I noticed that over the last few days, as the weather has warmed up, that the grass was starting to show some green. The problem with my yard though is that it literally gets choked with dead thatch. This will be the 6th year for this yard, and I did dethatch the yard about 3 years ago, but it really needs to be done every year, although I have aerated every spring and fall for the previous 2 years. This year, I decided to do a full dethatch again. It's a delicate balance as you want to pull out the dead grass, but don't want to chew up the ground an destroy the new shoots. Well, I can only say that it was a huge success. After renting the power rake and running over the yard twice on setting 2, (from 1 to 6), I was amazed at the amount of thatch being pulled out. I wanted to go deeper, but the ground was still soft in some areas, and I did get a lot out. In fact, it took me about 6 hours to rake and bag the thatch, all 19 of them. Yes, that's right, I bagged 17 30 gallon sacks of thatch, and 2 54 gallon trash cans. Holy moly, that was a huge job, and I'm so sore this evening. In fact, I loaded the last pile of thatch just as the sun was setting in the west. Wow, I'm tired. But honestly, the yard looks so good right now. It's ready to be mowed, and hopefully, I can get that done tomorrow, and possibly get some fertilizer down by the end of the week as some rain is in the forecast for the weekend. Phew, a big job, but I'm so happy that's it's done. My neighbor thought I was a little premature, but I honestly don't think so, I think my timing was perfect this year. I still need to do an aeration too, and I should have a kick ass lawn this year.
With regards to other gardening chores, I do have to replace my two apple trees this year. I naively didn't put bark guards on last fall, and damn rabbits chewed the bark right off them. They are dead. There are a couple of welling buds on them, but it's not worth it to nurse them back. So, I think I'd like to replace them with a pear tree and a plum tree perhaps. A lesson learned.
I also want to build a cedar arbor, and get a couple of Concord grapevines going. I don't really know much about the pruning of the grapes, but I do have some friends who might be able to help. They own a winery in northwest Iowa, so perhaps they can give me some pruning and training advice. I'd also like to plant a couple of non-fruit-bearing crabapple trees. I think there is a Snow Crab variety that does not produce fruit, but they do flower nicely in the spring. They really weren't in my master plan last year, so I may need to develop a new plan. Ha. Oh well.
I also do have a couple of sink holes to fix this year, along the side of the house, and at the back of the property where the electrical cables are buried. It's always something. I also would like to pull up my landscaping brick and relay them, to get them in a nice straight line again. Ah, never-ending chores.
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