OK, now the rest of it. >>They really hide all the blemishes, even the big obvious ones where the trees were removed. Shh. That happens in every lawn photo. :-) >>-The 32 lbs of Mag-I-Cal is the total amount I put over the whole lawn. I know it's much stronger than standard calcitic lime. I think (hope) I did my calculations correctly. Good. I once accidentally overapplied 12 pounds per thousand to the gardens and watched the plants turn yellow. Calcitic shouldn't be applied at more than 9 pounds per thousand square feet at a time, with a minimum of 3 months between applications--and repeat only if pH is extraordinarily low. -I'll revise my Milorganite schedule to cut out the June and July feedings. I'm not sure about feed stores nearby, I'll have You certainly can if you wish, or not if you wish. While I tend to recommend against summer applications on healthy lawns, it's not exactly going to be a problem. Quite the opposite, and if you notice color fading badly in the summer sun, feed it. It might need the free iron. >>application. So basically for the same price I'd get more bang for my buck out of the soybean meal? I know dchall That does depend. The bag rate for Milorganite is 14.4 pounds per thousand. I generally recommend 20 to target 1 pound of available nitrogen per application (organic N does take a while to work in, so far less than that is initially available). For soybean meal, 1 pound of N per K is 15 pounds of soybean per thousand. So you're using three quarters the amount to do the same feeding job. If raising OM is your goal, neither soy nor Milorganite is technically your best choice. Cracked corn requires 60 pounds per thousand to supply the same 1 pound of N per K. Which means it's less likely to smell terrible at very high levels of application (decay scent is nitrogen compounds--less nitrogen, less smell, as a general rule and all else being equal). >>uses Alfalfa pellets, is there a reason you prefer soybean meal over alfalfa? Is Alfalfa more expensive in our region? For me, it's pricey. To get that 1 pound of N equivalent, alfalfa needs to go down at 50 pounds per thousand, more than three times the rate of soybean meal. Since it's about the same price, the nitrogen is three times as expensive. Northern lawns don't benefit--and actually can suffer delays--from too much alfalfa put down at once. 20 pounds per thousand per month is the maximum rate the guru I learned from recommended. >>-I definitely understand what you're saying about just spot spraying weeds. Seeing the amount of crabgrass that is popping up this year, though, By all means area spray if the problem is widespread in the area. Spot spraying is great, but sometimes clearing the deck initially is required. >>I think I still want to use a preemergent in the spring. I've spent several hours the past couple weeks pulling crabgrass and it's continuing to pop up faster than I can pull it. Pre-emergents are wonderful. I spray Prodiamine once a year for a 9 month shield. It's not perfect, but I'm also not complaining about 90% effective. I haven't pulled a weed from the stone patio in years. I don't have to. >>I expect improvement as my yard thickens, but one of my neighbors yard is 100% weeds, so I may always have a bit of a battle on my hands. You've seen my lawn? The lawns to the southwest, south, east, northeast, and north are weed pits. No worries, your lawn can outcompete any weed. With the possible exception of some of the Poa genus. >>-I've considered edging my driveway with some landscaping, but like the idea of the grass going right up to the edge of it, mainly to keep the mowing as simple as possible as ridiculous as that is. No problem! We all have our aesthetic preferences. >>Like dchall said I'll stick some tuna cans there the next time I water and see what's happening. I'll give it one more season and if I can't keep control of it maybe I'll throw in some landscaping. At the very least maybe an 8" border of light colored pavers will be enough of a buffer. Good plan. Keep in mind that areas bordering pavement may require watering more often. When I designed my irrigation system, I did it so that the south face of the driveway was zoned with other things that need more. Now if I'd remembered to do that on the north side...but no matter. I'll eventually turn that into another 20 square feet of garden attached to the gardens on either side of it. >>-I'll have to sneak out and chop off some of that pine tree. If the branches are over onto your property you have every legal right to cut them off at the property line. It might be impolitic to do so, however, so I fully support your decision to wear black and do this at 2 AM. Storm damage sometimes comes up so suddenly and takes off just a few branches, huh. >>The grass isn't totally barren, it looks fine from a distance, so I'm not at the point of giving up and mulching it yet. Also try feeding and watering it a bit more than the other areas of the lawn. Sometimes hard-pressed grass just needs a hand up. -I was afraid of that answer about the chipmunks. I do enjoy seeing them out there but they need to leave my plants alone! I'll try the Tabasco sauce, maybe line the base of the plants with chicken wire, stick a hose down their holes and the spread the cat litter. If they still persist, I think I may resort to the rat zapper. Looking it up, at least one site states that there are no repellents registered for chipmunks. However, it also says that any squirrel repellent will work on them. Sonic repellent device(s) might be another idea. -When I said "possibly with a slit seeder" that was my weak way of asking if that's a recommended method. I've never used one and I'm a little worried it's going to do some damage. Will I see much better results with that vs just using a broadcast spreader after aerating? You'll get great results with a slit seeder. I got great results broadcast spreading seed on the soil (no aeration, no raking, no preparation at all). Assuming this is in blank areas, topdressing with 1/8" of peat moss to hold some moisture might be a good idea. For general lawn transmission, that's unnecessary, expensive, and time consuming.

