With no petals to distract us, winter is a good time to consider basic issues such as a thinning lawn. If repeated fertilizing is at best a temporary solution, consider a more lasting renovation. As a reward, find a place for a shrub that delivers beauty from July to December.
Customizing your lawn
Unlike idealized golf greens, domestic lawns are almost never made from one singular variety of grass. They are initially grown from blends of three or more grasses with differing characteristics; they are then augmented by wild turf plants such as clover that arrive as volunteers. Putting aside the care and maintenance which you provide, domestic lawns perform differently depending on the kinds of grasses growing in each location.
Grass lawns surrounding newly built homes are installed by a contractor, and it’s unlikely that you’ll be offered a choice of grasses. When purchasing an older home, the established grass lawns may have been planted decades ago and their profiles may be a mystery. In both circumstances, you’ll own lawns that are made up of unidentified grass species. Watching these lawns grow, you’ll become aware of their potential success or possible problems. Despite your best efforts to deliver maintenance, you may have the wrong selection of grass plants for the soil, light and moisture conditions in your location.
If you have a high percentage of moisture-loving Kentucky bluegrass growing on sandy, quick-draining soil, bald spots will eventually appear where the grass is chronically starved for moisture. If lawn grass refuses to grow in dappled shade under trees, chances are that you don’t have the ryegrass and fescue grasses that are adapted to growth in partial shade.
No one wants the work and expenses required to replace an entire lawn that is not performing well. It’s easier and far less costly to renovate the lawn, adding the seeds of more suitable grasses that will change the performance of your turf areas. This is something which you can do yourself in one or two days with easily available materials. Making lawn renovation an annual spring project should significantly boost the health, colour and thickness of lawn areas. Over three years, there should be a visible permanent difference in lawn quality.
First and most important, understand your growing conditions. What levels of light and moisture are available? These are the factors that determine the grass varieties which will grow best in your location. Garden centres and hardware stores have shelves for lawn seed, and these are often mixes of grass varieties. Names such as Beach and Cottage Mix (for poor, dry soil) and Shady Nook (for areas under trees) let you know the characteristics of the seed mixtures and where they succeed best. Look for the smaller print on the back of seed bags for identification of the contained grasses. These mixtures work well and are likely to suit your purpose.
But if you do want to explore making your own custom mix of grass seed, shopping online provides a more expansive list of grasses with problem-solving characteristics. Canadian seed companies offer hybrid lawn seed such as ‘Inferno’ tall fescue, a drought-resistant grass that thrives in hot weather and poor soils, resists roadside salt damage and has good shade tolerance. ‘Audubon’ creeping red fescue is another grass with similar characteristics, and both are fine-bladed fescues ideal for cottage locations.
‘Evolution’ perennial ryegrass is perfect for overseeding an older lawn that is thin and has bare patches. Ryegrass is quick-germinating and makes a thick, resilient turf withstanding foot traffic and athletic games, and is a lush presentation for lawns. ‘J-5’ chewings fescue is another problem-solving grass, thriving in both poor soil and shady conditions. Fescue is a good choice for children’s play areas and will control erosion on sloping land.
Renovating a lawn is simple work and only takes a few hours in spring. First, use a soft leaf rake to remove leaf debris and moss patches from the lawn. Spread the grass seed using any device you’re familiar with, either a push-type seed spreader or smaller handheld version. Use the leaf rake again to spread any seed spills. Cover the seeded areas with a two-inch-thick blanket of peat moss or topsoil. Water with a fine hose spray and keep the seeded area moist daily until seeds germinate and the new grass is three inches high.
One perfect hydrangea
Hydrangeas are a prolific plant family. There are many divisions of hydrangeas, with differing flower forms, shrub sizes and pruning requirements, and varying frost hardiness. But ‘Pinky Winky’ hydrangea is perhaps the most perfect of all, if only because it provides floral display from July to December. That is a long season of ornamental value in any garden.
‘Pinky Winky’ is a panicle hydrangea, producing large clusters of creamy white panicle flower clusters beginning in July. The panicles contain hundreds of small flowers clustered together and they open their petals sequentially over several weeks. Eventually, the panicles become bi-colour, with older pink flowers at the bottom and new white flowers emerging at the tips. The shrub at maturity grows to approximately six feet wide and high, with a heavy load of flowers turning deep pink in autumn. These panicles eventually fade to cocoa brown and are attractive in the first snow of winter.
‘Pinky Winky’ is cold hardy to zone 5 and will grow in part shade to full sun with consistent moisture to get the maximum number of summer blooms. It has no disease or insect problems and reliably delivers a striking display. The flowers bloom on new wood that is triggered by pruning. In late winter or earliest spring, prune branches that flowered the previous season by about a third of their length. Buds along the remaining wood will swell and sprout new branches for the next season of bloom.
By Judith Adam
