Summer Anyone?

Ok, summer it seems is starting early this year! Whew. And of course we picked this weekend to start our landscaping project in front of the house. We took a small area between two trees and planted a birdbath, bird feeder, some hostas and a couple of azalea bushes out there. We haven't mulched yet, as I am hoping to put down pine straw. DH is a bit iffy on it, but I feel pretty safe saying I will probably get my way.

Anyway, this is what it looks like now.

Some of the hostas are from Michigan and made the trip down last June when the Wild Ones visited!

I'm sure DH wants everyone to know how hard we worked - and we did. Digging up sod around trees is hard. Finding a place to transplant it was my job. It doesn't look that big but it was a 10 x 15 area. The birdbath is in the shape of a flower and stem. The birds are happy with it!

Making that Darn Grass Grow

The seed hasn't even been in a week, but already we are starting to see fine blades of grass peek through the straw.



It hasn't been easy getting this far. We only had 0.08 inches of rain in September. So far in October we've had none (please don't let it blow past us tomorrow night).



This morning DH was moving sprinklers around trying to get it done before noon and before it hit 80 for the day, when I suggested we set it up on the drive. Well, we did, and he put a rock on one side to hold it in place. It was working just fine and then .. well the video says it all. That is my fine cackle you hear!

Watching the Grass Grow

The crabgrass is dead, dead and gone! Three loads of pig-dirt have been used to fill some of the settling and low spots, and evened out the ground around the trees (all 27 of them.) Seed has been spread, and straw/hay whatever that stuff is has been blown on the seed to keep the birds out of it. DH has been busy all day watering. We really miss the sprinkler system, that's for sure.

It only got to about 83 degrees here yesterday, but that dirt was really "ripe." For the most part, the straw/hay has a sweeter smell to it and masks that awful dirt smell.

The picture was taken by DH with his camera phone of the straw being sprayed on the seed. This is a really messy job and now the windows will be ready for cleaning!

All we have left now is to watch the grass grow!

Notes on Road Construction

We just had a load of pig dirt delivered. When I say load, I'm not thinking those small dump trucks that deliver mulch, stone, etc from landscaping companies. I mean those DUMP TRUCKS that work for large construction companies. The dirt peak in the truck was at least a foot higher than the truck.

So now it sits on my lawn. Or more accurately on the brown remains of the crabgrass.

DH talked to the truck driver who works for the construction company responsible for the everlasting road widening project on Fairground Street, a block away. This is the road construction that has been going on one year this week. It seems they have had a few problems. Early on they hit a water line that wasn't where it was supposed to be. Lately they have been finding weird things. In one spot, they'll dig, everything is fine and dirt is hard and compacted. Ten feet up the road, the dirt is soft, they hit a minor sinkhole caused by an old drain. Apparently some of these drains date back to the mid 1800's, but still have to be investigated to make sure they aren't connected to anything. So it's time consuming.

I think we'll have grass again on our lawn before this road construction is finished.

The Dirt on the Dirt!

I guess when you live in Tennessee, one tends to talk dirt a lot!

A couple weeks ago, DH and I went around our yard gathering samples for soil sampling tests. We took our dirt in two different mailing containers, one old dirt with the established lawn on it and the other of the new "pig dirt" variety!

The difference between the two? The old samples have grass growing on them. The new samples of the pig dirt - crabgrass.

So which part of the lawn needs 100 lbs per 1000 feet of lawn of lime? Not the pig dirt where all the crab grass is growing. That dirt is darn near perfect according to the University of Tennessee Extension service. So as close as we can figure we need about 5000 lbs of lime? I don't think that is gonna happen. Yikes. I can't even imagine how much that is dumped on the lawn wise. Landscaper is bringing in some more dirt for the back - we're hoping he brings in more pig dirt!