The temperatures have been qwazy this season, right. St. Louis is in USDA Hardiness Zone 6a (or maybe it's 6b nowadays), but the coldest temp we've had so far this Fall of 2011 and Winter of 2012 is only about 13* F, I think! Last year I remember getting down to somewhere between minus 3* F to minus 6* F below zero. Don't think I've ever remembered a winter this mild.

Supposedly this is a La Nina year but so far we've gotten a lot of rain. We're actually a little ahead of the average for this time of year, so that's a blessing.

The purple/red deadnettle has been blooming along with the henbit. It's often mistaken for henbit but its leaves are more triangular. My neighbor's backyard is awash in henbit and deadnettle--he's got lots of both mixed together.

Earlier in the Fall, my vinegar spraying of his henbit and deadnettle 2 feet into his property has created a nice 2-foot barrier now where my zoysia can rest easy, and in time grow into his yard. He's happy with the results. Said he'd love for my zoysia to grow into his backyard since the yard's awash in weeds.

The zoysia still seems asleep, all tan. I would have thought the zoysia would awaken earlier than the bermuda, but I guess not.

Figures. Oh well, I would have thought the zoysia would wake up sooner since zoysia is more cold-hardy than bermuda.

The planted plugs of zoysia from last season have many more greening blades than the decades-old zoysia, but there's green in both. It's not dark green for either, but a pale green.

The above-ground stolons are still very brown, almost woody in texture and with a lifeless appearance, but I was surprised to find some pale green shoots of zoysia extending up from the rhizomes that are hidden just underneath the ground. These short green blades and shoots above the ground are hugging the ground tightly--it's probably warmer close to the ground. So the invisible, warmer underground rhizomes are able to have visible green shoots and blades that are hugging the soil surface, but the colder above-ground stolons still look very much asleep and showing no green.

I'll tell ya what is really dark green--and this surprised me a lot--is the fine fescue located within 4 feet of the house's brick walls. Maybe the bricks provide a heat zone, because that fescue is really dark green. Further out than 4 feet, the fescue isn't at all dark green--it's a mix of light green and brown, yet it's the same kind of grass: Boreal fescue I think. I mean what else would that decades-old fine fescue be but Boreal? The house was built in 1970. Were they using anything else but Boreal fine fescue back then in St. Lou?

Well I'll tell ya, it shocked me how dark green and lush that fescue looks within 4 feet of the house. This is in the backyard (the front is all zoysia). The backyard is southwest of the house--probably warmer there than to the northeast of the house, but the house must also be providing a heat zone that goes out to about 4 feet.

The small stand of Fenway and Wendy Jean varieties of fine fescue (and the Kentucky bluegrass) that I planted last year in September never did turn brown like the Boreal variety of fine fescue. Instead it turned a little whitish-grayish during the colder period starting at the tips of the blades going down. But it still held onto quite a lot of green color even during the colder weeks. At this point in time it's greening up a whole lot--not much of the whitish-grayish color left. Lotsa brown left in the Boreal outside the 4-foot heat zone though (but, again, the Boreal inside the 4-foot zone is super dark green).

We mostly had an open winter this year--not much snow. The Organic Lawn Care Manual does say that during open winters, fescue can turn brownish without the protection of snow cover.

The forsythia I saw while speeding by were in full bloom, not just befinning to bloom. I can't say for sure they were forsythia though. Should have stopped and smelled the "roses."

My pear tree started opening its buds in early March. Its flowers appeared about a week after that I think. Pretty but stinky flowers. The pedals of the flowers have all fallen off now. Lots of nice green leaves now.

Small purple flowers have been blooming for a week or so underneath the apple and pear trees. These purple flowers are for that low-growing leafy green weed that usually grows in groups; its shape kind of reminds me of the horn of plenty.

Last season's fennel and parsley are doing fine. Last weekend we planted 25 to 30 long squash seeds. Those are big seeds!

It's been raining a lot here recently. Both my neighbors resumed lawn service this week.

I think Texas-Weed is right. Meyer Zoysia should be cut lower than the 3.25 inches I was cutting it down to last year (wheel setting 4).

On March 6 of this month, I cut the zoysia down to 2.625 inches (wheel setting 3)--I had left it long in anticipation of the winter (seems some say leave grass long for the winter; others say cut it short for winter). While cutting, I bagged the brown clippings and saved them for mulch and compost.

