Tuesday Evening Update

Monday evening, I came home and decided to throw on the first coat of the "Posh Red" paint onto at least one of the doors. I focused on the outside garage door and put a nice coat on it. It will take at least two or three coats, I bet.

This morning, I got up, had some coffee, waited until the garbagemen came and the recycling men came, then went out to pull the garbage can and the recycling bin back into the garage.

We must have had some hellacious dew last night, because part of the first coat of "Posh Red" paint had seemingly become even more wet than when I left it last night. Parts where I knew were tacky last night were soaked this morning, and there was also some "running". I grabbed a touch-up brush, and smoothed things out a bit, then I went upstairs for Janice's blowdryer.

I didn't look too closely, after all things were said and done, but I think Janice is still blonde, with no "Posh Red" highlights. LOL

We had a warm semi-sunny day here, but I knew we were to get a little rain overnight. I decided not to do any more painting, but instead to work on a few more brown/bare spots with grass seed.

Well ... I got about 20 minutes into that, before the rain started up. I made a "dent", but there are a lot more brown spots left to go. I'm hoping that I don't find more damage to the front lawn than I had originally attributed to Dollar Spot. One patch I scarified seemed to be teeming with Sod Webworms. Fortunately, these are both typical summer-time ailments. Hopefully, with some good fertilization this fall, and some overseeding with some more resistant cultivars of Kentucky Bluegrass, Fine Fescue (which I really don't like, but it's prevalent in the Northeast) and some hardy Perennial Ryegrass, things will turn around by springtime.

I know ... most of you are of the opinion that "green is good". I like having a nice lawn, when I have one, and so be it ... I'm a little "weird" about it. I'd like to always have the nicest lawn on the block. This one may take me a few years. By the time we'd moved in, the dollar spot had already taken a pretty good toll, and the previous owners, whatever they had done before, weren't continuing to do.

I am, however, happy to report that the areas I seeded last week are now beginning to show some new growth. They are a day or so apart, so the one spot is starting to come in pretty nicely, the other is just now starting to show "life".

Because we are hilly, here, and the soil is by and large pretty clayish, mixed with some sand, I think I am going to petition the other owner here for a tow-behind aerator/spreader for the John Deere, next year. I would continue to use the Scotts push-type broadcast spreader (it really does a good job, if you're using Scotts products - you don't have to do any conversions on "OK if the Scotts fertilizer says to use a setting of "3", what do I set this other brand spreader to?"). What I am afraid of, is the tree line in the back, and a couple of areas just outside the front door. Those area get a lot of moisture (along the treeline) or they dry out very easily (just outside the front door), and can become compacted quite easily either way you look at it.

With an aerator/spreader combo, I could easily hit those areas and all others (since we also want to gradually expand the lawn a bit out into what is now the woods) with a deep aeration and combined seeding and then follow it all up with a Scotts-applied fertilization.

Oh well ... anyway ... I'm a little weird about the lawn. It sucked having a "rain-out" this evening. I could have gotten so much more done.

Then again ... ... ... maybe this is a good thing. I'll get a little rest! Yeah, that's the ticket! :-)