Reviving Your Wisconsin Lawn: A Guide to Overseeding in Spring

by VickiS

Springtime in Wisconsin is a time of renewal, and your lawn is no exception. If your once-lush grass has seen better days, overseeding could be the solution to rejuvenating your yard’s greenery. This guide will walk you through the steps of overseeding your lawn in spring, focusing on the essential soil preparation necessary for success.

Understanding Overseeding:
Overseeding involves spreading grass seed over an existing lawn to fill in thin areas, improve density, and introduce new grass varieties. In Wisconsin, where winters can be harsh and summers humid, overseeding in spring helps repair winter damage and fortify your lawn for the upcoming growing season.

Soil Preparation:

1. Assess Your Lawn: Begin by assessing the current state of your lawn. Identify thin or bare patches, areas with poor grass growth, and any signs of compaction.
2. Mow the Lawn: Before starting any soil preparation, mow your lawn to a height of around 1.5 to 2 inches. This step ensures that the grass is at an optimal length for overseeding and allows the new seed to reach the soil surface.
3. Dethatching: If your lawn has a layer of thatch (accumulated dead grass and debris), consider dethatching to improve seed-to-soil contact. Use a dethatching rake or a specialized dethatching machine for larger areas.
4. Aeration: Compacted soil can hinder grass growth by restricting root development and water penetration. Core aeration helps alleviate compaction by removing small plugs of soil, allowing air, water, and nutrients to reach the grassroots. Rent an aerator or hire a professional service for this task.
5. Soil Testing: Test your soil’s pH level and nutrient content using a soil test kit or by sending samples to a local agricultural extension office. Based on the results, amend the soil with lime to raise pH or with specific fertilizers to address nutrient deficiencies.
6. Soil Amendments: Incorporate organic matter such as compost or well-rotted manure into the soil. This enriches the soil, improves its structure, and provides a favorable environment for seed germination and root growth. Spread a thin layer (about ¼ inch) of compost evenly over the lawn and rake it into the soil.
7. Leveling: Fill in low spots and level the soil surface using a lawn roller or a leveling rake. A smooth, even surface promotes uniform seed distribution and ensures consistent watering.

Overseeding:

1. Choose the Right Seed: Select grass seed varieties that are well-suited to Wisconsin’s climate and soil conditions. Cool-season grasses like Kentucky bluegrass, fine fescue, and perennial ryegrass thrive in the region’s temperate climate.
2. Seed Application: Use a broadcast spreader or a handheld spreader to evenly distribute the grass seed over the prepared soil surface. Follow the seeding rate recommended for your chosen grass species.
3. Seed-to-Soil Contact: After seeding, lightly rake the soil to ensure good seed-to-soil contact. This helps anchor the seeds and promotes germination.
4. Watering: Keep the seeded area consistently moist, but not waterlogged, to support germination and seedling establishment. Water lightly multiple times a day, especially in dry or windy conditions.
5. Fertilization: Apply a starter fertilizer specially formulated for new seedlings to provide essential nutrients for growth. Follow the manufacturer’s instructions for application rates and timing.
6. Mulching (Optional): Consider applying a thin layer of straw or mulch over the seeded area to retain soil moisture and protect the seeds from birds and harsh weather conditions.

Maintenance:

1. Regular Watering: Maintain consistent soil moisture until the new grass is well-established, typically within 4-6 weeks after seeding.
2. Mowing: Once the new grass reaches a height of 3 inches, mow it to a height of around 2 inches. Avoid cutting more than one-third of the grass blade length at a time to prevent stress.
3. Fertilization and Weed Control: Follow a regular fertilization schedule and address any weed issues as needed to promote a healthy, dense lawn.

By following these steps for soil preparation and overseeding, you can breathe new life into your Wisconsin lawn and enjoy a lush, vibrant carpet of grass throughout the spring and summer months. Remember that patience and consistent care are key to achieving long-lasting results.

Garden Year Round with an Underground Greenhouse

article and photograph from The Seed Guy https://www.facebook.com/theseedguy

If eating Fresh Vegetables and Fruits Year Round is important to You and Your Family, you might consider building an Underground Greenhouse. It will keep the temperatures warmer in the Winter and help prevent overheating in the Summer; making it possible to grow your garden vegetables year round.

For the vast majority of the country, 4 feet below the surface will stay between 50° to 60°F even if the weather above the ground gets to 10°F or colder. This is what they call the thermal constant, and what the Underground Greenhouse is based on.

The original design for an Underground Greenhouse was invented in Bolivia, and was called a Walipini, an Aymara Indian word which means “a warm place.” A Walipini is a rectangular shaped Greenhouse that is dug down 6-8 feet deep in the ground. The longest area of the rectangle will face towards the south (in the Northern Hemisphere) to take advantage of the most sunlight.

The design of the Underground Greenhouse isn’t that complicated, as it can be as simple as a hole with plastic sheets laid on top. The roof seals in the heat and insulates the area to keep a warm, moist environment for your fruits and vegetables.

