Sunday, May 17, 2009

What to do on a Rainy Day? Blog About the Green!

So far today we have received two inches of rain and counting.....it is about 2 PM. With Gunsmoke on the TV, I am left to the computer. :-)
The weekend started early for us as we went up to George Mason in Fairfax, Virginia for another graduation. A very sweet young lady graduated on Friday afternoon. As it was a late afternoon graduation we met the family, including her brother who is home on leave from Iraq, for lunch at Olive Garden. Our youngest drove over from JMU where she was still packing up her apartment. The plan was to transfer some from her car to ours in the parking lot.

Lunch was very nice. To convoy over to campus we got into our now loaded with apartment stuff car.....and it didn't start!! For some reason the battery was dead. We piled into our daughter's car and headed over to campus. Nice graduation, very proud of another grad.

After graduation and a trip to Walmart to get a pair of jumper cables we were back on the road homeward bound. Hoping the tank of gas would get us there so we didn't have to turn off the car, we drove home(and I worried most of the way).

Saturday morning was a new "Green" event. Our county extension office hosts lawn clinics in various yards over the growing season. We have started to include warm season grasses...Bermuda, Centipede, Zoysia, and St. Augustine. Since my yard is Bermuda, our front yard was the focus of Saturday's lawn clinic. As I am also a Master Gardener on the lawn team, I helped with the presentation.

see the weed, front row center?

The lawn clinics have a great deal of information- from renovation of a yard to maintenance of an existing lawn. You can see the rainy day mode has already begun.


With materials in hand, our team leader presented a great deal of warm season lawn care information.

If you live in the area (or zone 7b) you can make use of these great materials. Warm season lawn care, for just warm season grasses, or the whole kit and kaboodle...
Lawn Care publication

If you are in the area and have a cool season lawn, check our website for some cool season lawn clinics. York County Cooperative Extension

13 comments:

  1. An interesting weekend you've had thus far Janet. It's a good day to stay indoors & catch up with some stuff. We've had about 2" of rain here too. :)

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  2. Very informative. I am in zone 8b...I will check out the warmer zone

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  3. What a great service to provide to the community! Oh, and your grass looks REALLY healthy!

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  4. Hi Racquel, yes interesting and very busy. This week I am going on a study trip with our extension agent and about 35 Master Gardeners....so getting ready for that is fun too!
    Hi DirtPrincess, yes, you should look at the warm season grasses. Your calendar schedule would be a little different, but the basic info would be good.
    Ginger, Our extension office does a lot of great clinics-- instruction on pruning in the winter, lawns (both bermuda type and fescues), and various classes during an extravaganza (day long classes to choose from, then a panel discussion) Great active group.
    I am pretty happy with our grass this year..so far so good.

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  5. You've had a busy weekend! Great lawn info (though I leave that to The Musician and his John Deere).

    Cameron

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  6. thanks Cameron, we have our warm season maintenance schedule posted on the fridge!

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  7. Hi Janet, A perfect tie in with a sea of green in graduating and a sea of green in the lawn. Looks like fun!

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  8. Hi Tina, thanks, it has certainly been a busy time! (I was tickled with myself on the green tie-in)

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  9. Hi Janet, what? Not a Gunsmoke fan? HA Congrats to the graduates and too bad about the car. Glad you made it home okay though. The rains have been here too, although it is sunny today and supposed to remain so until the weekend, of course. I laughed at the one weed in the lawn! :-)
    Frances

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  10. Hahahahahaha Frances, Seems like we have seen every Gunsmoke episode ever made!! You are the only one to mention that. It rained this morning and finally cleared up by mid-morning. You liked the one weed? All his friends are in the flower bed. I cringe to think of needing to get that weeded!!!

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  11. Now that I have a little slip of a lawn I need to pay attention! I plan to plant a few Spring Beauties (Claytonias) in it...

    Congratulations to the sweet young lady!

    Gail

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  12. Hi Gail, Lawns are funny things, if we didn't have three dogs think I would opt for more garden area, though the dogs run through the gardens as it is. Nice you have some Spring Beauties to plant.
    You know when your kids graduate, so do most of their friends-- some of whom you feel especially close to. Great group of grads this season!

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  13. We got a 1/2 inch of rain on Saturday - while I was at Mother-Daughter camp with my little girl. We made the best of it. The best-laid plans and all that, right? Sounds like you had a like experience, but made the most of it anyway. I'm going to have to check out the lawn care materials from your presentation -- I have Zoysia in the back and love it, but I planted it. The front is Bermuda (I hate it) but it came that way and I don't want to spend the $ to re-do it. But I have a terrible weed problem and it's so annoying. Many have blown over into my yard from elsewhere and I'm at my wits' end!

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