It’s that time of year again to cleanup the yard, spread the
bark mulch and fertilize the lawn. Spring came early this year by several
weeks. On average the daily temperatures have been 10 degrees higher during the
month of March which has caused some of the trees to bloom and the ground flowers to pop.
Tulips and crocuses have come out a little earlier as well
as the buds on the flowering trees. Unfortunately, last night we had a hard
frost which may have killed off some of the flowers. Hopefully, the green
leaves will soon replace the buds and the trees will quickly fill in. (The
flowers stayed on my trees and are blooming.)
I started to cleanup around the bushes surrounding my house
and wondered where all the dry leaves came from. There were tons of dry oak and
maple leaves stuffed in all the nooks and crannies behind bushes and in the
outside corners of the house. Where did they all come from? I must have raked
out a zillion piles last fall and they’re all back again. Of course the wind
helps by blowing all the leaves from adjacent house lots right into my yard.
It’s like my yard is the neighborhood funnel for all the wind debris. You can see some photos at the link …. https://plus.google.com/photos/108806068200291783388/albums/5727349337401685841?authkey=CJyF1pew84HQzAE
I generally rake out all the leaves into piles and then
mulch them with my push mower with a rear bagger. I then dump the bagger into a
compost pile that makes good soil in a few months. However, you need to add water
and green clippings to the compost pile with some lime and turn it a few times
to get a good result.
After all the leaves and loose debris are cleaned out, I
then cut a clean edge with an edging spade around all the flower beds and
bushes before adding a fresh coat of bark mulch. I like using the brownish hemlock mulch
rather than the red-dyed pine mulch. I
normally spread about 6 yards of mulch around the house, bushes, flower gardens
and yard trees. As a general rule of thumb a yard of mulch will cover about 100
square feet and three inches thick. I
bought my mulch at Eric’s Greenhouse in Reading ,
MA
At a slow pace, I can generally edge a thirty square foot
area, rake it clean and spread the mulch in about one hour. At my age, I only
spend about three hours a day working in the yard usually sprinkled with a few
rest breaks and drinking plenty of water. For those who may want to count
calories, general yard work burns off about 500 calories per hour.
My next chore is to prepare the lawn. During some years
there is a lot of dead grass and thatch which needs to be raked out before
adding fertilizer. You can do it by hand for small lots or machine if the lawn
is larger. I have a half acre lot which is mostly grass so I use the riding
lawn mower with a dethatching tool attached.
I generally drag the dethatcher around the yard and allow the tines to
pull out all the dead grass. I then use the riding lawnmower with a double bagger
and suck up all the debris. I then empty the yard debris into the compost pile.
Lastly, I add the fertilizer to the lawn with a Scotts drop
spreader. I have tried different brands of fertilizer and found that they all
work about the same. Scotts is usually the most expensive, then Pennington and
then Vigoro. This year I bought the Vigoro Fertilizer with Crab Grass Preventer. The 15,000 square foot bags cost about $45.00
at Home Depot and I use about three bags to cover most of my lawn. I then check
the garden hoses for leaks, put in new washers and tighten connections.
I don’t water the lawn much and let mother-nature take care
of it most of the time. In Wilmington
Comments Always Welcome….. markryan82@comcast.net
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