My house sat vacant for about eight months before I purchased it.As a result, with nobody to water or care for the lawn all summer long (and it gets scorchingly dry in these parts), I was dealing mostly with whatever grass clumps survived in what was once a beautifully sodded patch of green.
I didn't do much to it all winter, having been recuperating from surgery most of the time.
Finally, about four weeks ago, I got out there and dug up all the old sod, fertilzed, roto-tilled the soil, and planted a fresh ground cover.
I should have just bought fresh sod. Instead, to save a couple hundred bucks, I bought seed and did it the old school way.
Let me explain something: I've never done this before.
Seed is seed,right?
It all grows green, don't it?
I grabbed the bag, actually two bags, of seed that claimed the most drought resistance(water is scarce out here). And high heat tolerance (summers are in the triple digits, and very dry).
After a couple weeks of watering and tending, the grass is now here. Bermuda grass. The worst possible thing I could have planted, because not all grass is created equal.
And Bermuda grass just doesn't look nice in a neighborhood like this.
O.K.
So I learned something in all this. If I want the nice lush,green lawn everybody else in my development has, it can't be this grass.
I'll be stuck with the worst lawn in the neighborhood forever.
Bermuda is damn near impossible to kill off. I have to get the super strength grass poison, made especially to kill Bermuda grass.
And do it quick before the roots get too established..
And then I'll need to start all over again.
Damn it.
8 comments:
KEEP IT! It's perfect for your area and will look good while everybody else is burnt out because of the watering restrictions. The fact is probably that everybody ELSE should do Bermuda. Just keep it trim and nice and you should be fine.
I like how your blog is crazy.
C'mon dude, you're in California. Get the Astroturf like the Brady Bunch had.
Forget grass. Just make your yard a big rock garden.
RW: one problem is that bermuda goes brown in the winter months.
its great for a playing feild and dog parks, but for what i'm trying to do, not so much.
and it groes that big ass root base over time, to where your lawn is six inches above the sidewalk.
brian: welcome, and thanks for visiting.
mark and tully: i dont think the association would approve. besides, i really want the lawn.
It does go brown in the winter, but it's the only grass we can grow with any consistency in the searing texas summer.
Its tough as nails to kill too, but when the St. Augustine around with the neighbors is conked out, it certainaly leaves a warm fuzzy feeling.
Until you step out onto it barefooted. ow.
Keep it, and open up a driving range in your yard. Let all the local golfers come in and practice on your bermuda. If the neighbors complain about golf balls in their yards, then just carve out a putting green and charge guys to practice putting on bermuda.
palm boy: my dad planted st augustine plugs in the yard when i was a kid. within 3 yrs, the whole yard was covered, and never a bald spot again. it was large,heavily used yard that had two shepherds, a few chickens, and three kids that liked to dig.
KD: i think bermuda is the choice of golf courses,too. might be a money idea...
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