The location of your Walipini will depend on how big you want it to be. You’ll need enough space to grow your plants and have a small area to walk into your greenhouse. The bottom of the Greenhouse will need to be at least 5 feet above the water table in your area. The recommended size for an Underground Greenhouse is 8 x 12 feet.

When planning where your Greenhouse will be located, remember that your roof will need to receive light during the winter, also. This means that you will have to make sure that trees or buildings don’t block it during the winter time when the sun is in the South. In most cases, your Underground Greenhouse should be set up East to West, with the roof facing South to take advantage of the Winter Sun.

Once it’s decided where your Underground Greenhouse will be located, you can start digging. Plot out the area above ground to keep track of where you should be digging. While you’re excavating, dig at least 2 feet deeper than your desired depth. Keep your soil close by to help prop up the roof.

The walls of your Underground Greenhouse should have a minimum 6-inch slope from the roof to the floor. This will greatly reduce the amount of crumbling and caving that will occur with the soil. You can also layer the walls with a clay to prevent erosion, or use bricks to stabilize the walls of the building.

While you’re digging the hole, dig an extra 2 feet below the desired depth. You’ll fill this area with stone or gravel and then 8 inches of soil. Ideally, you’d lay larger stones and gravel on the bottom layer and the gravel would become progressively smaller until you reach the soil.

The bottom of the greenhouse should be slightly sloped from the center to the edges. Along the perimeter, you should leave a space of 2-3 feet just filled with gravel. This is designed to help the water drain more easily. Many people have also created open gravel wells in the corners of the greenhouses that allows them to collect the water. This will allow you to draw a bucket into the hole and pull out water if you find you have too much.

Once the floor is filled in with the drainage system, and the soil required for growing, the doors can be installed. Place the door frame at the base of the ramp and fill in the areas around the door as much as possible with dirt and clay. Filling in these gaps will prevent heat loss in your greenhouse.

Many times, people will use 2-inch door frames that have holes drilled into the top middle and bottom of each side. They will then use wooden stakes, dowels or rebar to secure the door frame into the soil wall.

The angle of the roof will make a big difference on the sun’s ability to heat your greenhouse. Ideally, the roof should be facing directly at the winter solstice at a 90 angle. This angle will maximize the heat during the winter solstice and minimize the heat during the summer solstice.

Now, you can use that extra soil that you have left over to create a berm. The berm is basically an extension of the north wall of the greenhouse. This allows you to control the angle of the roof by adding or taking away dirt. Build up the berm to continue the slope that you used on the wall. If you’re using bricks – continue using them on the berm.

The most economical, durable material for your roof is 4-inch PVC pipe. Using PVC elbow pieces, joiners, etc, you can create a flat roof frame that will cover your Underground Greenhouse.

After you’ve created a PVC frame, lay it in place on the top of your hole. Then lay plastic sheeting across the top of the frame and make sure that it extends past the edge of the frame by at least 1 foot. This flap will prevent run off water from the roof from running back into the greenhouse itself.

Once the plastic material is put on top of the roof frame, move inside and tack another layer of plastic wrap along the inside of the roof frame. This internal plastic sheeting will create a 4-inch barrier between the inside and outside of the roof, and will act as an insulator that will keep the heat in more effectively.

You’ll want to make sure that you leave a few inches of plastic hanging down on the lower (south) end of your roof. This will force moisture that collects on the roof to drip off above the drainage system or on top of your plants instead of at the base of the roof. If you allow the moisture to run to the base of the roof frame, it may affect the soil at that location and break down your wall, etc.

Ventilation is always crucial. You have 3 options, such as: Installing two doors, one at each end; installing a vent roughly the size of the door at the top of the back wall; or installing a chimney at the center of the back wall. Good Luck on your Greenhouse.

July Already?!

Seems like summer has barely started and we’re already looking ahead to July — the height of summer. Days are long, temperatures are most likely at their highest and may even exceed 100ºF for days at a time in the South, Southwest, and Midwest. If all goes well, you’re harvesting something delicious from your garden almost every day, and this is also the peak time for picking herbs. But, like June, July is often a dry month, too. Watering is crucial. Most crops need a steady, unbroken supply of water. Interruptions cause problems such as flowers falling, fruits failing to form, skins splitting, premature bolting, and diseases such as tomato blossom end rot. Spreading mulches helps conserve moisture from any rain you do get — and will also control weeds.

