Wednesday, June 3, 2009

Watching Grass and Weeds Grow: Week 10

This week I have some comparison photos. I took these by standing at the edge of the patio, with the camera pointed straight down.

March 24, 2009 is really wimpy. It's a few days after planting.



April 27, 2009 is not much better, and the weeds are sprouting.


May 21, 2009 is starting to look like it might be a lawn. The runners are criss-crossing the bare patches and starting to root.



June 3, 2009 shows it's getting dense and almost needs mowing in this spot. Not all of the lawn is like this, but most of it looks at least like the previous picture. This is only 2 1/2 months after planting the plugs at the maximum recommended spacing. There are a few weeds, but it's choking most of them out.


4 comments:

Brandon said...

Hi, I don't know if you still keep this blog up and respond to the comments, but I didn't know who else to ask about this. My UC Verde plugs (in Las Vegas) are at about the stage that yours were in the May 21 in this post. There are huge runners everywhere, but a lot of the look dry and are turning yellow. I thought it was due to too little water, but now they're getting 10 min twice a day, everyday and it doesn't seem to be helping. I guess I'm asking if, in your experience, this is normal or if all of your runners were nice and green and just rooted right in. Thanks.

Lazy Gardens said...

Brandon: I respond to comments, but haven't had much to report. It's green, and doesn't need much mowing. Bermuda is still a nuisance.

Try watering shorter times, and more often.

I was watering 3x daily, but for only 3 minutes each time.

I had a 4AM watering, and then 11AM and a 3PM watering to keep the top layer moist in the hot part of the day.

Lazy Gardens said...

And not all the runners were green and rooting- Most were, but there were duds.

If Vegas has the alkaline soil that Phoenix does,a thorough application of soil sulfur (sprinkle it on) and some Ironite might help.

A very light (1/4 the recommended amount) ofa time-release lawn fertiulizer might also help.

Brandon said...

Great, thanks for the help. I talked to the nursery I got the plugs from today and they suggested fertilizing and changing the water schedule. I just changed my timer to 3 min 3x daily and put down some Scotts Turf Builder, so we'll see how that works. Now that it's getting into the 100s here, hopefully they'll fill in quickly.