I think I'll be using 2.625 inches for most of the rest of the season, although on March 10 (four days after my first mowing), I cut it down to 2 inches (wheel setting 2).

A lot of the zoysia right now is a peppery mix of brown and green, though some of it is dark green already, and it's growing in height too. Temps here have been way above normal for March: 85* F even.

The Boreal fine fescue is virtually all green now.

I've seen little crabgrass sprouts within the house's 4-foot heat zone for a week now--more everyday. Some of the lil crabgrass sprouts are beginning to poke above the ground in the same small bare patches where some of the young cool season grass mix that I planted has been growing. The short, young, cool season grass is still much taller than the young crabgrass but I doubt that will be the case for long. The young grass was alone for a couple weeks, but now it's got company. Maybe if I paint the crabgrass sprouts with 5 percent distilled white vinegar using a tiny fingernail polish brush, I can avoid getting the vinegar on the new young grass plants.

The stems of the yellow woodsorrel are beginning to harden and the roots are just now becoming a little woody, so when you pull the sorrel out, you can easily get the whole plant now, roots and all.

The dandelions have been going crazy for about a week--lots of yellow flowers and white puff balls bearing seeds.

My front and side lawns don't have that many weeds, but half of my back lawn (the northwestern half) has a large variety of weeds that I left alone last year, and purposefully did not remove. Last year I concentrated my weed removal efforts on the front and side lawns and the southwestern half of my back lawn. Things are looking up there. The weed count there is so, so much lower than in the northwestern half of my backyard that there's no comparison. So I'm pleased about that.

Temps here have varied daily considerably from daytime highs in the 80's to 60's to nighttime lows in the 30's to 50's Fahrenheit. Was a very warm March--I think the weather reporter said the 4th warmest on recond in St. Louis. And of course, we had a very mild winter--I think also the 4th warmest on record he said.

In mid-March I was surprised to see some of my zoysia producing seedheads. They're the single-spiked seed heads that zoysia is known for. In mid-March I only saw the seedheads in two largish zoysia plugs that I had planted last year. The larger of the plugs is about 18 inches by 15 inches, IIRC. The seedheads appeared only in a small area of the plug that was about 1/8 the size of the plug. I pulled the seedheads out to see what would happen, and within days new seedheads would appear again but only in the same smaller areas of the 2 plugs. However, this was in mid-March. As of the past couple days, there are seedheads all throghout the zoysia, not just the new plugs I planted last year. The front and backyard zoysia lawns are full of single-spiked seedheads--short ones.

Last March, which was two months before I started reading about zoysia (in order to plant about 10 pieces of sod--4 big pieces of sod to wipe out a front lawn weed patch and 40 smaller plugs in the backyard to eliminate another weed haven), I didn't yet know much about zoysia so I let all the grass grow tall, very tall. At times early last year before I began reading, I would cut the zoysia only once every 3 weeks. That zoysia got tall and produced lots and lots of seedheads, which later got mowed down. I guess I incorrectly thought I wouldn't see any seedheads this year because I'm keeping the zoysia short, mowing at 2 and 2.25 inches, but there are the seedheads again, now on short spikes. I'll be mowing tomorrow.

Zoysia seedheads are much prettier seedheads than those of bermuda. The single-spike seedheads of zoysia are actually attractive, unlike Bermuda's 3- to 5-fingered seedhead.

Things are looking up for the eggplants too. We planted into 8 small styrofoam cups some eggplant seeds that my mother had collected and stored about 8 years ago, before my father came down with Alzheimer's around 2005. The 8-year-old seeds produced seedlings after about 10 to 14 days! There are now 10 sprouted egg plants about 1 to 1.5 inches high in those cups now, with healthy leaves. Don't you just love the taste of egg plants! Last year my mother transplanted to the outdoor garden young egg plants that she got from my uncle, but this year we're growing them from 8-year-old seeds!

Would you believe my uncle is 94, doesn't have a trace of Alzheimer's and he still gardens and mows his own lawn! And he uses a walk-behind mower! (My mother is much younger than my uncle--big age disparity between the two. By the way, I'm exactly 45.)

Finally, the zoysia has been really greening up this week. Whole lotta green in there now. I was worried parts of the lawn would be yellowish after last year's 2,4-D exposure turned parts of it yellow--that's why I bought the organic fertilizer this year (never had to use fertilizer before). But the zoysia is turning green on its own. However, I now have the fertilizer so I'll be using it soon, probably in a week or two.

