Friday, April 9, 2010

This is my back yard.  The chairs are in the turf to keep Earl- our 13 yr old Golden Retriever- out of the newly seeded areas.

This is a great time of year to over seed your lawn and do turf repair in areas that have taken a beating from kids or dogs.


Here's a turf repair tip for you. Pre- germinate your grass seed.  To do this take your bag of grass seed and poke several small holes in the bag and then submerge it in a bucket of water over night.  This will allow the seeds to absorb as much water as possible and this will help them to germinate more quickly.  By pre-germinating seed you can get seeds growing within 7 days vs the up to 21 days if you just throw the seed down and water.  This technique works best for small areas of repair since the seed will clump together when wet.  Obviously you can't put wet seed in a spreader....just in case any of you were contemplating that.  It's still best to use dry seed for over seeding large areas of turf.  Happy Gardening!

2 comments:

  1. Jenny - what are your favorite cutting flowers...? We're in zone 4...I usually do zinneas/cosmos/sunflowers...wondering what I am missing...
    I am looking for some quick(ish) plants because all of the greenhouse/grow light space is reserved for food...
    We will do farmers market circuit this summer and I want to draw folks in with some pretty fresh cut flower arrangements...
    Thank you...
    xoxoxoxooo
    Petunia

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  2. I Like Zinneas, Sunflowers and Cosmos. I also like Verbena bonariensis, tall Snapdragons, Asclepias curavassica and tall Gomphrena mixes. You can also use whatever perennials are in flower in your border each week. Daisy's, Coneflowers,Black Eyed Susans, Delpjiniums, Monanrda, Scabiosa, all make nice additions to your cutting flower arrangements.

    Good Luck!
    xoxoxox

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