I hope everyone in the US is having or had a good Memorial Day weekend.  So far I’ve been doing yard work and flying, and tomorrow will probably be grilling as well.

I’ve been a bit slow this week in uploading photos and updates on the new patch I put on the lawn on Monday, 7 days ago.   The PatchMaster hasn’t sprouted up grass yet, but it should go in the next few days if all goes well and things should start to turn green.  I bought the 15 pound bag for around $25 to patch this area and some others.

There’s some thunderstorms moving in as I type so the lawns have been getting plenty of water.   There’s also a pick of the backyard lawn which we leveled and then planted seed with the use of a wood fiber germinating mat.  The areas that grew in seem to be doing well, but unfortunately there seem to be good size patches which just never sprouted, and I’m not sure why.   I mowed over that mat once, most of it stayed in place.  I suspect we’ll have to put more seed down once the summer is over.

The big lawn project however, on the peninsula is doing well as you can see in that photo (with the 4 sprinklers, next to the barn).   I trimmed back our Eastern Red Cedar on the peninsula (which is actually a juniper – Juniperus virginiana) so now it is not hanging on the ground.  You can see the before picture, with the moss ‘lawn area’  in the forground, and the after picture with the now grassy lawn in the foreground. It looks a lot better being opened up like that and will make mowing a bit easier.   I also want to cut back some branches from the acorn tree which are hanging over the front of the barn.

I also added a couple photo’s of a plant that I’m not familiar with. (Update: They appear to be Peonies)  It has these big red buds at the top of the stem which have not opened up yet, I guess it’s still doing something in there before it bursts forth.   There are a lot of tiny ants all over these buds that seem to be paying a lot of attention to them though.   Either they’re waiting for what’s inside, or there’s some sort of plant juices they like there.

Related Posts

1. Weekend Update: Lawns and Scott’s Patchmaster (28 day report)
2. Scott’s PatchMaster 21 Day Update
3. Lazy weekend

We picked up a very important piece of equipment, although some would not require it critical, others have a hard time living without it.   We looked at some of the gas models and other things out there and finally decided to go with a charcoal grill for now.  It was cheap, which was important, but they’re also pretty easy to operate and low maintenance.

The grill is something we picked up at Lowe’s, 22 1/2″ diameter by ‘grillware’  with 363 sq inches of cooking area and 176 sq inches of warming area (throw the brats on the warming rack and they finish about the same time as the burgers).  It took about 30 minutes to get the briquettes all lit up and the grill warmed up, and then the cooking was on.

For the first run we threw on some burgers and brats, living in apartments for so many years I had forgotten how good BBQ’ed meat tastes and smells.  It was a great meal.  We started with some appetizers…..

Johnsonville brats, they got a little too hot and split, but were delicious anyways.

Then we had the main course.. healthy?  No.   Reasonable portions?  Probably not, but gotta go big for the first BBQ of the year!

Mmmm burgers

Related Posts

1. Cleaning out Flower Beds
2. End of March 2009
3. Pouring a Concrete Sidewalk with Coloring