Top tasks for July

• Harvest French and runner beans, zucchinis, carrots, beets, onions, shallots, new potatoes, and summer salads.
• Pick cherries, strawberries, raspberries, currants, gooseberries, and blueberries.
• Sow salad crops and the last of your beets, Florence fennel, French beans, and peas for this year.
• Climbing beans don’t really know when to stop. Pinch out the growing tips when they reach the top of your canes or they will quickly become tangled and top-heavy.
• Plant out cabbages, cauliflowers, brussels sprouts, broccoli, and kale for the autumn and winter.
• Continue to ensure that peas, brassicas, and soft fruit are all securely netted to keep off scavenging birds.
• Pull earth up around the stalks of brussels sprouts and other brassicas if they seem unsteady, and give them a top-dressing of nitrogenous fertilizer or an organic liquid feed. Keep an eye on potatoes and if necessary continue to earth them up.
• Start regularly watering tomatoes and peppers with a liquid feeding as soon as you see that the first fruits have formed. Feeding encourages both flowers and fruits.
• Water as often as you can to keep crops growing healthily and to prevent them from bolting.
• Feed tomatoes regularly and pinch out side shoots.
• Thin out apples and pears if it looks like you’re going to have a bumper crop.

“Weed, water, mulch” should remain as much of a mantra as it was in June. All three are still high on the list of the most important tasks of the month. Regular watering, in particular, is vital for the successful growth of crops. July is the month for summer-pruning certain fruit trees and bushes as or just after they finish cropping — cherries, currants, gooseberries, and summer-fruiting raspberries.

Grow something different. How about peanuts?!

by OCMGA Master Gardener Vicki Schilleman

I was on a lovely vacation for the month of February and part of March in Florida. On the drive home to Wisconsin, we went through Georgia and, as always, there were signs and billboards everywhere advertising boiled peanuts. (Tried them years ago and, sorry, they’re not for me.) Despite the fact that I’m not a fan of boiled peanuts, I do love peanut butter and I started thinking about how peanuts are grown. I decided to do a bit of research and learned many things about these delicious legumes.

• Yes, peanuts are legumes — not nuts.
• To grow peanuts in the north, start seeds indoors and plant a variety such as Early Spanish that is ready to harvest in only 100 days. Other cultivars need at least 120 frost-free days.
• There are four major types of peanuts: runner, Virginia, Valencia, and Spanish. Valencias are one of the easiest for home growers. Try Tennessee Red and Georgia Red.
• Two things are required to successfully grow peanuts: full sun and sandy soil.
• The peanut is the seed. Place shelled, raw peanuts on top of the soil, cover with an inch more soil and look for sprouts in about 10 days.
• Peanut plants need only about 1 inch of water per week.
• Reaching up to 18 inches, flowers soon turn downward where they develop the peanuts underground.
• Peanuts hold a lot of moisture — 25 to 50 percent — when harvested, so hang the whole plant to dry for about 2 weeks.
• A single plant produces around 40 pods and each holds one to four peanuts.

While I think this is another of those fun things to try for those of us who live in the north, I don’t think I’ll be churning out any of my own peanut butter any time soon. It takes about 540 peanuts to make a 12-ounce jar of peanut butter. Guess Skippy and Jif will be safe from my efforts!

Vegetables: Sweet Potatoes are Super Foods!

by Lisa Johnson, horticulture educator for Dane County UW-Extension

Did you know you could grow sweet potatoes in USDA Zone 5a, 5b, and 6 in Wisconsin? Sweet potatoes, or Ipomoea batatas, are tender, warm-weather plants related to morning glories. They come from Central and South America, and need a long, warm growing season. They grow on trailing vines, with bush-type varieties for smaller spaces.

Usually you buy what’s called sweet-potato slips, which are unrooted cuttings. They arrive by mail, 4-6 inches long, for planting in late May to early June. Soil temperatures should be a minimum of 55º F, 3 inches down for best rooting. Test this with a soil thermometer.

Strip off the bottom leaves, leaving one node (growing point) and a couple of leaves on top. Plant node-end up, 3 inches deep in mounded rows about 18-24 inches apart. Leave 36 inches between the center of each row, or plant in hills with three or four slips per mound.

If the soil is dry, water it before and after planting. Keep slips moist while rooting, but drier once established. Don’t water the last three to four weeks before harvest. Watch out for voles because they love the roots!

Harvest sweet potatoes before danger of frost in late September or early October. Handle roots carefully; they bruise easily. Gently remove dirt clods without rubbing. Don’t wash them before curing.

Curing sets the skin, heals wounds, and converts starches to sugars. Curing allows the roots to store much longer than those uncured. Ideally, cure them in a warm area for 10 days at 80º to 85º F and high humidity (85 to 90 percent), or next to a running furnace for two to three weeks at 65º to 75º F. Once cured, store in a dark location at 55º to 60º F. Don’t refrigerate! Wrap cured sweet potatoes in newspaper and store in a cool closet or basement. Store properly, they can last six to 10 months!

Sweet Potatoes Recommended for the Lower Half of Wisconsin

Cultivar Name                 Days to Harvest                                   Root & Flesh Color

• Beauregard                     100                                        light purple skin, dark orange flesh
• Bush Porto Rico               110                                             copper skin, orange flesh
• Centennial                      100                                                   orange skin, flesh
• Jewell                             100                                                        orange flesh
• Vardaman                       110                                              golden skin, orange flesh