What to Make of Headless Flowers, White Grass and Fungus

I'm taking this post outside. Decorating your house is not only an inside job but it also is an outside job as well. I have tried and tried to make the outside of my house beautiful, but I have run into several problems. First let me tell you there are have been warning signs from Mother Nature. Here let me explain...

Problem #1: Purple stems and headless flowers

The first year that we moved into our house I planted a ton of annuals and perennials in the hopes that my flowers would grow healthy and strong. Well none of my flowers have been healthy, and every year I am disappointed in my flower garden. Some of the flower stems have this purplish coloring on the bottom. Other flowers are so weak that they fall over and decapitate themselves (a picture of this would only make you cry).

Purple dots on plant

So, what is Mother Nature trying to tell me....Your soil sucks!

The first time I saw this I had no clue what to do, yet last year I came to my senses and had a soil test done. The results of the soil test gave me some insight into some of the issues with my soil. This spring I did see some improvement in the flowers, yet I still have a lot of work to do. I plan on doing another soil test this year and plus mixing in some compost into the flower beds. This way I can be sure that I am doing everything I can to give the flowers a fighting chance.

Problem #2: White and discolored grass

There are parts of my lawn that have white residue on the grass blades. The picture below is just one small patch in my yard.

White grass

Do you know what Mother Nature is trying to tell me...Aerate the lawn already.

This Spring the white spots were really bad, so I turned to my Organic Lawn Care Manual. The book goes into detail about the importance of aerating the lawn because if the soil becomes too hard and compact it can cause some problems such as fungus. In my case the grass was turning white because water could not penetrate the surface, plus air circulation was a problem.

Last weekend we rented an aerator, which has made a huge difference in the grass, and we have less white spots. Of course it will take a little time for everything to clear up, but we have made progress.

Problem #3: Did Nature just throw up?

This one is really weird! First let me give you the background story.

Last fall the big tree in the front yard came crashing down in our yard. Luckly it missed the house, but we were left with a big mess to clean up.

Fallen tree in our yard

As any other DIYer would do, we cleaned up the tree ourselves (we did hire a professional to cut down the part of the tree that was still standing. That was way too big of a job for us to handle). When we were done we had about five years worth of firewood and a lifetime supply of mulch. A large portion of the mulch went to the yard waste pick-up and the left overs went to the garden that is along the fence line. Everything seemed to be going well until a few weeks ago when I started to notice some weird things. I found some weird yellow foam like substance in the mulch.

Gross...what is that?

 At first I thougtht the dog threw-up, but I kept finding more and more. I took it upon myself to find out what this stuff was. With the power of Wikipedia I discovered that this a type of fungus that is commonly called dog vomit slime mold. It is often found in large amounts of mulch.

Can you guess what Mother Nature is trying to tell me? Dude, this is way too much mulch. Needless to say, the plan for next weekend is to get rid of the mulch.

Over the course of these three lessons, I now have more insight into the some of the signs that Mother Nature gives you. What kind of signs has Mother Nature give you?