Weekend Turf
Saturday-Sunday, September 28-29, 2024
Weekend Turf
What a busy week, capped off by long overdue rain. The weather this week was like the fire department showed up a month after the fire had burned itself out. There’s hardly any lawn left to water! Sowing new grass seed will now be a February project, so long as we aren’t having a cold winter. Cold winters around here have become scarcer. When we have one, there’s little chance of poking holes in the turf with the plug aerator, so less chance of sowing grass by seed.
Lawn grasses are by origin a European thing. The popular ones found here are imports to North America: the Kentucky bluegrass and fescue cultivars, the Bermuda grass varieties in the hotter southern reaches. They are invasive species who were invited to invade. When I hear the term “invasive species” regarding plants, I imagine a cartoonish, scimitar-swinging Attila the Hun colored by chloroplasts. But that’s just me.
For those who also enjoy the semi-geeky rabbit hole, there’s a nice digression about lawn grasses at Robert Heslip’s blog over here.
The lawn grass species that appeals to me most at my latitude and elevation is zoysia. It is native to Asia, imported perhaps around the end of the 19th century. Zoysia grows slower, meaning it doesn’t require as much mowing. It has a dense mat of greenery, and roots that are exquisitely good at holding down soil and choking out weeds with its rhizomes and stolons. It is hardier against drought than the mess I currently have.
The biggest drawback of zoysia is an aesthetic one: that it goes dormant in the winter and turns brown. It also has to be installed as sod, either as squares or plugs. Installing lawns by sod squares is uncommon in my area. Almost all lawns are sowed here from seed. Zoysia grows and spreads in the summer when soil temperatures are comfortably above 70º, and it prefers full sun.
Oh well. The ambition is there, at least. Now to see if there’s the will and weather to cooperate in February.
Good morning. We interrupt this horticultural excursion to inform readers that the Wall Street Journal is reporting that Israel says Nasrallah is dead. I generally don't wish for people to be dead: I wish for them to be converted to decency and spend their remaining years being helpful to others, or at least harmless.
In this case, though ... Woo-hooo!
And speaking of invasive plants, our activity today is an invasive plant removal project at a city park. It's a joint venture of the Envirothon group, the Scouts, and a Friends of the Park group.