I recently spent a couple of days at a soil health workshop at Cornell attended by farmers and soil scientists. I asked a farmer how the crops were doing in western New York this summer. I knew they had a tough time last year due to very cool, wet weather. “No one’s complaining this year,” he said. They had regular rains and good weather until the beginning of August.

I never felt so much like a farmer as this year. Last year was pretty good. This year we had the wettest March ever and that led to a preponderance of clover and plantain. Then we had the hottest July and that just fried a lot of lawns.

Cool season grasses are perennials, but their health and well being are limited by weeds, weather and wear (or a combination thereof). I’ve been waiting for a little rain so my crop will survive. I’m so glad to see the recent showers and cool nights. Now we can get down to slice seeding, core aerating and revitalizing. The cool season grasses will thrive.

As Edgar Watson Howe once said, “Farmers only worry during the growing season, but towns people worry all the time.”
Sometimes I look forward to the snow.