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Normally this time of year I’m scrambling to get a Chamber event put together on the grass in the park. Instead I’m trying to make grass grow back in my front yard.
A few years ago we had severe water restrictions and went for weeks without being able to water. That’s when my lawn went south. It’s gotten worse every year, until anymore it’s a progression of various weeds, culminating in grass burrs.
This year with more spare time and less money, I went back to mowing the lawn myself and doing that raised my awareness of just how bad it looks. Those weeds look green and pretty good from the car. The bare spots stir up dust storms when you’re behind the mower.
I had been threatening to over-seed the mess for several years. I purchased Bermuda grass seed and was committed to replacing the failed fescue.
Once the stuff gets going it takes over and chokes out weeds and other grasses and tolerates the drought by going dormant. So I dropped the mower blade down low and scalped the lawn. Then I watered the patch I was going to try first. Then with it damp I took a rake and scratched up all of the bare spots. Once that was done distributing the seed with the broadcast spreader was easy.
Instructions told me the most important thing was to keep the ground damp while waiting for the seed to sprout. The timeframe that might take was listed from seven to 21 days.
The watering has been made easy with the luxury of an automatic sprinkler setup. Two zones kicked on manually once or twice a day as needed.
It’s been a week now and I scan the bare spots closely twice a day but so far nothing. I’ve covered bare spots in Bermuda before by transplanting runners to the bare spots. That was a long time ago but it worked. This waiting for seeds to sprout is another thing all together.
Warm days and moist soil should be the right recipe so I’ll be patient a little while longer. The grass has got to get a move on though, the weeds are really digging all this water I’m giving them. I’m not supposed to mow until the Bermuda grass is an inch and a half tall. That could put me over the legal limit on weed height the way we’re going.
On the other hand, if the seed doesn’t sprout and grow to the inch and a half I don’t have to mow the lawn.
Karl Terry writes for Clovis Media Inc. Contact him at:
karlterry@yucca.net
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