Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Mon, Jul 16, 12 at 20:02 Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an hour in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in Las Vegas your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. One last exception is Kentucky bluegrass. The experts mow it at 3.5 inches (one notch below the highest setting). Fertilizing Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it. If you are using chemical fertilizers, too little is better than too much. If you are using organic fertilizers, it is the other way around. At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide.

Tomatoes hate to be overwatered. You'll do more damage over watering than underwatering often. Water them like the rain: a big drenching and then nothing for several days until they're almost drying out, and then drench them again. The problem isn't usually too much water in one watering -- it's watering them too frequently. So go ahead and give them a good drink, but then back off for a few days. Always avoid getting the leaves wet as this can spread disease. How much? How often? That depends on too many variables to have a fixed schedule: your soil, heat, humidity, mulch type, amount of rain... I water as little as the plants need to stay healthy looking. You can dig a hole near your bed and see if the soil is drying out, but avoid damaging the roots. As the tomatoes begin to blush and ripen, back off on the watering -- it'll help concentrate the flavors and avoid splitting. Consistent, proper watering makes a world of difference. Too much, too little and you'll have problems. My first year growing tomatoes I was beset by Blossom End Rot. After I figured out the watering that largely went away. Good luck! >I have the fertilizer schedule down, but get confused on the >watering schedule. I have raised beds, use "t" tape. Do you >water every day? How long? Also, what does it mean when >people say water an inch of water deep? thanks

I go through the mail each day when it comes in. Anything I don't want like ads or junk mail gets thrown away. Bills go to dh's desk and magazines go to a specific spot for the person who reads it. For instance some go in the bathroom and the kids go on their beds. We have a mudroom so the kids are supposed to drop off coats, backpacks and shoes there. We are transitioning from summer to fall/winter right now so it's a mess. It works when we are in season. I just bought new furniture last week so now each child has their own desk for homework. That sort of works. We are still developing the system. I may need to buy a lamp or two. The kids have always gravitated to wherever I am (like the kitchen)for big school projects. We may have a playdoh structure of the zoo or ancient Egypt on the bar for a few days. The desk gives them a place to keep the less messy projects. I bought some office type "in trays" for tracking each child and papers. So far this is working. It allows us to have a place for all of those papers. I don't throw away homework that I didn't recognize as homework. I also have a tray for special event papers that are always coming in like class trips, birthday parties, weekly spelling words, etc. These are usually a time related event so I can find them on quick notice and then trow them away after the date has passed.

stonesmama- if my pool turns out like yours, it will be perfect. It is just so difficult to say how a color is going to look with different sun angles, cages, east or west facing, etc. Apparently there aren't any Blue Lagoon pools in my neighborhood. But I went to stand in a Tahoe Blue (Tec) and I'm sure I like the feel of the Tec best. It was in a cage and north-facing in the morning and was dark. Just a hint of emerald green in the deep end sun. Then I walked down the street to a south-facing uncaged Blue Granite (Sheen) pool. Definitely understood that had a grittier feel to it on the feet, but not in a bad way, just different. It was a nice blue color but dark. The PB just called me and he tried to get me to see a Blue Lagoon pool today but it didn't work out. I'm feeling pretty good about the Blue Lagoon because I'll take the feel over a hint of green. Apparently our city water will make all the pools look green at first until it all gets filtered through and balanced. It's pretty strong stuff - a lot of people don't drink it or have water softeners - and I have to clean everything with vinegar to keep the crud from building up (bathrooms, showers, coffee maker, etc) I'll keep you posted!