Re: [gardeners] Ring of brown grass beyond drip line
Matt Trahan (gardeners@globalgarden.com)
Mon, 24 Aug 1998 22:46:00 -0400
At 08:54 AM 8/24/98 -0500, you wrote:
>
>From: Matt Trahan <matttrahan@ecsu.campus.mci.net>
>
>> Any idea's on how to fix the ring of dead grass?
>
>
>The picture you describe is not impossible of course, but very difficult
>to believe, not having seen it first hand, like crop circles.
>
>The oak tree didn't do it. Grass doesn't go dormant in geometric
>patterns. Chemical spills such as nitrogen burn could easily occur
>in arc patterns with hand broadcasting, to which no one would admit.
>Animals, including pets, normally don't urinate in patterned fashion.
>Lawn grubs are usually distributed randomly.
>
>So what's left. It must be PFM (pure freakin' magic).
>
>I ran out of intelligent things to say, a long time ago.
>
>manytimes,
>tom
>zone 5a, NE Illinois, -21ºF Min
>http://www.anet-chi.com/~manytimes
>
Hi Tom,
Sorry about that, didn't describe them very well. The 'circles' are not
perfect, but generally have a circular freeform shape. It almost perfectly
matches the pattern of the limbs on the oak tree, just 5 feet beyond the
drip line. Stretched wider where branches are longer, and indented a bit
where branches are shorter.
The dead grass is consistently almost 6 inches wide, and nearly
continuous. Just a few tiny breaks here and there.
The horse chestnut in the backyard has an almost perfect circle. My father
in law's next door neighbors told him it would be there in the summer. They
said this in March, when my inlaws moved into the house.
It is unlikely that it has anything to do with fertilizer, at least not
applied in the past 3 years. The original owners kept a meticulous yard,
But the people who lived there most recently only went outdoors to get to
their car.
I'll try and get 2 pictures of them and put them on my website. It will
take at least a week.
Matt Trahan <matttrahan@ecsu.campus.mci.net> or <garden@juno.com>
USDA zone 8, AHS heat zone 7, Sunset zone 31, northeastern N.C.