Therian
Newly Registered
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2010 4:22 pm

New At Lawn Care / Problems / Advice Needed

Hello everyone firstly thanks for checking out my topic. As mentioned I am new to lawn care and so far I have good results but I also have some bad results forming.

This is year 1 with this yard....I started out it was horrible. 10% grass rest was mostly dead space (dirt) and weeds. So I made a lot of progress within 1 year. I am using Kentucky 31 grass which after 3 weeks of 100F weather sadly is going brown and I can't seem to green it up so bout ready to stop trying and focus more on killing the stuff I dislike for the next year. I was told it wasn't dying it was simply going into "conserving" mode and that long as I water 15m a location every other day it would recover when it cooled down. Is this true? Any tricks to getting it green again?

Please note I didn't fertilize this year due to the state of the yard...I also ran into some 46/0/0 50 pound bags Urea Fertilizer for free recently....is pure nitrogen good enough or should I look for a better blend?


I have this grass/weed I can't ID....could someone aid me here? Also I want to kill it before December as I don't like it and it is slowly taking over my yard but I want to make sure my seeds can germinate when its time. (will cool down around December maybe sooner)
Pictures
[url=https://www.imagebam.com/image/a214e492621671][img]https://thumbnails30.imagebam.com/9263/a214e492621671.jpg[/img][/url] [url=https://www.imagebam.com/image/28274692621691][img]https://thumbnails4.imagebam.com/9263/28274692621691.jpg[/img][/url]


My watering schedule is bad as I can't water in the morning (got school @ 4am to 1pm and I barley get out of bed as it is) so I have been watering from 5pm (parts that are shaded) to 9pm. I use a typical walmart sprinkler on a "tripod" 4 feet off the ground.

My spinkler head looks likes this (mind you this is not my version I use a cheap 25 cent tripod in a garage sale and zip tied my sprinkler to it :P)
[img]https://I.walmartimages.com/I/p/00/04/68/78/56/0004687856667_500X500.jpg[/img]

Front yard = 6 spots and back yard = 2 spots.

Front yard
Front 1 - 30m (180)
Front 2 - 1 hour (360 spin)
Left Side - 30m (180)
Right Side 1 30m (180)
Right Side 2 - 10m (60 degrees (small 4F wide side)
Right Side 3 - 10m (60 degrees (small 4F wide side)

Back yard
Back 1 - 1 hour (360)
Back 2 - 30m (half moon)


This is how I water. I usually start @ 5:30pm - 6pm and I always start in the areas with shade to prevent the sun from baking it. Our water pressure is low as well (can't power 2 sprinklers 1 loses 80% pressure if you try)

The reason I give you this information is 1. For techniques/advices/warnings and 2. for the picture below. I was yanking that un-ided grass/weed and I saw this.
[url=https://www.imagebam.com/image/94198c92621679][img]https://thumbnails28.imagebam.com/9263/94198c92621679.jpg[/img][/url]

Is that mold/disease or is it simply decay from grass clippings? I also noticed a few weeds/grass with white spots on them (thought my girlfriend was spray painting again outside)


Thanks for any tips/help...I am happy with what I done this year but kinda disappointed at the same time as I can't keep my yard happy. I am currently using a 50FT soaker hose to "deep water" the dry spots to revive them but I might cut my loses and keep to a normal water schedule till this heat goes down some and next year look into better watering methods.

Thank you.

cynthia_h
Super Green Thumb
Posts: 7500
Joined: Tue May 06, 2008 7:02 pm
Location: El Cerrito, CA

I'm not a lawn person, but I do know that lawn keepers will want to know:

1) Where is the lawn? state/country ==> The readership of Helpful Gardener is international.

2) Does it face north / south / east / west?

3) What kind of soil do you have (if you know): mostly clay? mostly sand? somewhere in between?

4) Have you ever applied compost to the lawn?

Best wishes.

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9

Therian
Newly Registered
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2010 4:22 pm

1. Springfield,Missouri - USA
2. My lawn? if so they face all 4 directions in aspect to my house however my front yard is east backyard is west.
3. Not 100% sure....its a clayish type though and very rocky. I pulled huge chunks of rock outta the ground when I dug my dogs grave 4Feet and about 2 FT of it was rock rest was a mixture of dirt/clay.
4. No and the people before us didn't take care of ANYTHING including the house.



Also thanks for responding.

Therian
Newly Registered
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Aug 11, 2010 4:22 pm

Small update I have ID'ed the grass in the picture...its Bermuda Grass so I know how to handle it for next year.



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