Ramsey County

April 9, 2007

Howdy!!!!!

What a spring!!!!  Warm/cold/warm/cold, really hard for the weather to make up its mind.  What ever the case it will get warmer and I can just picture about 2 months from now, “Man I wish it would cool down a little” but life goes on and so does this article.  This past Easter weekend I got to spend a lot of time with family and friends, after the games maybe not friends anymore, but I think we will survive all the fun but one thing that really sticks out; as we get older and watch our families grow, with maturity, time really does make for many changes.  It only seems like yesterday when computers came  into our homes, GPS units that all most drive equipment without drivers, automobiles that have every gadget under the sun to even someone talking to you while you drive and last but not least grandchildren growing like they have been given a shot of Nitrogen.  I have made many comments over the years how babies are not something special to me but after having one arrive in the family it really changes your perspective a lot and really does become something special when you are called grandma or grandpa. One thing I do know for sure, I don’t remember all the energy in my kids like this little guy has.  Well I am not pressing for more but it will be great if that should happen again.  It is fun watching them grow and spoiling them with ice cream and other things that mom and dad don’t know about.

My whole drift of the previous comments is to compare our lives to spring.  Each year we get spring fever with warming weather, it will happen, and start planning our home landscapes.  The season starts off just like grandchildren, starting to grow, little bumps in the road and other fun things.  Well our lawn and flower beds are no different.  We all want our lawns off to a good start and being one of the best looking yards in the neighborhood.  We sometimes push our yard limits too much and end up doing more damage in the long run.  The first thing to remember about our yard is; a good start but better than a big start.  Depending on the winter we have had, raking might be the first start in our healthy return.  Remember, when we rake we will be exposing more fresh soil and thus the possibility of new germinating weed seeds.  All things in our world like new starts including weeds.  Upon cleaning our yard another common habit is to fertilize our lawns.  The common amount of nitrogen is 1# of actual N per 1000 square ft or an area 10 ‘ wide by 100 feet long.  This would equate to about 4# of a product like 20-10-5.  Too much fertilizer does way more harm than good and can even kill the grass if too much is applied.

I will start my weekly horticulture radio show next Monday, April 16 and will run Monday, Wednesday and Friday. The shows will at air 8:45 AM, on KDLR and 11:30 on KDVL.  I will keep you posted of current information for our world and your world and also provide helpful hints to get us through this growing season.

524 4th Ave NE #5, 2nd Floor Ramsey County Courthouse
Devils Lake  ND  58301
701-662-7027
email - ramsey@ndsuext.nodak.edu

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