Cultiva

[juuro]

There are a few bald patches in my lawn. (We will not mention the abundance of dandelion.) So, I took the tools, did a bit of soft tilling of the topsoil, added a bit of nutrition, and seeded the bald patches with known good lawn seed. And finally, I took the lawn tractor for a spin, and cut the grass around the patches so as to provide mulch for

Comments

[weofodthignen]

(a) All it cares about is water
(b) Many plants thrive on suffering. Roses, most notoriously. Take as you will ....

M

[juuro]

Roses, in my experience, are very good at inflicting suffering as well.

[prisonbitch]

One must punish the grass to show it who's boss or it will take the upperhand.

[juuro]

I just hope the dandelions are not into snuff. I don't want them to be encouraged by being killed off.

10% acetic acid works well. 5% is a bit iffy.

[zaimoni]

Certainly the climate control is a whole-lawn thing, so perhaps the aconscious preferences are whole-lawn as well.

Around here, it is easy to pick out which grass was healthy before a hard frost or worse. The healthy grass (in thick patches) remains green through a whole week of immersion in snow so resilent trucks do not sink through it, followed by three days of slow thawing. Not so healthy grass, dies in the first few hours of thawing.

The wild violets take a different approach. They must have something akin to brown fat [sic], as they simply try to melt their way through even when shaded for most of the day. Miscegenating with skunk cabbage doesn't sound realistic, as there is none in the immediate vicinity.

Wild tomatoes, of course, die on even a soft frost. Their starving grass by their tropical might is strictly for summer.

[juuro]

Perhaps I should embrace the things that are difficult to change, and promote a few of the plant species up from the "weed" category.

[zaimoni]

As it is, dandelions and clover should be my last-ditch emergency food in summer. [I haven't actually tested this yet.]

[weofodthignen]

One of the peculiar things about this place is that the dandelions die off in summer--it gets too hot for them. They are luxuriant in January. It's freaky.

M