Lawns...Lawnseed...Grass...What do you got??

[aircooled]

What type of lawn do you have???? Especially those of you with hot southern summer lawns, but everyone feel free to post your climate/lawn type.

I live in the southeast and have a Fescue lawn, but I'm thinking about switching to Bermuda grass. Bermuda grass is supposed to be more drought tolerent and the last few years we have had a drought season and water ban's so the fescue suffers every summer.

Any green thumbs out there??

 

[Azraele]

<< Any green thumbs out there?? >>


Well, let's put it this way. I have a garden each year. However, last year I planted what I thought were tomatoes. Turns out they were flowers of some sort. My garden looked kind of weird with squash and cucumbers and pumpkin with random flowers in the middle of it. Oops! :Q

 

[TomC25]

tall fescue

Cincinnati, OH

I fertilized last year with Scotts 4 time treatment plan and this year I had to mow sooner than others.

My lawn is a lot greener than some others as well.

 

[pyonir]

grass? only grass here is the rich people and on the golf courses.


<---lives in AZ

 

[AmigaMan]

MSN's HomeAdvisor has lots of good info on this...

 

[SpecialEd]

my lawn already grows soo fast I have to mow it sometimes twice a week. Damn rain.

 

[Jfrag Teh Foul]

<< I live in the southeast and have a Fescue lawn, but I'm thinking about switching to Bermuda grass. Bermuda grass is supposed to be more drought tolerent and the last few years we have had a drought season and water ban's so the fescue suffers every summer. >>



I live in Arkansas and I think that Bermuda is the devil! If you have plans to put in flower gardens and such in the near future... I would HIGHLY advise against Bermuda. It develops like a cancer and will take over the beds/gardens that you have.

Also, it dries up like anything else during the hottest months of summer... unless you constantly water it of course.

 

[Sluggo]

We have mostly Bermuda here, not much else will do well in highly compact clay soil. It will spread like wildfire, that is until it hits a shady spot, that stops it dead.

It is relatively drought resistant, only neds an inch or so (sometimes not even that much) of water a week if that even during the hottest months of the summer.

 

[Pliablemoose]

Am going to try zoyoza this year...

 

[BettyBoop]

My so-called lawn is mostly dirt, crabgrass, and dandelions, with a few snarls of bermuda and a dab of dog doodoo here and there. My neighbors are all neat-freaks with fancy landscaping and flower beds, but I prefer to spend my spare time doing something other than yard work, and hubby is a couch potato kind of guy.

 

[Ornery]

As a general rule, the heartier the grass, the less desirable it is. Here, in the dense shade, I'd be happy to grow anything at all. We've got clay soil on top of that. To make matters worse, the tree roots suck up any moisture the grass could use. The fescue is great, but only the mature clumps survive. If I plant any, foot traffic kills it instantly. Sometimes I wonder if it's worth the effort!

 

[Parrotheader]

I live here in Birmingham, AL and it can get mucho hot here in the summer. MOST of my yard (say 60% of it) is Bermuda. Bermuda is typically supposed to hold up well to the Southern heat. It doesn't do very well in the shade though which is why the other 40% of my lawn is tall fescue. I hate the fact that we have a mix. Because while almost all my neighbors have 100% Bermuda lawns which all go dormant in the winter, my fescue still stays green in the winter while half the yard goes dormant. It's very annoying. But I didn't want it that way. We just bought the house two years ago and I'm still getting things settled the way I want it. I put out some Bermuda seed into the fescue areas last week and cut down a few limbs creating shade in those areas. I'm hoping the Bermuda might eventually win out and choke the fescue to death.

If you've got a lot of direct sunlight, Bermuda is probably the easiest way to go. But if you've got any nearby natural areas or flower beds lookout since Bermuda spreads like a weed into other areas. I have to Roundup the edges of my natural area each week to keep it out.

My favorite grass personally is zoysia. My parents got some of that for their house last year and it is VERY VERY nice. You have to buy it in sod form (no seed available as far as I know.) But it's got a nice thick carpet that will absolutely choke the life out of any weeds that try to get into it.

 

[Ornery]

Quick question about that zoysia. How does it do with the heat? My dad had a neighbor who planted some obscure grass plugs. It spread into his yard pretty far. When the hot summer rolled around, this crap turned yellow, while the rest of my dads lawn was still green. This grass that crept into his lawn was VERY dense and stayed lower than the normal Kentucky Blue that made up most of his lawn. If that's what zoysia is, I wouldn't want it!

 

[conjur]

Bluegrass doesn't fare well when there's no rain for a couple of days. Starts to brown. Have to keep it watered.

I've overseeded the last three years with Pennington fescue mix and it's looking pretty good. And, I do the Scotts Weed and Feed, Winter Feed and the Halts stuff.

Does well.

 

[BettyBoop]

Ornery,

Zoysia usually does pretty well in the summer, here in Okla where it is hothothot. Your neighbor's zoysia probably had a patch-fungus problem, which causes zoysia to turn yellow or brown.

Maybe you should just cultivate a rock garden. You've got a good starter rock.

 

[Parrotheader]

Ornery,

I think there are different varieties of zoysia just like there are different varieties of every other grass. Maybe that kind was Zoysia and it just "couldn't take the heat." But I know several people who have it and love it. The type my parents got has an extra thin blade (compared to other zoysia types) and is VERY soft. It feels very cool to walk on barefoot.


http://www.fertilizer.com/Consumer/Fertilizer/lawn/

 

[DAPUNISHER]

I live in Florida and St.Augustine is the predominate grass of choice for your lawn.

 

[Ornery]

"You've got a good starter rock."

Man, I just looked at that again today. I am SO HAPPY I put that there now. It would have been so much more of a mess if I didn't. She hasn't spoken to us since I did that. So it killed two birds with one stone!

Good point about didfferent brands of Zoysia, I never thought of that. A guy at work asked me about it, and I told him the story of my dad's neighbor. I'll pass along this new info, thanks!