I use containers for several reasons: I love tropicals, but can't grow them as perennials in a subtropical climate. The tropicals and other plants come in with for the winter for year round gardening...as long as my husband retains the youth and willingness to carry large containers. As the tree canopy changes light patterns, it allows me to chase the sun. I can locate plants away from the path of deer, groundhogs, and other "dinner guests". I love watering containers. It's a peaceful time and a chance to really get to know every nook and cranny of a plant. It is a great way to experiement with different plants. And I love what one poster said... "As I get older and knees creakier I plan to sit in center of my pots on a swivel chair and water my pots...(not kidding here!) for now I'm still able to stroll around each dawn and thoroughly enjoy it. josh" What a declicious idea..especially for those of us who already have many creaky parts.

Search for 'surfactant golf course' in the journals. Every land grant university in the country has been doing those for decades. The reason golf courses need all the tools is because they absolutely have to have green grass every day of the year. They force feed and force water it. What happens is they develop a hydrophobic fungus growing on the surface of the grass and soil. When that happens they can water all day long and it just sits on top and evaporates. This is what I get from reading the journals I alluded to above. That sitting water promotes the hydrophobic fungus. In an attempt to break through that surface they tried spine aeration. The spines poke through the surface layer of fungus and allow moisture to penetrate. That works to the extent that the spines have a certain spacing. So the water enters the soil separated by the spine to spine distance. Another attempt to solve the hydrophobicity problem was to use a surfactant like Cascade Plus. That product seems to work in every study. The surfactant has the distinct advantage of breaking through the fungus everywhere so spine to spine distance means nothing. The surfactant has a side effect of softening the soil. We use it simply for the side effect. But if you would rather break your back bouncing around behind a $250, 500 pound, rental core aerator instead of spending 30 cents and getting a little wet, you go ahead. I'm not coming through the screen to grab you by the throat. I would hesitate to recommend to others anything outside of personal experience or studies from reputable Universities or professional organizations like the USGA or field turf organizations. That's great for you. We're not hamstrung by that self imposed restriction. Although I did believe the shampoo method of soil softening was bunk until I tried it. Now look at me shouting about it. I also advocate mowing most grasses at "the highest setting," rather than the university recommendation of mowing Midnight Kentucky Bluegrass at 2.65498256 inches and Chocolate Kentucky Blue at 2.65829683 inches. The point is not to mow it at 1 inch. It needs to be tall so just friggin' keep it simple for the homeowner who doesn't have a $5,000 lawn mower to adjust it to fractional inches. I also advocate watering deeply and infrequently. My land grant university in California taught us to water daily. But here in these forums there was a discussion (kind of a rugged discussion) about the benefits of watering daily versus deep and infrequent. I lost that one. The winner was a lawn care professional from Phoenix who convinced me that if he could water his clients' lawns once a week, that I should be able to do the same. Well whaddaya know, I tried it and he was right. It might be interesting to know that there is no university research to prove that plowing the ground has any benefits to farmers. People have been doing it for 10,000 years with no research. But there are those no-plow converts who swear up and down that they get better results than when they were plowing. Do you need the science when your pappy tells you it's true? Sometimes you do. Why not core aerate? Because the cores bring old weed seeds to the surface and sunlight giving them a new chance to germinate. Because removing the cores destroys the soil structure adjacent to the holes as that soil must melt away to fill the holes. Similarly the cores on the surface melt coating the surface with un structured soil. Because the soil microbes at 3 inches deep, now exposed directly to the air, will be destroyed simply because they bury themselves to get away from the air. Because if you're removing cores containing rye or fescue plants, those will not regrow to fill in where you removed them. For me the number 1 reason not to core aerate is because Mother Nature does not core aerate. If it was an important thing to do She would have created some creature somewhere that had hooves hardened in just the right shape to penetrate the soil and remove cores.

Hello, I live in Virginia and have a primarily tall fescue lawn (or as much as I can control that) This year I have noticed patches of a slightly different color and texture grass. The blades seem to swirl within large patches but also seem clumped together in smaller patches. The base of the stems are semi brownish and the stems seem to lay down on each other. they also have leaves or shoots coming out of the main stem. Not sure if that is correct terminology. Large patches appear to swirl in a way with most blades laid down and the center of the patch having mostly vertical blades. I have attached 2 pictures of a single larger patch and 2 pictures of a single smaller patch. I have looked everywhere to try to find out what this is with no success. I am hoping someone here could enlighten me. Any knowledge would be greatly appreciated. (Also I do not have any pets nor do any pets visit my yard) At tached Images

lisa-marie, maybe you can help me with my yard. The neighbor's lawns all look better. See what I mean... I don't know whose lawn this is, but I kept the photo for just this occasion. My last lawn I allowed to grow until it stopped growing. For the record, St Augustine seems to stop growing at 32 inches high. I cut it down with a string trimmer to 18 inches and it looked perfectly manicured from a distance. Later I cut it down to 12 inches and later to 9 inches. As long as it is all the same height it looks manicured. As we have probably lectured you time and again, weed n feed is a poor product to use under any circumstances. For your lawn. with no weeds to begin with, it is a total waste of herbicide, not to mention an assault on your soil ecosystem. As I recall you have also pooh-pooh'd the idea of deep and infrequent watering. How often are you watering now?