Some of my "terrific ideas" lol angellady Regarding gel on seeds, its best to dry the seed on a paper plate with the gel on it, and once dry, freeze dry it by putting in the freezer in a paper bag for a week. When you take it out, wrap immediately in plastic then a paper towel so the condensation that will form does not rewet the paper bag of seeds. Once it has warmed to room temp, you can take out the seeds and put in plastic baggies. Don't worry about dried gel on seeds, as long as it is completely dry it won't mold and may help the seed to sprout. If you try to wash gel off with water, you might end up sprouting the seeds before they dry. Freeze drying seeds in the freezer works on all seeds and won't damage a seed that is already air dried. Freezing forces out the last water. Ever take a plastic bag out of the freezer and seen "snow" in the corners? That is the water forced out, and why it is best to freeze dry in a paper bag that breathes. I like to mail seeds in plastic bags in case of rain or snow. They won't mold if they are thoroughly dried and freeze dried first. You can get small plastic bags in the craft section of Walmart or the bead section of craft stores like Michaels for very little money. You can cut a bubble envelope in half and save on postage. I recently sent 2.75 oz of seed in a bubble envelope cut in half to about the size of a #10 or legal size envelope, and paid 1.17 in postage. The other person sent me back 2.1 oz seed in a full bubble envelope and paid 1.51 in postage. Only because my envelope was smaller, I paid .34 cents LESS to mail 5/8ths oz MORE seed. When I sealed it, I folded over the top by 1/4 and stapled it, then put tape over the staples. Tape alone could tear open. So, if you can cut a BE in half and send it for less loaded, you can also fold it in half, tape it, and send it as a SASBE empty for even less postage. Just put your address and postage on, then fold it in half, tape it shut, and put on the the address and postage of the person you are getting seeds from. Leave the envelope itself unsealed, or lightly taped, with a note in the bottom inside listing the seeds you have requested. (What with other requests, user names and real names, it is easy for the trader to get mixed up and maybe send you someone else's trade. The note won't fall out of the unsealed envelope if it is behind the fold.) When they receive it. they can just slit the tape with a knife, open it out flat, take out your note, load seeds, and seal it shut and mail. I use a digital diet scale from Walmart that cost $19.00 three years ago and is still running on the first battery. It gives weight results in oz or grams. I mostly grow vegetables and have traded large heavy seeds like corn and bean so it is useful to have a scale. It goes without saying, SAVE every bubble envelope you ever get and reuse them. Even ask friends and family to save BEs for you. I have never bought new BEs and I have a big box of them on top of the bookcase, mostly from commercial seed orders and other things I have bought by mail order. PS Stamps pasted on plastic tape can peel loose, even the self adhesive stamps. If you have to put a stamp on clear tape, wipe the tape with alcohol to remove any oil and make the stamp stick better, or have the post office weigh it and stick a big paper postage label on.

I WANT TO BE THE GUY EVERYONE ENVYs!!! I already was. Now I want to be the guy where people stand at the curb and drool (hey, it's extra, free irrigation and salivary amylase is good for soil water penetration). 25% Rye blend Unfortunately, that will preclude being the guy everybody envies. At the absolute outside, use 10% Rye. Better still, use none at all. Alleopathy...er, well, rye just keeps anything from growing around it. So, ive decided on my seed, i wont get into the seed or where it comes from because I've seen some of these threads get pretty nasty. its from Lesco and its a KBG so I feel confident. You will be fine, I'm sure. I managed a good lawn on Abbey bluegrass (read Scott's Cultivar du Jour). It was the best in the neighborhood, but not what I'd consider a showstopper. I'm using the Magnificent 3 (Midnight II, Moonlight, and Bedazzled). You may prefer something else. Yes, discussions get heated, but everybody has a preference (the guy down the street is putting in light green cultivars 'cause that's what he likes. Cool). I used Roundup (OK, cheap glyphosate, same thing) twice, five days apart, applied at bottle rate Down went the lawn, but I'd been irrigating and organically feeding so it was awake and growing fast. I saw a change on day 1. By day 7 it was dry straw. The photo progression is on my photo page if you want to see the old lawn and what die-out looks like. I did not rake. That was a partial mistake...but not as complete as I thought. A lot of that is suddenly deciding to grow in the damper conditions we're having, even at 95 degrees plus. The weather breaks Friday. Either that or I'm having a stroke and seeing things. One or the other. Rake. Or dethatch heavily, in each direction, and mow and bag it. I dethatched last weekend after figuring I failed, and it did a great job, plus I set the dethatcher to dig 1/4" deep furrows. Fifteen bags later (one every 500 square feet after a month of rotting that already took a lot of it) I was done. Reseeding will be shortly--maybe, if I need it. There I'll scratch the surface with my rake (or reborrow the dethatcher), clean it off, seed, reverse the rake, and work it in a bit. I'm certain to need to do that in spots. With elite KBG, germination ranges from 7 days (a few cultivars I saw, like Blue Velvet) to 21 (far more likely). Thirty days won't surprise me. I'll be irrigating (and still am since I'm not sure what's happening here) four times daily for five minutes each with an irrigation system. It keeps the surface constantly damp, but not squishy. Finally, I'm lacking confidence. I want my lawn to be deep, dark and dense by late spring. Have I not left myself enough time? would it be worth it to do it this year? i dont want to look like the neighborhood jackass. So, if anyone could lend me some confidence I think i'll do it....i'm 95% there, just doubting myself that I'll ruin current lawn and never regain the state I had by next year :( Your timing is good! August 15 is a great date, so you should have a pretty established lawn by October 15 when it starts to go into fall mode and slow growth (but grow roots like mad). Do it, do it, do it! The timing doesn't get much better than this. Even if dieout takes a full two weeks, you're in excellent time. That gives your lawn (assuming southern NY) September through November to grow and develop root systems, plus late March through late May before the weather starts to get spottily hot. Will it be perfect? Nope. Not next year. But it could be pretty durned nice if you take care of it and feed regularly. Perfect will have to wait until the first of never...there's always a small hole or a large weed somewhere. :-)

My Maryotts order came today, same day my Bettys Country Garden order came, so there were two hugh boxes sitting on the front porch when I came home from doing afew errands. I tell you the later in the year, the more fans per plant. There are numberous ones with five hugh fans all growing in a clump shipped as one order. Just increadable. The quality just astounds me. I got two Wild Cherry Roundups as my Special Gift Bonus and then I got MORE bonus plants. Two Cameo Luster (Maryott 2005 $75.00 apiece)a lovely ruffled pale pink, Two Spacecoast ones and I don't have any spacecoast before this. Got Spacecoast Cotton Candy and Spacecoast Royal Ransom. Then I got In Style a $100 2007 Maryott intro and another Incendiary a $100 2007 Maryotts intro. I had gotten one of those in a prior order. And the plants I ordered are mostly hugh. Many are going to make instant clumps. I am just one happy camper about my daylilies.

I found 2 rebloom scapes on wonder of it all last night before dark when I was removing the days blooms, they were very short scapes so its going to be awhile before they grow up and bloom,I haven't realty looked for rebloom scapes yet, just a accident zi seen them two..I am hoping I get lots of rebloom scaped,and some og them prolifts, a plant growing out of the scape, since now I know how to get it to root and grow... gee, guess I will start checking mine, my clown parade had its last bloom today,so I would love to have a rebloom scape on it. jean