Ready to plant my new lawn... Please help!

[husqy510]

My wife and I bought our first home about a year ago, in southern California, from a nice elderly lady. She spent her days in retirement caring for her beautiful plants and grass, which we are slowly killing . Recently we got the backyard under control by adding automatic sprinklers and a drip system.

Now we're focusing on the front lawn.

It was in such poor shape that we decided to remove all the old stuff with a SOD cutter; I then tilled the soil with a rototiller and installed a sprinkler system. Now we're ready to seed or lay SOD. We stopped by a landscape supply place and they sold us on St Augustine, but it's too late in the season to get SOD. So now we're stuck with two dirt plots in front of our house, which are slowly gathering weeds, and what I believe is bermuda grass, but it may be St. Augustine, because that's what we have in the back.

What should we do? I'm thinking about seeding with cheap seeds, and then laying St. Augustine SOD next spring, but I don't want to go through the trouble of cutting out whatever I seed this fall.

Here's what I can tell you about our land. We live in Orange County in Southern California, so we have pretty good weather year round. Our dirt was very compacted so I tilled it and I have 5 yards of planter mix top soil coming next monday. The other issue I have is the two large trees, one on each side of the driveway. The guy at the landscape store suggested we do a large ring of compost around each tree.

Any suggestions?

Thanks, Ian

[rainbowgardener]

I grew up in Orange County (Anaheim), so I am aware that September is often the hottest month of the year for you, so definitely the wrong time to be planting. Wait until the weather breaks, mid Oct to early November and then plant seed or sod. I'm not sure why they didn't think you could do fall planting of sod, you have spring-like weather most of the year. But I'm not much of a lawn expert, so if the experts say no, then just till it up again when the weather breaks and plant seed. Either way, you only get a total of about 10 inches of rain a year, so whatever you plant will have to be watered/ irrigated every day until well established and then frequently, forever after.

Have you thought about xeriscaping? I remember being up watering the lawn every morning as a kid (no one had home irrigation systems back then). Water is a precious resource. Personally I think green lawns are for places like where I live now, where water just falls out of the sky all summer (40 inches a year, evenly distributed through every month of the year).

[husqy510]

It's not that we can't plant SOD in the fall, the issue is that we can't find St. Augustine SOD this late in the year because it goes dormant, so the farms stop growing it. I can get Marathon no problem, but I want a hearty grass that is resistant to weeds.

I definitely like the idea of drought resistant plants, but I have always wanted a nice green lawn in front of my own home, so that's the dream I'm chasing now.

[imafan26]

I have dwarf St. Augustine. It is tolerant of many types of soil and is the most shade tolerant. I don't plant standard St. Augustine because it gets pretty shaggy. I had a problem with nut sedge I could not get rid of after a year of trying and a large city tree casting a lot of shade on the area. The emerald zoysia is more drought tolerant and grows much slower, but does not do well in shade.

The dwarf St. Augustine was the only thing that had a chance competing with nut sedge and could tolerate the shade as well. I had to sod since the weeds would have taken over a plugged lawn.

Dwarf St. Augustine is adaptable to wet and dry locations. It is not as drought tolerant as emerald zoysia and grows faster but it isn't bad. When it gets dry the blades get crunchy when it is walked on, but it comes back quickly when it can get enough water or rain. Army worms would rather go for the bermuda grass and it does not have many fungal issues. It grows faster than emerald so needs to be mowed more often and the blades are wide. It is more comfortable to walk on than zoysia with its' sharp blades. St. Augustine competes well and hides the nut sedge pretty well unless it is kyringa which grow in clumps, but I can dig those out. The main thing that I don't like about it is that it grows fast and has long runners that invade my shrub borders. It has even invaded the neighbors' front yard.

Did the sod dealer say he didn't have sod now, it would make sense, since most warm grasses are dormant in summer? Mine is dormant now, but I know it comes back quickly once it starts raining. Did you ask if there would be any later this year or will it only be available in the Spring?

You will need to have to deal with the weeds, dig them out or round up. I would either put a thick layer of mulch on top of it or plant a cover crop like annual rye grass. If your winters are mild or like mine non-existent, you will need to cut and turn the grass into the soil before it seeds otherwise like buckwheat and other cover crops, it can get weedy. Other things to grow as cover crops would be clover. Same thing, turn them under before they seed. As a bonus, they will help to enrich the soil. Cover crops can be mowed like a lawn.

https://www.organicgardening.com/learn-a ... rop-basics

[rainbowgardener]

"I definitely like the idea of drought resistant plants, but I have always wanted a nice green lawn in front of my own home, so that's the dream I'm chasing now."

The heart wants what the heart wants, but that's a dream that came to America with the British/Irish settlers. On a damp foggy island, the great houses had amazing green lawns. It isn't really appropriate to semi-arid areas. More people are starting to understand that these days.

Xeriscaping isn't going to give you a flat, lush, green lawn (why do you need a soccer field anyway) but it can be very beautiful:


https://www.daviddarling.info/images/xeriscaping.jpg


https://yardfairy.com/wp-content/uploads ... CN1770.jpg


https://www.westerngardeners.com/wp-cont ... s-blog.jpg

that last is in a yard in Santa Fe, NM. My sister lives in NM and hardly anyone there does lawns any more.


A green lawn is actually a kind of wasteland. Even though I can have one naturally without watering it or doing any thing, I keep getting rid of lawn. It feeds nothing but Japanese beetle grubs. Since it is never allowed to get tall or go to seed, it is attractive to nothing but humans (no birds, butterflies, etc). Read Sara Stein Noah's Garden

[imafan26]

Lawns do take up a lot of water. They are usually one of the most thirsty plants you can grow and they do take a lot of maintenance. But if it what you like, you are not alone.

I myself limit grass to only where I need it. I prefer shrub borders but my husband who did the weeding complained that he was tired of getting poked in the butt by the roses. He did not mind weekly weed whacking the lawn. I on the other hand, hate the weed whacker, and especially the spool. You'd think someone would have come up with a better design by now. The shrub border needed only maintenance every six weeks or so, if I get to it, but I must admit it is harder to get to the weeds between the plants and I actually have to pull and mulch as I can't just weed whack them in 15 minutes. I also like the diversity of shapes textures and colors and I just don't get that from the lawn and I am tired of tripping over the grass runners.