Where the wild garlic grows

All this time you probably thought that the weed that comes up in your yard in late winter is the mundane wild onion. Not so, says the UT Agriculture Extension Service. In this part of the country it's actually wild garlic.

The lawn maintenance seminar that my neighbor and I attended a week ago had several bits of information like this. My neighbor said that his yard could be a laboratory for weed sciences since it contains every weed the instructor displayed.

Personally, I would love to have some more weeds in my yard in place of the mud. My place is so shady that it's hard to get anything started. I'm not looking for a pristine carpet of grass, just something underfoot so the dogs won't get muddy when they go out.

The grass seed I sowed should start sprouting in the next week or so. If not, does anyone know where you can buy weed seed?

Now, it's up to the seeds

While we aren't going to get a snow pack to push the tiny fescue seeds deeper into the ground, the last two days have brought almost two inches of soaking rain. I did a spot check and the grass seeds have disappeared in all but the hardest and barest patches of ground. I'll try to sprinkle some organic matter over those in the next few days.

A neighbor and I attended a continuing education class yesterday on lawn maintenance at the University of Tennessee. The two hour session was primarily for those with established lawns, but I learned that I had done a few things right in trying to re-establish my grass.

Germination should take place in 10 to 14 days. Only thing I can do now is something I'm not good at -- waiting.

Weather person, don't fail me know

Three different weather reports say a slow rain will begin Friday followed by harder rain as a cold front passes through. Seizing the day, I rented a turf aerator and bought 300 pounds of grass seed.

I double aerated the front, back and side yards and over-sowed 300 pounds of Pennington Elite Rebel grass seed.

As I mentioned in an earlier post, I have done this three or four times and still have scant grass to show for it.

This is a new type of seed and I have a new attitude. Now, all I can do is wait for rain.