How Do I Not Kill Off My Lawn?

[Deleted]

My new house has a half acre of lawn that I absolutely hate with every fiber of my being.

It's a ton of work dragging around hoses and it's a phenomenal waste of water here in the desert.

It takes 2 hoses running full bore, moved every 20 minutes, to get it watered in 4 HOURS... 

I'm planning on removing part of it next spring and replacing it with rock, but until then I'm having a problem with it turning brown.

I sprayed it with a liquid aerator because it has a thick mat of dead stuff and water doesn't absorb. I also added a dethatcher a couple weeks later because my neighbor who mows it won't catch the clippings and drops them back onto the lawn so it has a ton of dead crap in it. Ever since, it's more yellow/brown than green.  

I've been watering every other day. My neighbors water daily, but when I do that it doesn't seem to dry out well enough and turns yellow... 

WTF should I do to it? Do they make a Miracle Grow for lawns? Water more/less often? 

I've already decided to buy a mower and take over the task for next year. I will catch my clippings.

[Blonde Granny]

Personally, I think you're wasting your time and money......key words being "waste of water here in the desert" Rather than trying to keep something green that is more yellow/brown, I'd be buying some RoundUp or another one of the guaranteed to kill everything that grows, and save my money for rock.

Have you gotten a quote for what having that area rocked next year? When moving into our house, it cost us $3K to have the rocks installed along with the mat underneath, and I still get weeds growing up through the mat and the rocks....and I still use RoundUp to kill everything.

[The Walk of the Penguin Mich]

My neighbor turned her front yard into a rock garden.  It looks quite nice now (it is several years old, so the plants in it are reaching where they need to be), but she spends a LOT of time weeding it.  All the plants are deer proof, and they’ve pretty much kept their teeth off her plants.  Among the plants, the landscaper also included rosemary, thyme and sage.  

I have no idea how much it cost her to hav3 her sprinkler system and lawn pulled out and this put in, but the guy did a nice job.

[Deleted]

Jul 23, 2020 12:06:48 GMT -5 Blonde Granny said:

Personally, I think you're wasting your time and money......key words being "waste of water here in the desert" Rather than trying to keep something green that is more yellow/brown, I'd be buying some RoundUp or another one of the guaranteed to kill everything that grows, and save my money for rock.

Have you gotten a quote for what having that area rocked next year? When moving into our house, it cost us $3K to have the rocks installed along with the mat underneath, and I still get weeds growing up through the mat and the rocks....and I still use RoundUp to kill everything.

I'm not going to have the rock installed by the local landscaping company. They quoted me $20-30K just to install underground sprinklers. Um, no. 

I can get rock delivered fairly inexpensively. I can rent a bobcat up the street for a reasonable fee to grade out the area.

I plan to leave the lawn in the front yard and part of the backyard for now, but it will be a lot more manageable. If it's still too much work I will remove more of it.

I plan to dowse the area with RoundUp, put down black plastic, then put the rock on top of that.

Some of my neighbors simply fence off the back of their property and leave it as bare land. I don't want to do that because it would make my yard smaller and doesn't do anything to solve the weed problem.

[Deleted]

Jul 23, 2020 12:14:35 GMT -5 The Walk of the Penguin Mich said:

My neighbor turned her front yard into a rock garden.  It looks quite nice now (it is several years old, so the plants in it are reaching where they need to be), but she spends a LOT of time weeding it.  All the plants are deer proof, and they’ve pretty much kept their teeth off her plants.  Among the plants, the landscaper also included rosemary, thyme and sage.  

I have no idea how much it cost her to hav3 her sprinkler system and lawn pulled out and this put in, but the guy did a nice job.

One of my neighbors mentioned the reason all the contractor quotes here are insane is because I am new to town and they think they can charge whatever they want.

Also, there's typically only one business of each type and they figure people can either do the job themselves or pay what they ask.

For now, I need to know how to keep the lawn healthy and looking decent until it goes dormant. 

There's also a lot of peer pressure from the neighbors to keep the neighborhood green and avoid it looking like a desert. Um, okay, you want to come mow my lawn and pay the water bill? Didn't think so.  lol 

[Deleted]

Does it matter if it turns brown?  I guess I would just not water it ever, but I've never watered my lawn, so there's that.  I'm happy when we're in a drought because then I don't have to mow that week.  I realize I'm not in the desert, but isn't everything there brown? 

