Your Questions About Gardening

GardenersCardiff answers:

1) dig out the urine areas and fill with clean soil. Urine isn’t good for new grass, fill the holes with dirt…in other words prepare the area for replanting. And de-thatch/loosen up the entire lawn.
2) find out of the way areas on you lawn where the grass is good and thick and cut little round plugs of grass out, about 3 inch’s across, then plant in the bald areas, if you are good in caring for these plugs the grass will grow and fill in those areas.—-or—- if the grass is a common variety, cut a 4-5 inch sample from an out of the way spot in your lawn, go to your local garden store and buy a few blocks of matching grass and cut them up to patch the lawn (might be easier).
3) cutting the grass: your grass is now in a repair cycle and the plants need to grow strong and put down strong roots, to do this they need a lot of green tops. Most people cut their well established lawns to about 3-4 inches in height which is not good for any lawn, but especially yours right now. While you are in this stage of re-establishing the lawn, cut it at the highest setting your mower will allow (preferably with a really good mulching mower, why put all this care into growing a good lawn and remove the leaves that will decay and help the soil)
4) feed the roots. Get a good fertilizer and read and follow the instructions to the letter. Over fertilizing can be harmful also.
5) never allow the newly planted areas to get over dry or over wet. You want the roots to have a chance of establishing themselves as strongly as possible.

If I have forgotten anything..I’m sorry.

GardenersCardiff answers:

My father left when I was six and I haven’t seen him since. If I ran into him on the street today I wouldn’t recognize him and chances are he wouldn’t recognize me either.

I don’t think of him often. I am so used to him not being around that he is only a fleeting thought which only comes to my attention when people actually ask me about my parents.

It hasn’t always been easy to handle this kind of rejection, specially when I was little. I remember wishing to have a father and also wondering if I did something wrong that caused him to leave or think that there was something bad or defective about me and that was the reason why my father didn’t love me. Now that I am older and understand things under a different light it doesn’t bother me or upset me that he chose not to be in my life. I don’t judge him harshly or wish him ill but he is irrelevant and invisible in my existence and accept that he made a choice that was hurtful, but ultimately something that I cannot change and lead me on a different path. All things considered, I’m pretty sure him leaving was for the best, because he was and probably is a violent man who took out his rage on my mother, siblings and I. It is better to have an abusive jerk out of your life than an abusive parent inside of your house and mind.

My mother died almost three years ago. My relationship with her was much more complex and she was more involved in my life, for better or for worse, so yeah, I do feel anger, resentment, rejection, frustration and pain, as well as love and compassion when I think of her.

Every now and then I wonder how my life would have turned out if I had an average family with two parents, lived with my siblings and the whole home and garden thing going on, perhaps even be rich enough to live in the suburbs. As it is, my family is what it is and I accept it gladly. I live with my oldest brother in an inner-city apartment and my other siblings live in different places, with different people and see them rarely. But life is good. One can only wonder how things would be in a another world but its just a silly question.

GardenersCardiff answers:

Why on earth would you even consider making fun of him?
First, your daughter needs to show him who is boss. Stop buying anything that is considered junk food. Even ease up on the juice as well. Even though juice is supposed to be healthy they contain a considerable amount of sugar. Another thing is instead of 3 big meals a day (which is what most people do) break it down to 6 small meals so that it is easier to digest. When I was a kid, the one thing that caught my interest in eating healthier was my father had a garden that we would work in. Just the idea that the vegi’s I was eating came from my hard work was enough to make me want to eat them more often. Well, good luck.