I currently use Natures Soil Wetter from plantdoctor.com.au and I think the results are good. The soil profile appears "looser" and getting say a fork down is not a struggle. Hitting my lawn with much more TLC than any year in the past has 'probably helped more' so its likely a combined effect of everything I'm doing. The main reason behind doing the diary/spreadsheet is to force me into consistency across both timing and product type. Then it also gives me a visual reference up on the shed wall to go by. The plan is laminated and stuck to the shed wall and I use a sharpie to tick off bits when they're done or write notes.. I'll work in a weather forecast somewhere which I'm hoping will help with timing of both cutting the turf and applying the cocktail of products.
An updated version is now attached as I've been tinkering with the timing and added more information like product source and application rates. The weekly temperature is starting to fill in too.
Last weekend I was doing some work inside the Vegepod in an area no bigger than 50cm x 50cm where I had a kale plant fail. At the time I took no notice but when I was in there, I dug a little as to just till the soil a bit and thinking about what I'm going to next throw in there.... First scoop produced a huge fat grub - fattest I have ever seen. Second scoop revealed 2 little ones. Cutting a long story short - I ended up tilling the vacant area and pulled out 30 grubs - no bloody wonder the kale didn't take! So I've added a prompt to add Bifenthrin and Imidacloprid to the area and I'll have to make sure we don't harvest anything for a week or 2..
I'm changing to Seaweed Secrets when Spring shows up plus looking at adding a liquid iron (with 16% N) product to deepen the colour and give a foliar feed as so far I've only laid down granular fertilising products.
A major goal is to "re-do" my lawn irrigation. A few years ago I bought some nice Hunter pop-ups and added the MP rotators from the local irrigation company (sadly no longer in business) and they worked great. It was kind of an experiment as they were only put in one area and whilst I had plans to extend further, it just never happened. For about 2 years I've used a good oscillating attachment and moved it manually around. I'm not sure how far I want to take (or how much to spend on) the irrigation plans and for my small areas I really don't see the need to have auto manifolds and the like.. I'm more than happy to use timer taps to manage the areas, but I will be installing enough heads to cover an entire area whereas the oscillator would have normally been moved say 3 times... One small area I still hand water! I have tanks with 9,000L total capacity with a Grundfos pump as the main and a cheap Chinese for backup. All my gardens have irrigation via a mixture of dribblers and the normal fan heads.
There is a lot of press out there about chemical manufacturers removing Phosphorous from their products. I guess they're scared of the "Monsanto/glyphosate effect" of recent times, but it makes it very hard to manage and keep on top of your lawn care when it needs these essentials. So far I've just used Potash to give a huge push of Potassium before the couch has a sleep. P is something I've neglected and I'm keen to see what results you show down the track.
So, not much news from here on as the Winter weather removes the need for maintenance on the lawns and most gardens. My attention turns to the other items on my list. So far I've only achieved the groomer restore, designed the battery sprayer and I'm about 10% through doing the mower. I've got access to our sand blaster at work so I'm using that method to rid me of the horrid red colour!
