Lawn and Flower Stuff

I mentioned previously deciding to overseed my lawn and improve it a bit.  That involved aerating the lawn and mowing the grass short, then raking all the clippings up for removal, roughing up the bare soil so seeds would have better contact, and planning to broadcast good quality fescue seed (shade and sun blend since my lawn varies in sunlight) before a few days of forecast sunny days.

Unfortunately, the sun never showed up (always a few days in the future).  Well, I think it managed to rain nearly every day this month (and not much from Hurricane Florence).  I have always been told to seed in dry weather so the seeds fall through the existing grass and reach the ground, and because the seeds might rot in wet weather.

But I was running out of the right temperatures, so I checked on the internet.  To my surprise, some sites (apparently not connected to sellers) actually recommended overseeding in mild rainy periods.  They said that wild grass naturally germinates in mild rainy times and it avoids having to water the lawn 2x a day.

Well, as I said, it is getting cooler, and germination rates go down (and emergence slows down) when it is cooler.

And forgive me, they said what I wanted to hear, LOL!  That's not something I usually pay attention to, but I'm running out of time.  The forecast is for drizzly weather for the next week at least (never pay attention to weather forecasts more than 5 days out).

So, today was dry.  I mowed the lawn short again, re-roughed the bare spots, and spread my grass seed according to the spreader setting recommended by the seed company.  And ran out of seed halfway!

So off to the DIY big-box stores I went.  Walmart was only selling little bags at high prices.  I went to Home Depot looking for big bags of separate Sun and Shade varieties of fescue.  Some bags didn't specify of were seed and fertilizer combos.  Earlier this month, they might have had each, but I finally found a good sun/shade blend.  Naturally, that was the only grass seed without a price label!

I found a clerk and he searched the racks for the pricing label for about 5 minutes without success.  Finally he pulled out a digital gadget and scanned the barcode and got the price in 10 seconds.

What IS it with some people?  He knew he had the scanner.  Does he hate customers and enjoys passive/aggressive punishment of them?  Did he resent me disturbing his rest against the shelves?  Does he hate digital gadgets?

But the price was "OK" and off I went.

I was also looking for a lot of pansies to plant for Fall color.  They only had single plants in individual 2" pots for $3 each.  I wanted about 50.  But not for $150!  But they did have a really unusual Mum that caught my eye.

Most mums are fluffy-flowered and red, orange, or yellow.  This one had vivid red petals with a bright yellow center.  It was called "Red Daisy".  It was only available in a 2 gallon pot for $11.  I usually buy smaller plants, as they grow well for me and I'm patient.  I just looked it up.  It gets BIG!  3' tall and 5' wide.  The label didn't mention that.  But it lives about 10 years and I bet dividing it every few years helps it live longer.  Well, I was planning to re-arrange the flowerbed anyway (many old plants dying off - even most "perennials" aren't "forever") and this will nearly force some changes.  I am planning to go with larger individual flowers interspersed with annuals.


So I went to the Lowe's next to them for Pansies.  They had the same $3 pots,  BUT they also had 12-cel packs in same color per pack for $10.  I bought 2 packs of yellow, and 1 each of purple, blue, and bronze.  And 2 of the blooming pansies in one purple pack are nearly BLACK!  I've never seen that before.  Those will go in a special pot on the deck.

I got the new grass seed spread after I returned home.  Now I just have to wait to see what grows in the rain.  The bare spots will be proof of success or failure.  If grass seed doesn't germinate and grow well in a week of drizzle, well, at least I tried!