Like any grass, however, it does get brown spots if the dog urinates on it.
Read more!
Monday, June 29, 2009
Watching Grass Grow and Be Eaten : Week 14
Buffalo grass passes the doggy taste test. The photo was taken a couple of months ago, and she still likes to eat the grass.
Like any grass, however, it does get brown spots if the dog urinates on it.
Read more!
Like any grass, however, it does get brown spots if the dog urinates on it.
Read more!
Monday, June 22, 2009
Watching Grass and Weeds Grow : Week 13
Birds love my buffalo grass lawn, or maybe it's the weed seeds!
This are three species of Arizona doves. The tiny one is an Inca dove. They are often mistaken for the babies of other dove species, but they are just sparrow-sized doves. A mourning dove is at the upper right, and a whitewing is in the foreground. Whitewings are the biggest of the native doves.
The annual weeds are slowly being eliminated as I hand-pull them. After a section has been cleared of weeds, the buffalo grass is so thick that new ones can't sprout.
I wish I had used a pre-emergent, but it's too late now.
Bermuda grass is still emerging in a few places. Itjavascript:void(0) will continue to be a pest for quite a while.
Read more!
This are three species of Arizona doves. The tiny one is an Inca dove. They are often mistaken for the babies of other dove species, but they are just sparrow-sized doves. A mourning dove is at the upper right, and a whitewing is in the foreground. Whitewings are the biggest of the native doves.
The annual weeds are slowly being eliminated as I hand-pull them. After a section has been cleared of weeds, the buffalo grass is so thick that new ones can't sprout.
I wish I had used a pre-emergent, but it's too late now.
Bermuda grass is still emerging in a few places. Itjavascript:void(0) will continue to be a pest for quite a while.
Read more!
Monday, June 15, 2009
Watching Grass Grow Week 12: Baby's Second Haircut
The buffalo grass responded to the first mowing by sending out a lot of side growth and getting thicker, so I mowed it again!
Weaning it off water starts real soon, when the relative humidity goes up. Right now it's getting watered every other day, so I'll go to three days, then four, increasing the length of the waterings as I decrease the number.
Read more!
Weaning it off water starts real soon, when the relative humidity goes up. Right now it's getting watered every other day, so I'll go to three days, then four, increasing the length of the waterings as I decrease the number.
Read more!
Monday, June 8, 2009
Watching Grass Grow Week 11: Baby's First Haircut
I wasn't planning to mow the lawn until after the summer rainy season started, but I noticed that the grass nearest the sprinklers was tall enough to block the spray. That gives it more water, it grows even better and it's a self-feeding monster.
June 3, before the mowing, showing the obvious clumps where the plugs were planted.
June 6, after mowing. There's not much difference, except that the highest clumps were shortened a couple of inches. The grid pattern is still obvious.
It's making nice turf in spots. The grass has thinner blades than Bermuda, and makes a softer lawn. It's easy to mow, not nearly as "juicy" as rye or bluegrass.
Read more!
June 3, before the mowing, showing the obvious clumps where the plugs were planted.
June 6, after mowing. There's not much difference, except that the highest clumps were shortened a couple of inches. The grid pattern is still obvious.
It's making nice turf in spots. The grass has thinner blades than Bermuda, and makes a softer lawn. It's easy to mow, not nearly as "juicy" as rye or bluegrass.
Read more!
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.
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.
Read more!
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.
Tuesday, May 26, 2009
Misfenestration: Word of the day?
You've done it, it's embarrassing, but you didn't know what to call it when you typed in the wrong chat window.
Misfenestration! If one can defenestrate, one can certainly commit fenestration wrongly and misfenestrate. Read more!
Misfenestration! If one can defenestrate, one can certainly commit fenestration wrongly and misfenestrate. Read more!
Monday, May 25, 2009
The Rest of the Garden
When I'm not obsessing over the lawn, I'm growing heat-tolerant, extremely productive vegetables like tomatillos, tomatoes, squash, chili peppers, eggplant, and okra.
