In the course of this blog, we've gone from the fantastic in dealing with the comics and movies, and we've also dealt with large scale social and political issues. Now for something a little more "down to earth". And I mean that in the literal sense. :-) hehe
Okay gang, this is the year that I tackle my lawn problems! For once in my life, I want to have a beautiful lawn that I can stretch out on during beautiful days! Here's the problem, though...
I live in an older neighborhood, which is beautiful and has lots of shade, but I have the greatest difficulty growing grass consistently all over the yard. The abundant shade is part of the problem, and the other problem is the abundant weeds. I can't tell you what kind of grass I have, nor the kinds of weeds, because I am not that in-the-know with grass and weed species. I just know grass from weeds.
I would ask the boss about this since he knows a lot about a lot of stuff, but lawn care ain't one of them! Trust me, I've seen his lawn! LOL (no offense, boss!)
The kind of grass I want is the thick, cushiony, carpety kind that I've seen by some banks and other such buildings that have meticulously manicured lawns. I want grass that I can run barefoot on! As for the weeds, weed-pulling has to rank as one of the most boring of tasks, so is there anything I can do to get rid of them besides uprooting them?
Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated. Maybe I can make this a semi-regular part of my blog to go along with comics and politics! :-D
3 comments:
What you are looking for is St. Augustine. The best thing for it is lots of sunshine and lots of water.
Your best bet is to first get your trees trimmed back. This will both allow more sunshine in (if done properly) as well as improve the looks of your property. If you don't do this then anything else you do will be wasted.
Next you need to get the soil conditioned. You'll need to be constantly removing any dropping from the tree such as leaves, nuts, twigs, etc. There is a hypothesis that the decay of these droppings tend to both promote a PH level and promote fungal growth that is detrimental to most grasses and benificial to trees. I don't know whether this is valid or not but I can state that weekly raking under the trees does appear to help grass growth.
You'll also want to add grass fertilizer. Just follow the directions on the bag. Any of the name brands appear to work equally well. Be sure and water properly per instructions.
Now you'll be ready to plant grass. Unless you have a ton of money to splurge I wouldn't recommend putting down a complete cover of sod. Space out the squares. It will look ugly for a month but then will spread out and evenly cover everything.
Use plenty of water. There are competing schools of thought about the proper way (shorter daily runs versus intermittent deep soaks) but from my experience there isn't a dramatic difference between the methods.
Good luck!
Thanks for the tips, but what about the weeds?
Andy, I believe I found the solution with your weed problem:
Dealing With Grassy Weeds
Take care & good luck.
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