Gardening Thread - Show me your gardens!

So I was going to make a thread about this Andy I found this one. Anyone know the best time to begin seeding the grass for fall? What seed to use? And do I have to aerate or can I get away with spreading? I'm in central NJ as I'm sure geography matters.

 

Here in the midwest September is the best time. Rent a yard slicer or also called verti-cut. It will make small grooves in the yard for the seed to fall into. As far as seed, a fescue mix works best here. I get one that's 5 different varieties in one bag.

 

Thanks. Not sure if you guys get them out there but I had a nasty cicada killer wasp problem this year and they dug the hell out of my lawn.

 

No, I've never heard of that kind of wasp. We get cicada's though. There is a product called Tempo, you will have to go to a ag supply place to get it. It's a insecticide that kills just about any insect, even spiders and you don't have to get it on them. If you have a place around there that sprays ag crops for farmers they should have it. It's about $50 a bottle but you can spray the normal sized yard several times.

 

Is that general or restricted use?

 

General, well here anyway. I don't know if that varies from state to state.
I just Googled it also Carey and you can buy it online and from TSC.

 

Thanks, I'll check it out.

 

FYI... that kind of stuff that kills everything or anything, even kills the stuff you don't want to kill (beneficial things), or at least shouldn't want to kill. But to each his own. Pro's and con's to everything.

 

Switch to collecting rainwater; I've watered my garden almost entirely from my rain barrels so far this summer and it's got a more neutral PH.

 

I just recently saw one of these bastards flying around outside our house. I've seen it twice now. The body is about 2" in length.

 

Yeah, that's them. Season is almost over here so they're dying down.

 

I thought rain water was more acidic?

 

Rainwater runs around 5.5-6 PH usually.

Edit- That's natural, unpolluted rainwater. Acid rain is obviously more acidic. But your plants/soil are usually more capable of handling rainwater than ground water with an alkaline PH.

 

that makes sense. It always seems that the plants grow so much better with rain water than tap water.

 

They look like a flying black bullet and sound like a humming bird. Very distinctive sound and look. They seemed to leave us alone though.

 

prob all the chlorine in the tap water...

 

Part of that is probably how it's applied; when you water your garden you probably aren't running a broadcast sprinkler for 6-8 hours to simulate rainfall, haha!

 

They won't bother you unless you attack them or their holes. I poured ammonia down their holes and they are still alive though which is scary.

 

carb cleaner will kill any bees ive sprayed...

 

Brake Clean too.

I like that foaming wasp killer, though. Keeps them in their hive long enough for you to get out of the shed after you spray them.

For ground hornets though it's hard to beat a big pot of boiling water. Never had anything fly/crawl out after a dose of that. Stick a funnel in their entrance hole after dark and fill 'er up.