Along with the lawn's watering system, we installed several lines for drip irrigating. Two lines are for the few landscape plants that aren't able to survive in Phoenix without a bit of supplemental water, and the rest are for herb and vegetable garden plots. Read more!
Along with the lawn's watering system, we installed several lines for drip irrigating. Two lines are for the few landscape plants that aren't able to survive in Phoenix without a bit of supplemental water, and the rest are for herb and vegetable garden plots. Read more!
Watching Grass and Weeds Grow: Week 9
It's Memorial Day. I'm sitting in the shade with a beer! We had several cool, cloudy days with light rain, which is unusual for May, and now it's back to the usual hot and dry.
The Buffalo grass continues to spread, and weeding by hand is making slow progress. The grass is spreading and rooting under the spurge where the dirt is cooler and moist all day.
Pics are coming, I promise. Read more!
The Buffalo grass continues to spread, and weeding by hand is making slow progress. The grass is spreading and rooting under the spurge where the dirt is cooler and moist all day.
Pics are coming, I promise. Read more!
Saturday, May 16, 2009
Watching Grass and Weeds Grow: Week 8
Not using a pre-emergent to prevent weed growth in a new lawn area is a major mistake, especially in Phoenix. The abundant water has encouraged astounding numbers of weeds to sprout. Arizona's warm-weather weeds are mostly waxy-leaved like spurge, or fuzzy-leaved desert plants, and herbicides aren't absorbed well. Most of the weeds barely slowed down when I sprayed them with a broad-leaf weedkiller.
Most broad-leaf weed killers can't be applied to turf grass when the temperatures are above 85°F, which happens really early in the morning in Phoenix. Some herbicides specify that the daily maximum temperature can't exceed 85, which makes them useless here.
I'm hand-weeding, which in a way is good, because in the course of pulling the broad-leaved weeds I find a lot of small surviving Bermuda grass clumps that are coming from the deep roots. Left alone, these would be huge and well-rooted in a couple of months.
The buffalograss is thriving despite the weeds. The plugs have turned into dense clumps the size of dessert plates, and there are only a few patches of dirt the runners haven't reached.
Read more!
Most broad-leaf weed killers can't be applied to turf grass when the temperatures are above 85°F, which happens really early in the morning in Phoenix. Some herbicides specify that the daily maximum temperature can't exceed 85, which makes them useless here.
I'm hand-weeding, which in a way is good, because in the course of pulling the broad-leaved weeds I find a lot of small surviving Bermuda grass clumps that are coming from the deep roots. Left alone, these would be huge and well-rooted in a couple of months.
The buffalograss is thriving despite the weeds. The plugs have turned into dense clumps the size of dessert plates, and there are only a few patches of dirt the runners haven't reached.
Read more!
Monday, May 11, 2009
Watching Grass and Weeds Grow: Week 7
Good grief! I had forgotten how much of a pest spotted spurge (Euphorbia maculata) can be in a well-watered area of exposed dirt. What I should have done was apply a pre-emergent, but the schedule didn't permit. Fortunately, spurge is an annual weed so I get another chance next year.
The buffalo grass is sending its runners right over the top of the ground-hugging spurge, so maybe it can choke it out.
The areas where we planted the extra plugs with 9-inch spacing has a dense mesh of runners covering the soil and spurge between the plugs, with some dense satellite clumps from the earliest runners. If your budget can handle the added cost (4 times as many plugs to plant for 9-inch spacing compared to 18-inch spacing) you could have decent coverage by mid-June with a late March or early April planting. Read more!
The buffalo grass is sending its runners right over the top of the ground-hugging spurge, so maybe it can choke it out.
The areas where we planted the extra plugs with 9-inch spacing has a dense mesh of runners covering the soil and spurge between the plugs, with some dense satellite clumps from the earliest runners. If your budget can handle the added cost (4 times as many plugs to plant for 9-inch spacing compared to 18-inch spacing) you could have decent coverage by mid-June with a late March or early April planting. Read more!
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)