[Deleted]

Jul 23, 2020 12:25:28 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Does it matter if it turns brown?  I guess I would just not water it ever, but I've never watered my lawn, so there's that.  I'm happy when we're in a drought because then I don't have to mow that week.  I realize I'm not in the desert, but isn't everything there brown? 

Fortunately/unfortunately, I bought a house in the nicest area in town. My lawn being brown isn't acceptable and they could also cite me as a fire hazard.

I'm wondering about watering, I guess. Am I doing it too often, not enough? I can't seem to figure out what's making it yellow/brown. It was doing okay and I'm starting to wonder if the aerator/dethatcher burned it.

[ArchietheDragon]

do you know what type of grass you have?

[Lizard Queen]

Here in the not-arid Midwest, my DH waters the grass daily in the summer if it doesn't rain. I understand there are some grass varieties designed to need less water, though.

[azucena]

Jul 23, 2020 12:28:40 GMT -5 @shastasnewlife said:

Jul 23, 2020 12:25:28 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Does it matter if it turns brown?  I guess I would just not water it ever, but I've never watered my lawn, so there's that.  I'm happy when we're in a drought because then I don't have to mow that week.  I realize I'm not in the desert, but isn't everything there brown? 

Fortunately/unfortunately, I bought a house in the nicest area in town. My lawn being brown isn't acceptable and they could also cite me as a fire hazard.

I'm wondering about watering, I guess. Am I doing it too often, not enough? I can't seem to figure out what's making it yellow/brown. It was doing okay and I'm starting to wonder if the aerator/dethatcher burned it.

Are you sure your neighbors care?  I'm even in an HOA that has landscape rules but they don't care about our brown patches.

[TheOtherMe]

Jul 23, 2020 12:25:28 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Does it matter if it turns brown?  I guess I would just not water it ever, but I've never watered my lawn, so there's that.  I'm happy when we're in a drought because then I don't have to mow that week.  I realize I'm not in the desert, but isn't everything there brown? 

This is what my dad did all his life in Iowa.  Now that I have a yard in Iowa, I only watered it the summer the sod was brand new.

One neighbor has a sprinkler system.  One.  I have not seen it operating this year.

In Colorado, I was tied to the garden hose.  Was so happy to move to a condo for that reason alone.  

With the water rationing that has happened there the last several years, I am sure I would have gone to more native plants and rock.

[Deleted]

Jul 23, 2020 12:46:32 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

do you know what type of grass you have?

I asked around and was told these lawns were planted in the 1930s and have just been maintained and reseeded as needed. 

I put down some seed in the bare spots in my backyard and used a Scott's summer turf variety, since the lawns here go dormant for the long winters and only grow in the summer.

The newly seeded areas seem to be growing a wider blade grass. The existing is thin. 

I pulled all the dandelions a while back and black medic grew up in all the bare holes. I think next year I will leave the dandelions or just spray them. 

[Deleted]

I guess I should explain most of my neighbors were managers at the local mill before it closed and have lived here since before I was born.

Do they complain - yes. To me and each other, apparently. They already aren't thrilled about their neighbors dying and "strangers" moving in. Having a trashy lawn doesn't help. 

My neighbor came by to suggest I do something to green up my lawn because it's looking brown. Duh, trying...

This neighbor mows at least once a week and spends all.the.time working in his yard because he is in his mid-80s and doesn't have anything better to do. His lawn looks like he cuts it with scissors... 

While I don't really care that much what other people think, I'm trying to tow the line and not slum up the neighborhood until I can do something else in the long term.

I have considered not watering the back portion I want to remove, but it's next to an easement ally and we were told we can't have any brown weeds or lawn near there due to the fire hazard. The city drives by every month and I hear will cite me. 

[ArchietheDragon]

green paint. And I am not really kidding.

www.amazon.com/Lawnlift-Concentrated-Grass-Gallons-Product/dp/B004VTOUOS

[Deleted]

Maybe ask the neighbors for suggestions?  I wouldn't know how to deal with a lawn in the desert and at least they'd know you were trying.  People love giving advice. 

