 2 soccer fields at Olin College. The seed mix is good for this area as it is for the most part in the sun all day and by over seeding it the soccer players will put i into the turf with their spikes. This should be up and growing in a few days as the turf is still warm enough for the seed to germinate. The field is a bit on the wet side so we are hoping the seed does not rot before germinating.

I also picked up 8, 50 pound bags of a Pellitized, Gypsum and Lime combo for one property in Needham. The front lawn is a tuff one, as it is on a ledge and a hill which causes the lawn to heat up during the summer hot season and it also dries out quickly, because it is on a slope. the back lawn is almost all in the shade under pine trees, so it is a bit acidic.

I used the combination before at one home in Medfield quite a few years ago and the results were just unbelievable. The lawn went from yellowish and lifeless to a deep green and then over time became very healthy and a vigorous grower. what a change, hopefully this application will have the same effect. It's late in the year so we may not see any improvement until next season.

Rain again..........

Wednesday, as soon as I got up and looked out it, was raining again, this time I called Rob and asked if we were going to be working, no need to spend all that time driving and also, spending on the gas and it was his decision to not work. The reason for all of this is due to the economic condition's we are in now, in past years we would have been working.

Thursday, Guillerme and I are off to get some fungicide, at the John Deere/LESCO distributor in Marlborough. We will be applying this to a lawn latter in the day. But we start off in Southborough at Rob's house as he wanted us to spray round up on his crushed stone driveway, there is always weeds in it. The picture on the left is of Rob's pool that I did all of the brick masonry a few years ago.

We, then went to quite a few properties, to spray for different bugs, that were attacking bushes, roses and trees. The customers had noticed these and requested that they be erradicated. The place we went to around noon time to put down the fungicide on the red thread fungus, in the yard is pictured on the right. It is a tough lawn to work on as it has a very high water table and is always having some kind of problem wth the lawn. Grass just does not like growing, in those conditions and as I have been mentioning in the post's it has been raining more than usual here. the weatherman put a chart up showing that we have had 22 days of below temperatures and the last 16 have had some sort of persipitation. Very unusuall weather for this neck of the woods.

Clouds, Rain, Mist all week

Here in New England we have been in a very cloudy, misty, foggy, rainy period for the last 3 weeks and it looks like it is going o continue this week as well. So my picture for the post's this week will reflect the weather conditions. The weather pattern's usually last for about 6 weeks, hope it is wrong because as I write this it is the first day of Summer.

Our first task of the day, is to go over to a very long time customer and transplant some bushes and weed out a large perennial flower bed. This was a request from the wife, as a gift, for her husbands 88th birthday. Guillerme and I started with the transplanting first and as we dug the first hole we found some 10 turtle eggs, we were very careful and did not break any of them. We showed them to the lady who lived there and she took them to show to her grandchildren who were coming over and to her daughter who is a veternarian. (You can see them in the photo on the right) We went through one rain shower, where we had to wait it out, by sitting in the truck until it was over. this seems to be a daily activity lately.

We finished up around 2 pm and then went back to the shop to load up the trailor and what fertilizer we had along with some broadleaf pray as we were still on out fertilization route. Our first stop was at the John Deere/LESCO store to get another pallet (40 bags) of 24-5-11, fertilizer and some more boadleaf weed spray and a bottle of SYTHE. I had not seen the SYTHE for a few years so I bought some. We were only able to finish 5 properties before we finished up at around 6:30pm. One of the properties in Southborough is pictured on the left.

Fertilization Application Number 2

We have been a very cloudy, damp rainy period here in the New England. I can't remember when we saw the sun the last time. These conditions are showing up in the lawns that we are fertilizing. There is a lot of "red thread" and other signs of dampness and lack of nitrogen. The lawns are looking lifeless and are turning a bit yellow.

Good thing we are doing this application now. I have noticed that the majority of lawns are being mowed at a shorter length than is optimum for the health of the lawn. I have discussed this with Rob and he has asked the mowing crew to raise the cut from now on. We have Northern grass here and it is recommended to cut it at 2 1/2 to 3 inches. If it is cut lower it allows weeds to develop in the lawn and the lawn becomes stressed and turns yellow. The longer length of cut will keep the lawn cool, and there will be a reduction in weeds.

I was also informed by John Deere/LESCO, that the broad leaf weed herbicide we were using is now in the "Restrictive Use" category and we will be trying out a new herbicide for broad leaf weed prevention. I will let you know how it works out.

Today I received my order of Diet Cookies, that I have been taking for the past 3 month's and I was excited about that. I had been out of them for about a week and a half. These cookies are great I have one in the morning and one on my ride home from work and by the time I am home I really have no hunger at all. So far I have lost 9 pounds by using them. I am being very pro-active with my health these days.