Sowed grass in front of front-of-house bed; this time will keep it watered

^^^

Mulch: Wins from last year! Overwintered chopped leaves in basement garbage bag; overwintered hollyhock and zinnia

The garbage bag of chopped leaves that I put in the basement last fall to use this spring is great!!  Looks like it has started to mold (but no bad smell)!  Used half of it to mulch various things; saving the rest to mulch the other things that will be transplanted soon.

And, the hollyhock stems and zinnias that I had overwintered in the yard for the birds -- were mostly a fail birdwise (saw birds eating their seeds only a couple of times) -- but are coming in very handy as a woody mulch for established plants.

I'm also using cut grass from the yard, letting it dry out before applying it as a mulch.

Grass in backyard sprouting (was sowed May 16th)

Wow, seems like overnight it sprung up from nothing to a couple of cms!

Sowed grass

In the bare and topped-up spots.  Used leftover grass seed from past years.

The hill/park grass was mowed; will let it dry for a few days then use it as mulch

^^^

Grass mowed for first time, and round 2 or 3 grass sprouted

^^^

Grass round 3 sowed; round 1 doing great where it did grow

Pre-mixed seed with topsoil, then scattered this onto the thin/bare patches.

I don't see round 2, but round 1 is going gangbusters in the many places where it did come in well.

Grass round 1 appeared, ~1" high

Grass round 2 sown

 In case yesterday's rain storm buried the round 1 seeds.

Grass seed sowed

Over top of the various soil / free topsoil along the path areas, which I raked up a bit first, and also I used the fork to dig in and loosen (not turn) a bit deeper to aerate.  After spreading the seed, I raked it in lightly.  Should rain the next few days so that should help.

The grass is from Canadian Tire, "Garden Club" brand, "all purpose".  Contains kentucky bluegrass, creeping red rescue, perennial ryegrass, intermediate ryegrass, and annual ryegrass.

Grass sowed along new lowered paths

I doubt it will take, given (a) how late in the season it is, and (b) how compacted the ground is on the paths, but why not give it a go.  I used the rake to scratch up the surface a bit, then sprinkled the seed (leftover from a few years ago), then used the rake again to sort of mix things up a bit.

Didn't water, but wetter is on the way, so will let nature do its thing.

Horsetail fungicide (home-made) applied to grass edges

Collected horsetail from Bb yesterday, chopped it up, and soaked it in the recommended amount of water for 24 hours.  Then today, boiled it up for 15-20 minutes, and once cooled, put it into jars, stored under the sink.  

Applied some today to the grass edges though it looks fine now after the mow.

Powdery mildew on grass!!

Sheesh it's not even the middle of May yet!  Powdery mildew in multiple places on the yard grass.  Mostly along edges, perhaps gets less air flow there.   I haven't mowed yet and the grass has grown quite long, maybe could have avoided this with more pro-active mowing.  Scissored the edges and tossed whatever powdery mildew I could.  Then whipper snipped the rest.

Sprinkled some grass seed

To cover up some spots.  First sprinkled some soil, then the seeds, then sprinkled more soil but didn't make attempts to thoroughly cover anything.  (didn't dig the ground at all)

Outdoor updates

Beets:  Of first two sowings, only 1 sprouted!!!  Sowed 2 more rows.

Carrots:  sowed more, all the way to the lettuce.  Carrot bed now full, other than some un-sprouted gaps to fill in.

Spinach:  FLOP!  Not one of the seeds sprouted.  Oh well.

Celery, bok choy, and rest of swiss chard:  Transplanted after about a week of living outside full time.

Bok choy seeds:  Just for fun, tossed some seeds in the defunct spinach bed.  Curious how outdoor-sown will compare to indoor-sown.

Lettuce:  Coming along.  Still way too tiny to harvest any yet.

Petunias from round one:  Living outside full time.  Will transplant soon.

Onions:  The ones I started from seed are coming along, some more quickly than others.  The multiplying onion bulbs though -- wow!  Love them!  Wayyyy more productive than "normal" onions that only send up one green thing.

Tomatoes -- big:  Living outside full time.  Will transplant 1 soon and keep the other as backup/give-away.

Tomatoes -- small:  Started hardening off today.

Peas:  Transplanted the rest of the indoor starts.  And, put plastic crow to guard the outdoor starts of which there are some new ones to the scene.  Crow seems to be working -- nothing nibbling on them since I put it out!  Knock on wood but it looks like I may get some actual peas this spring!

Cabbage / Brussels sprouts / kale / chard (which were transplanted several weeks ago):  Looking ok, haven't lost any, although not thriving, maybe due to the very cloudy and cool weather we've had.  The best one is the cabbage in the tiny "bed" near the patio door -- it looks great.



Grass:  Seeded half of the bare areas 1 or 2 weeks ago.  Seeded the more south spots today.

It's alive! Busy day in the backyard.

(Oh and the "it" in the title of this blog post clearly doesn't refer to my grass! Tee hee!)

Couldn't resist the fantastic weather to spend most of the day in the yard, my first gardening day of the year. Here's the yard after today's activities -- small yard, even smaller gardening area, but amazing how much can grow here!




- Sowed 1 row of beets and 2 or 3 rows of carrots, under plastic dome







- Sowed peas!  Yes that's right, I decided to sow them outside again and take my chances.  Last year's pea seeds were a big failure.  They either rotted, met their end via cutworms, or were plucked out by birds or whatnot.  I suspect all three of those were a factor, no idea why as I had no problems with peas when I last grew them a few years ago.  So, all year I've been saving my toilet paper rolls with the thought of starting them inside this year.  Well, today I decided to get them a shot outside.  Differences over last year:  (1) in a different bed, (2) under plastic cover.  Here's hoping they succeed.  I sure do love sugar snap peas, such a delectable garden treat!







- Sowed spinach, under plastic dome made with garden fence supports




- Planted some multiplier onion bulbs (the ones I planted on February 23rd don't seem to have done much)





- Set out the kale, onions, brussels sprouts, cabbage, and chard (the older plants, not the younger ones) to harden off for a few hours, their first time outside -- although, it was such a nice day I'm not sure how "hard" that was for them!




Charlie the cat enjoyed some good sun time.




It occurred to me that I'm in the process of hardening off not only my veggie plants, but also my little dog who's coming off 8 weeks of cage rest due to a disc issue with his back.  Both the plants and Scooter need to ease themselves into life in the real world!





Charlie had no qualms with Scooter being confined while he was free to roam :D