Journal Notes...Rye Grass, Greenhouse, & Volunteer Plants

 Last year, I spread hundreds of pounds of rye grass.  This year, not so much.  Please don't mistake me, I loved it but I have learned something from last year.  I won't plant it near flower beds or potential flower beds.  I won't plant it so heavy that it snuffs out the grass of the spring.  I will, also, mow it instead of it getting so high it needs to be harvested.  Now that I am done venting, it was beautiful during the winter.  It, typically is a late time of year to be seeding but we have had a warm fall.  According to Ms. Deena, you need to seed when the daytime temps are in the 70's...which is now.

First thing I do is mow the grass down very short.  As an aside, I think rye grass is awesome for a lot of other reasons beside winter color.  It makes grass grow in places that it normally doesn't.  It loosens up compacted soil.  It hinders winter weeds.

This year I am taking concentration on some bare spots on the lawn...that used to be heavily trafficked by vehicles.

Below are picture of when I started gardening.  There were lots of bare spots on the lawn in 2012.

 In the fall I put down rye grass...it looked like this the following year.

 Much prettier than dead lawn.

So I went off to the co-op and bought a $25 bag of rye seed.

I got out my spreader & garden weasel.

I am going to lightly seed the backyard but last year I seeded so much that I think that it snuffed out the new grass.

Rye seed planted in fall 2012. It looked great until the warmer weather heated up & then my lawn was horrible looking as below.

So this year I am at least going to be sparing on the backyard

 Problem is my greenhouse has a single vesqueen sheet that deteriorated after the spring causing the tools in it to rust because of exposure.

My spreader wouldn't close because of rust....note to self...when vacating the plants vacate the tools.

When it was initially put up last fall.

It was awsome over the winter...but once spring hit..& all plants vacated the visqueen started to deteriorate.

What it looked like by the fall.  I will need to use a more permanent material next year, otherwise this will be an annual battle.

We covered with a tarp for a while but the tarp  deteriorated away after a while.

The center post started collapsing as well.

My husband recovered it with new visqueen.

My husband put in a center post.

This year he also put in an electicity box which is very useful for lighting and heat.

Also a water spigot...I don't know what is more useful.

Last year, when spring was approaching I put the plants outside of the greenhouse on warmer days.  There were a lot of them.

As a result, the mexican heather have gotten in the weirdest places. So I have lots of volunteer plants,

But that's a good thing because next year is the Year of the Peacock and the tail will be mostly Mexican Heather.

Frame

I believe this is from the Dallas Arboretum that I am going to replicate. Oh, this morning it's raining heavily & I left the rye grass bag outside....sighs..........