I bought my grass seed from a very reputable nursery - it is the exact same mix they sell to sod farms, and know this weed is just in my dirt, because it pops up in my garden when I water as well. So the seed isn't the problem. I've mowed it a few times now, and it is encouraging to see good grass mixed in with the weeds. Some weed killer, fertilizer, and more time will win the fight I think. Thanks to everyone who replied.

This should be a little bigger. Date is May 21, 2002 Image link:

(Duh! it occurred to me that I should just cut and paste the narrative so it doesn't get separated, so here it is. Sorry for confusion.) This is the house that was torn down in 1922 in order to build the new brick-veneer bungalow. (Also please see my other picts, as well as the thread, "1922 farm house landscaping," for history.) Much of this old house was recycled into the new house, as we have seen in the plaster wall lathing, some structural wood, and the upstairs doors. Plus, I'm still finding foundation rocks and bricks and even parts of teacups as I work my "rainbow garden" soil (which see), that I located on the slope of the lower terrace that they built up by filling with sand and all manner of things. Not much time or money for landscape gardening back then. I'm sure they had their "garden," meaning the vegetable garden, and they also would have had fruit trees and bushes (not considered part of the garden), but if they wanted beauty, these people as they sit here would have been viewing their own time period's version of my present-day view from the porch (which see). The elderly lady in the rocker on the left is my great great grandmother; the 15-year-old boy on the far right is my grandfather. His parents are the couple in the chairs, and his three older sisters are shown with their children. (The great great g'mthr and her son, my great g'fthr, would die six years later, putting the responsibility of the farm onto my grandfather.) The picture was dated by deducing who the babe-in-arms on the porch was. These folks are Germans, by the way. A bough from the black pine can be seen on the left. The tree can be seen in other pictures in this series. My father said that my grandfather reported that the tree was always pretty much that same size all the years he was growing up. Once it gets to a certain height, it just flattens out on top and grows only wider and wider. (I've planted several more black pines in recent years scattered here and there--partly for sentimentality, and partly because white pines aren't an option with my penchant for planting different varieties of gooseberries, which are known in some regions to become co-hosts for white pine blister rust.) Egyptianonion

I have a lot of blackberries getting ready to be ripe in a few days. I'm also thinking of blackberry preserves. Yum! But, that is only if they don't get eaten off the vines first by my youngest son who goes out to inspect them every morning once they start to ripen.