[Deleted]

Jul 23, 2020 12:58:10 GMT -5 azucena said:

Jul 23, 2020 12:28:40 GMT -5 @shastasnewlife said:

Fortunately/unfortunately, I bought a house in the nicest area in town. My lawn being brown isn't acceptable and they could also cite me as a fire hazard.

I'm wondering about watering, I guess. Am I doing it too often, not enough? I can't seem to figure out what's making it yellow/brown. It was doing okay and I'm starting to wonder if the aerator/dethatcher burned it.

Are you sure your neighbors care?  I'm even in an HOA that has landscape rules but they don't care about our brown patches.

We have a neighborhood association, which is supposedly different from an HOA, I’m just not sure how. Except the fees are cheaper, only $55/year. We do have a covenant and rules, but it’s basically just keep your property neat, grass cut, and no eyesores, which apparently includes company vehicles, unused vehicles and even RV’s not garaged.

Our yard went to hell soon after we moved in. We had a lot of weeds and brown/dead spots. We’ve been getting the yard treated for weeds, but we have moles (or something) tearing up the yard. There are holes, raised areas (tunnels), dead areas, and a lot of the ground is soft. It drives DBF nuts, mostly because he wants a pretty yard SO bad, and also because he has issues with walking on soft ground, which he has to do when he’s setting up sprinklers and cutting the grass. He’s wasted quite a bit of time and money trying to improve the yard. I even started a thread here, asking for advice.

So far, nobody has said anything about the sorry state of our yard. If they did, I’d ask them for advice, since DBF has been doing his best to get it healthy and looking good. And if they didn’t have any advice, just want to complain about it, I’d probably tell them to fuck off, because it already bothers DBF and he doesn’t need added pressure.

[azucena]

Jul 23, 2020 14:49:16 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Maybe ask the neighbors for suggestions?  I wouldn't know how to deal with a lawn in the desert and at least they'd know you were trying.  People love giving advice. 

Let them mansplain this topic to you LOL

[bobosensei]

Is it brown from dying because a lack of watering or brown spots from disease?

I have bermuda grass and live in Georgia.  It took me a couple seasons to get the soil and lawn healthy enough to get rid of the diseased areas and the weeds.  To keep it green we use a reel mower 4 times a week to keep it at a half inch height.  Mowing it that much with the reel mower is killing us so my boyfriend ordered a robot mower at the advice of the county extension agency and the university that we send our soil samples to.

We only water a couple of times a week, but both my front and back spigot have adaptors that allow us to plug up to 4 hoses in each spigot so instead of dragging one hose/sprinkler around my boyfriend gets up and pulls 2 out for the front and one out for the back.  We have the water on a timer so at some point later in the morning we go out and shift them once.

We have some of our containers set up with rain bird sprinklers too.  I'll be getting enough next year so that I don't have to water my vegetable garden either.  One day we may put in a sprinkler system.  I've seen the ones at home depot that you install yourself.  We may at least try that next year in our back yard where it could also benefit the raised bed garden area.

You should have a county extension office or agricultural department at a nearby university that can help you determine the type of grass.  Or if you post a picture here I can tell you if it is Bermuda, Fescue, Zoysia, or Centipede.  I don't know what is common in the pac NW.  But I am sure someone else here can tell you.  The way you water, cut, and otherwise maintain will depend on the grass type.

[Tennesseer]

Xeriscaping:

Xeriscaping is the practice of designing landscapes to reduce or eliminate the need for irrigation. This means xeriscaped landscapes need little or no water beyond what the natural climate provides. Xeriscaping has been embraced in dry regions of the western United States.

[haapai]

I think that you're being too hard on yourself.  You might be hating a long-neglected lawn and unprepared for a lawn that will turn brown every summer without permanent damage and you have a lot of retired neighbors who have little else to do except water their lawns. 

Can you take a slow walk with canine around and see whether your lawn is anomalous?  I grew up in a sandy place where even the folks that grew fabulous bulb gardens and really fussed over their yards just accepted that their grass would be yellow or brown in late summer and then rejuvenate in the fall. 

Please take your time and consider something other than a sprinkler system or four hours a day of sprinkler-moving.  Over-seeding your lawn with something more drought-resistant or adding organic material may be a much better solution than continuously adding water to lawn of antique grass varieties growing in sand. 

