Wait a while, ‘till a little moonbeam comes peepin’ through.
Hello, again!
There is nothing like taking a night ride on bicycles in the Flint Hills, no matter what the moon phase happens to be. With no moon, the sky comes alive with the stars in the heavens. With a full moon, the need for headlamps is almost nonexistent. Last weekend, a day past the recent full moon, my friends Joe, Byron and I took out from Cassoday, Kansas to ride our 35 mile ‘Cassoday Loop’. We like to enjoy a perfect evening on gravel roads in the Flint Hills and view the night sky. Leaving at 8:00 p.m., we soon needed our headlamps as only the stars provided light. The night was brilliant as the stars were alive in the sky. Shortly after 9:00 p.m., the orange glow of the moon appeared on the horizon. Just a day past the full moon, the landscape soon lit up from the glow of the moon - just what we had come out to see.
One of my friends made a comment about how nice the riding is going to be in the fall in the Flint Hills with the great condition of the prairie currently. If you’ve not taken a drive in the area, you should. The bluestem is as green as I have seen it for mid-August. The wildflowers are bursting with color, so the autumn colors should be amazing.
While our turf in the city has done pretty well this summer with good moisture, we are seeing signs of stress in some areas. Unlike the Flint Hills with its vast ecosystem, our individual lawns have their own individual ecosystems based on the care each receives, as well as varying exposure from the elements.
While not needing an abundance of additional watering this summer, we have seen some drought stress as well as pressure from fall armyworms which have damaged lawns in not only Wichita, but the region as well. Whatever the condition of your lawn is, fall is the time to not only rejuvenate your turf, but the perfect time to build your ‘ecosystem’ for the future. One of the best tools to build soil structure in not only turf areas but landscape areas is HuMic from ferti-lome. HuMic provides organic molecules that play essential roles in improving soil properties, plant growth and thatch reduction caused by pressure from insects and disease.
If you are needing to renovate your turf, now is a perfect time to start the process with removing unwanted weeds and grasses with an herbicide such as Hi-Yield Killzall which kills weeds down to the roots. Killzall is a non-selective weed and grass killer - so it's perfect for killing off tough-to-remove weeds and grasses before lawn re-seeding. The Ultra formula with surfactant dries on fast, and is rainfast in as little as two hours. Because Killzall is a non-selective weed control, it's important to keep it off desirable plants, grasses and vegetation.
Hatch Green Chile season is in full swing at the garden centers! If you are out and about at the Old Town Farmer’s Market this Saturday, stop by and say, “Hi!” We’ll be down on the plaza roasting all heat levels of green chile peppers. Pick up a bushel, half bushel, a few pounds frozen to stock your freezer or a small clamshell with chile that we’ll roast on the spot.
Whether you’re working on your lawn or hankering for roasted green chile, I hope to see you soon!
Your friend in the garden,
Marty Johnson
Owner - Johnson's Garden Centers
