The mantra for watering is deep and infrequent. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Infrequent means monthly in the cool months working your way toward once every 7 days as the days heat up. This is not a rule of thumb but guidance - if the temps are above 90 degrees F, then you should be watering more toward once per week. Between 80 and 90 should be about every 2 weeks. Lower than 80 and it's more like every 3-4 weeks. There are other factors including sunlight, humidity, cloud cover, shade from buildings and trees, soil type, soil depth, grass type, grass height, etc. Rather than trying to keep mental track of all that, it is best if you watch the grass for signs that it is drying out. As soon as any part of the yard looks dry, it is time to water the entire yard. If it has been fewer than 7 days in the summer, then water longer. No plan is ever perfect. There are some fungal diseases which cause the grass to dry out and look like it has not been watered enough. If you are certain the soil is moist, but the grass looks dry, then you likely have a fungal disease. Yes, there are fungicides. I use an organic approach so I don't know what the chemical fungicides are. I believe Immunox has been mentioned. Before you get one, read the entire label looking especially for the part about what the maximum temperature should be and rainfall. Summer is not a great time to treat for fungus because of the high temps.

Here are symptoms to compare the two. I have empire in florida, I have let my grass get very high, 4+ inches this summer during the rain. I have not noticed any fungi other than a few mushrooms. the difference is how they start, the fungus looks like wet grass where the billbug just looks dry and dead. ____________________________________ Brown Patch fungus On warm season turf grasses, the disease is characterized by at least two different types of symptoms. The most common is a circular pattern of brown grass with a yellowish ring (smoke ring) of wilted grass on the perimeter of the diseased area. The leaves can be easily pulled from the stolons with the smoke ring because the fungus destroys the tissue at the base of the leaf. Symptoms first appear as small circular patches of water-soaked, dark grass that soon wilt and turn light brown. Stolons often remain green as the disease develops, the circular patches enlarge, smoke-rings become apparent and new green leaves may emerge in the center of the circular areas. Bill bugs cause the most damage when they are larvae, and can spread and destroy large sections of grass if not contained or killed. Small circles that get bigger and overlap, creating a large kill area. Common signs of Bill Bug problems are dead spots on your lawn that don't recover from watering.

Purpleinopp, eventually the inflorescence elongates and resembles other hostas. It is blooming now in pale violet color, and it is not fragrant at all. I have one hosta blooming very well in white. It is Royal Standard, but I do not recall if it is fragrant. I have a rectification about Iris sibirica Over in Gloryland. Some stems have actually 4 blooms, so it stays here with me. Rouge, Eryngium alpinum is beautiful but it is not particularly long-lived with me(perhaps my climate?). Average lifespan for a clump is about 4 years. But you can let some seedlings grow(it seeds well if allowed). Eryngium Forncett Ultra has been growing for 15 years here and I have 5 giant clumps of it. When moved it will return from the roots. It is beautiful but very prickly(unlike E.alpinum, which is soft to touch) Gottagarden, I have made the Weigela tree out of a cutting taken from my B-I-L's garden. I let the main stem grow to 1 meter and then made a crown. I will make another one when the crown is higher than 1 meter. I'm not sure if it is easy to transform existing BIG bushes into trees, but why not try? Here it is as it looks in November: Here are some more June shots: Peony, bought as Shirley Temple. This one changes colour yearly, usually white with occasional red spot(like Festiva Maxima , her mother). This year opens light pink. My favourite peony, because it did never flop for me Iris White Owl, by far the best white iris for the North, wiped out the whole competition hands down. I googled it and got 1! relevant hit, whithout picture or description. How is it possible? Geranium pratense Summer Skies, the best of the new doubles(the white one with purple eye was a terrible flopper), stands well until the blooming is over. It is light violet with a touch of pink, not exactly a synonym for summer sky here. Geranium pratense Caeruleum Plenum, only a curiosity, as the plant has absolutely no vigor. My old Delphinium (seedling). Pay attention that the florets are shorter than on English ones, which makes them so much better to resist wind damage.

Hi, Thanks for replying... I am in Southern New Jersey. I fertilized with Scott's Weed and Feed (or whatever they call it) in the spring. The lawn in fescue that I planted in the spring two years ago and then heavily reseeded last fall. It came in great but is quickly dying as a result of this fungus. Last night I aerated the whole lawn. I also bought 240 lbs of cornmeal, which I read is an organic solution to this type of fungus. I didn't put it all down last night becuase it got dark out. I'm planning on finishing tonight. I've read the dollar spot fungus is caused by: 1.) Low levels of nitrogen; 2.) Dry soil?? 3.) Excessive thatch. I believe my N levels may be low becuase I fertiziled early in the season and I don't think Weed and Feed has much slow-release nitrogen in it. As for the soil moisture, I was watering 15 minutes per zone in the early morning. When I noticed the brown spots, I upped it to 20 minutes per zone. When that didn't work, I began watering in the evening too (same amount of time). I only watered in the evening for about a week before I realized I had a fungus problem and turned the sprinklers off completely about two weeks ago. I'm compltely confused becuase the problem has gotten worse both with more water and less water. Before I turned my sprinklers off, I mowed in the evening and noticed that the ground was really wet even though the sprinklers hadn't been on since the morning watering (which started really early but I have eight zones so it takes a while). Since turning off the sprinklers, the problem has continued to get worse too. This morning I have huge areas (about 10ftx8ft) compeltely covered in the white webbing shown in the picture. Anyway, my plan is to finish putting down the cornmeal tonight. Then set my sprinklers to 30-45 minutes per zone twice per week in the morning. I'm going to try to start the watering early enough so it's done before mid-day, but not too early so that the water sits pre-sunrise for too long. Any other input or suggestions. I'm really disappointed with my lawn. I've put a ton of time and a good amount of money into it and it looks like crap. In addition to this problem, I have weeds and crabgrass invading. I put down crabgrass preventer back in Feb/March, but it seems to be ineffective in certain areas of my lawn. Kevin