Hi Julie, I think that the best advice I could give is that you decide on how much you can spend on travel (and of course the daylilies you will want to buy when you see them in person!) and then see how far from home you can go. There are display gardens all around the country, but I see only one in Oregon although there are three in Washington. You can look them up on the AHS web site which is http://www.daylilies.org/daylilies.html Then click on Regional ACtivities. You are in Region 8. If your buget allows, there is also something called Daylily Mecca - one in the upper midwest (Ohio, Michigan and Kentucky) and another in Florida where hybridizers' gardens are open over a several day period. I looked briefly and could not find anything about the one in Florida for 2009, but if it is happening, it would likely be in late May or early June. The one in Ohio is in the planning stages. It will likely be a 2 - 4 weeks after the one in Florida. You can see a bunch of gardens in a relatively short time. Info for this is at http://www.northernmecca.com Other than that, if you can find individual growers in your area, or somewhere that you would not mind going to for those three days, nearly all of them will be glad to tell you when their peak bloom season occurs and they will welcome your visit. Besides the National Convention mentioned above, each AHS Region generally has their own annual get together which revolves around garden visits and a lot of good food. I'm in Georgia, and our Regional meeting is the first weekend in June with tours planned for both Saturday and Sunday. Good luck finding what you want. I'm sure that there are other regional meeting closer to you. They should be listed (or will soon be listed) on the AHS web site Larry

The boxes were actually in the bedroom when she told me to remove them.they were stacked atop one another against a wall.She said "fire hazard" and gave me a week to unpack what was inside.I already had a few pieces of audio equipment in my living room and when i unpacked i added more..nowhere else to put it.I made certain that it's all organized well and polished of any soil and not obstructing pathways in or out of the room, 'nor blocking access to the window. i'm not a messy person but when she inspected(initially),she found the kind of stuff that most of us wait til we move out of a place to bother cleaning.I've lived here nearly 4 years now ,so i admittedly did have some legitimate cleaning to perform..It was when she voiced her dissatisfaction with my 'stuff' that i got angry as well as fearing eviction.She stood in my entryway yesterday,(the re-inspection) looking at my 'stuff' and says " it looks better..but..you DO know that the state inspectors are going to be in here on the 31st!?..)I simply nodded and very casually or matter of factly said "yeah"..it was a kodak moment. I want to thank everyone for their response.i feel 100% better now.I spoke to a few people(acquaintances) at the local Denny's this morning shortly after my initial post here and they told me how absurd my manager's notion sounded to them,but i still felt panicky..The responses here put an end to that panic..Thanks again to all of you who replied.btw,i never bothered to move my vinyl LP's..They're still in the bedroom.Classic 60's 70's and 80's fire hazards don'tcha know! This post was edited by michaelspicer on Thu, Jan 30, 14 at 11:27

Pretty kitties...I especially like Louie. What color are his eyes? And I want to come back as a cat too. Nine lives, someone feeds you daily, sleep most of the time, humans spoil you...how hard can that be?