It's been a very warm, dry Spring.  As previously mentioned, I tried to wait until all danger of frost had passed, before watering my lawn, and my plan backfired on the south-facing front and east-facing sides, and succeeded on the northern-exposure back yard. There's also a chance that I might have burned the two fronts, because I had applied quite a bit of fertilizer to the front and side yards, with no water except for a light dusting of snow and a few rain drops, and very little to the back yard; also with no water, but plenty of shade. My other theory about why my front and side yards didn't "green up" as well as the back yard, is that the back yard was better-protected against the high winds that we have had in the area in the last few weeks.

In order to help the grass "green up," I ordered some IRONITE from Walmart, but ended up returning it because the directions said to apply it only to "actively-growing" lawns.  Since my lawn was still "dormant," I decided to try MILORGANITE instead, because it is organic and can be applied to dormant plants.

Organic Milorganite

   The Milorganite has worked, to a certain degree.  That, and getting the sprinkler system going has been helpful.  Also, today the temperature got up to 93 degrees, so it is safe to plan on no more freezing weather. It's difficult to believe that a year ago on this week, we were bracing for a major snow storm. That's why I was counting on some fair moisture, but Colorado weather is not predictable. It's only been five days since I applied the Milorganite, but I think the lawn is "waking up," and  I will only have to reseed the areas where I pulled out the crabgrass roots. I have had to water every day of the five except for one, though.

Front and Side Yards, after Milorganite

Back Yard - no Milorganite, but 

Scott's Fertilizer in February

   Many of my perennials and bulbs are peeking through the warm soil, and the trees are leafing out, too.

Volunteer Berry Tree

                                                         Deciduous Broadleaf Evergreen

                                                                      Tiger Lily Bulbs

                                                   Perennial - (Sorry, I don't recall the name.)

 My Boston Ivy has had to be completely cut back because I read that snakes tend to hide in it.  I have had to prune my Juniper tree, also, because it has become overly large and unbalanced.

                                            Clippings from pruning the Ivy, and Juniper tree

                                                                    My trusty tools

   There are several volunteer decorative grasses that need to be cut back too. I cut three on Tuesday, but had to take a break on Wednesday, because it's a really a tough job. They will be completely green again by summer's end. I'll let them stay for now.  One is a fairly efficient privacy screen.

                                                       Before pruning

                                                                        After pruning

I love to wear my Crocs when I'm gardening!

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