Hey everyone I am back. Janene and I had a great vacation in our nations capital. We walked all over Washington D.C. and had a great time touring all the museums and monuments. It is always great to visit there especially soo close to our nations independance day. The National Arboretum and the botanical gardens in Washington are amzing. The plant selection and the specimens they have on the east coast really make you see the differance between our climates.
But I am glad to be back and having fun in the nursery. First thing I have going on is July 7th I will be giving a talk for the Mission Hills Garden Club (Click here to see more info) the talk will be on the most common landscape mistakes and how to avoid or fix them. The meeting starts at 6:30 and is free to club members. If you can't make it to the talk come in to Mission Hills Nursery on Saturdays and ask me a question there. Hope everyone has a great 4th of July and be safe.
Life's a Garden, Dig It!

Piccking out the correct seed to patch your lawn can be some tricky work. First thing you need to find out is what type of lawn do you have. Is it a fescue or some other variety? If it's a fescue you have 3 choices. Marathon I, Marathon II or Marathon III. Marathon I is a standard tall fescue that is fast to repair and can handle a lot of traffic. Marathon II is a shorter fescue that can handle traffic and a bit of shade. Marathon III is a dwarf fescue that is slower to repair but you don't have to mow it as much. Other types of lawns are bermuda, zoysia and some others. With those varieties you need to purchase the according seed to make sure you are not mixing seeds in your lawn. If you are looking for more information go to the Marathon website at sod.com. Life's a Garden, Dig It!

I have some really exciting news for this Saturday. I was able to be involved with a pilot show called "Terrain Wreck" from TLC. It will air this Saturday June 16th on TLC at 12:30 Pacific time. It was a amazing opportyunity to be involved with a great project. The idea of the show is to have two neighbors battle it out to remodel their front yards with the help of two landscape experts (thats me). The families we worked with were amazing amazing and I really hope I will be able to do more of these shows. So check out "Terrain Wreck" the ultimate battle of grit and heart.

This week was amazing to be able to go down to PETCO Park and talk to the head groundskeeper Luke Yoder. He is an amazing person that has a huge wealth of knowledge when it comes to lawns but also in all types of gardening. Him and I talked quite a bit about growing tomatoes and all kinds of other plants and the different places he has lived. When it came to lawns though he definitely knows his stuff, in 1995 the players, coaches and scouts picked Petco Park as having the best playing field over all other baseball stadiums. Some topics we covered this week were you need to take time and prep before you lay down any new sod. The area must be ritch in nutrients, level and the irrigation system must be in place. Then you must pick the right lawn for you. Marathon Sod makes this easy with great descriptions of each type on sheets and DVD's you can pick up at the nursery, or go to www.sod.com and find all the info online. After you pick it laying the sod is the easy part, just make sure your putting the green side up.
We also talked a bit about maintinance. Luke said a lot of people over water there lawns. What he means by this is people dont ever give their lawns a chance to REACH for water so it becomes a spoiled lawn and will not respond well to drought or hot days. If you toughen up your lawn by only giving it the minimum water it will make it stronger and be more successful. If you are looking for more info on laying new lawns or your existing lawn drop by the nursery and we will help you out. Also go to www.sod.com and check out all the info Marathon Sod has to offer. I just want to thank Luke and the people over there at Petco Park that helped us get a bit smarter when it comes to lawns. Life's a Garden, Dig It!