I'd estimate 75 percent of the zoysia is now green. The last average frost date for St. Louis is April 15. The last average safe frost date for St. Louis is April 19. The last average safe frost date is the date on which 90 percent of the frosts have occurred over the years on average.

In early March the perennial purple nutsedges resurged, re-starting their tall, skyward growth again while the yellow sedges waited until late March to show up, popping up from the ground late in the month. Lots of bright yellow sedge grasses are visible now in St. Louis.

A few mock strawberries became visible last month, but now many more can be seen.

The henbit and purple deadnettle annuals have been on a decline for some time now--maybe a couple weeks.

But the plantains have been having a good ol'e time for 2 or 3 weeks, growing large leaves.

I've seen only one poa annua weed in my entire yard. Saw it a couple weeks ago. It was chock-full of inflorescences. I debated keeping it for novelty's sake but a few days later pulled it out. It was in my side yard (south side) between houses. I think I saw a second today but the weed is still too small to tell for sure that it's poa annua. It's at the opposite end of the property, somewhat underneath a pear tree.

My fine fescue and Kentucky bluegrass have been "flowering" now for a couple weeks, producing lots of inflorescences, even the shorter shoots.

A couple weeks ago, the old Kentucky bluegrass I have in part of my backyard was in full bloom--lots of tiny blue flowers in the inflorescence. The bluegrass has shown inflorescence for roughly 4 weeks, but the midpoint in that period was the bluest. Love Kentucky bluegrass; feels so soft to the touch. I think this old KBG goes back to the 1970's.

Some newer Kentucky bluegrass that I planted last year in a separate portion of the backyard looks great, but didn't produce a single inflorescence this year. I think I read somewhere that some of the newer varieties of KBG don't produce seedheads. Also some of the newer varieties that do produce flowers don't produce blue flowers, which is where Kentucky bluegrass got its name. The 2 varieties I seeded last year are called Abbey and Wildhorse. Grass looks great but not a single inflorescence was produced. I guess I'll have to rely on its rhizomes alone to spread, instead of seed too.

The fine fescue is looking good too. The Meyer zoysia in the front yard and in back is now looking awesome--so green and thick. My next-door neighbor complimented it. Poor fellow; his front yard zoysia looks half yellow because he's got just a ton of yellow wood sorrel in his zoysia. (He probably finds the yellow and green mix attractive though. I don't think he's a "grass guy" like us.)

I've abandoned the 2.25 inch cutting height for my zoysia for a strictly 2.0 inch cutting height. I've cut it at 2 inches this season many more times than 2.25 inches.

The 1.6 inch scalping early on helped too. I wish my mower had a 1.8 inch setting; I'd like to try that height for regular mowing and compare it to 2.0 Maybe I'll ask my other neighbor if I can measure his Craftsman mower's cutting heights.

We've had 90 degree weather here and lots of rain, a veritable deluge last Saturday (gotta wonder if it was 2 or 3 inches in a single day). That was the second major deluge this season.

I think here in St. Louis we've now had ten straight days with temperatures of 100* F and above. It was even 108* F on one or two days. We also saw 105* and 106*. (Uncanny, and so early in the summer.) On June 27, it was "just" 97*. But the following day it was 108 and we haven't seen relief since. It's suppose to "cool down" to the 90's in a day or two.

It hasn't rained in about 3 weeks again. This is the second time we've gone 3 weeks this spring and summer without rain (or virtually none). My neighbor's large patch of Black Medic in his side yard got fried to death during this
go-round of no rain and plenty of heat. Black Medic is another nitrogen-fixing plant like Japanese Clover and Dutch Clover. His patch of Black Medic (with yellow flowers) was roughly 5 feet long by 2 or 3 feet wide before it died in the waterless heat wave. Even though Black Medic is a warm-season annual like Japanese Clover, the Black Medic produces flowers (yellow in color) much earlier than Japanese Clover. Black Medic has been producing lots of flowers for
quite some time now--a month or two. The Dutch Clover (a perennial) has been producing lots of white flowers for longer than the Black Medic--much longer.

On a sidenote, we harvested our first long squash today! Its length was one inch short of 4 feet! We planted the seeds on March 18, about 3 and a half months ago. Delicious eating later today...

This has been an all-organic year for the lawn and garden.