[tractor]

Put some signs out that say “non-photosynthetic grass test area”. Then when anybody asks you can say it’s supposed to look that way.

[Deleted]

Jul 23, 2020 14:16:38 GMT -5 ArchietheDragon said:

green paint. And I am not really kidding.

www.amazon.com/Lawnlift-Concentrated-Grass-Gallons-Product/dp/B004VTOUOS

I told my neighbor the other day that might be a good option.  lol 

[Deleted]

Jul 23, 2020 15:32:12 GMT -5 azucena said:

Jul 23, 2020 14:49:16 GMT -5 minnesotapaintlady said:

Maybe ask the neighbors for suggestions?  I wouldn't know how to deal with a lawn in the desert and at least they'd know you were trying.  People love giving advice. 

Let them mansplain this topic to you LOL

I tried. It was suggested I spend every morning watering. Not.

My neighbor did mention he uses some sort of greening up fertilizer. I found some at the hardware store today and bought some. Can't hurt... lol 

[Deleted]

This is the lawn:




And this is what it is doing.

(I do know the circular areas are from deer pee. It kills the lawn and then a big tuff of bright green new lawn grows around it. I watched the deer pee there. )

[jerseygirl]

Jul 23, 2020 17:40:19 GMT -5 @shastasnewlife said:

This is the lawn:




And this is what it is doing.

(I do know the circular areas are from deer pee. It kills the lawn and then a big tuff of bright green new lawn grows around it. I watched the deer pee there. )

Love the flowers round the flag pole. Your lawn looks ok, don’t let obsessed people hassle you about the lawn

[sesfw]

Have you thought of a good grade of artificial lawn?  Our neighbor has some and looks great.

We are in SW desert so you know water is not in abundance for watering lawns.  And it gets too hot for grass.

Go rock with artificial in between ..........

[Deleted]

Jul 23, 2020 18:08:30 GMT -5 jerseygirl said:

Jul 23, 2020 17:40:19 GMT -5 @shastasnewlife said:

Love the flowers round the flag pole. Your lawn looks ok, don’t let obsessed people hassle you about the lawn

Thanks. That's actually a 12' 4x4 that has my internet antenna mounted on the top. It was the only way I could get internet. It's about 20' behind the planter out along the street. 

The planter was a mystery until a few weeks ago. It was clear something perennial grew there, but none of my neighbors knew the name of the flowers. Tall and yellow was the description I kept getting.  lol  

It's loaded with blackeye Susans that range from yellow to deep red. Love them and I hear they will keep blooming all summer. Along the back are also some red impatiens. I plan to add some bearded iris I ordered to the planter this fall to bulk out the green and help keep weeds from growing.

Every few weeks I have new flowers that come up. My yard has a bunch of columbine, roses, daisies, and hollyhocks came up recently.

I also have some sort of small purple flowers that look almost like some sort of tiny orchids but grow on what looks exactly like grass. They are open in the mornings then close. They came up first in the spring and are still flowering.

[Deleted]

Jul 23, 2020 18:30:44 GMT -5 sesfw said:

Have you thought of a good grade of artificial lawn?  Our neighbor has some and looks great.

We are in SW desert so you know water is not in abundance for watering lawns.  And it gets too hot for grass.

Go rock with artificial in between ..........

Thanks to living in the Harney Basin, there's no shortage of water here and it's fairly inexpensive. 

I have half an acre of lawn. If it's >20K to put in sprinklers, I can only imagine the cost for installing artificial lawn... 

When I was out walking around to take the photos I was thinking I might be able to get rid of the grass growing around the perimeters where it seems to struggle the most. Maybe I can make a few rock gardens and whittle it down that way.

When I moved here I mentioned to my neighbors I planned to tear out the lawn and replace it with rock and heard grumbling about how the lawns all make our neighborhood look nice. Um, okay, but since I am the one watering it and taking care of it...

I do collect "extra" rock every time I go hiking/rockhounding. I pick up interesting looking larger rocks to add to my flower beds and start making some rock gardens. 

I guess the good news is grass only grows here 4 months a year. The rest of the time the weather is too cold. But, so far, it's been a LONG 4 months of watering...

[countrygirl2]

Maybe not much top soil and mostly sand so dries out really fast. Mine in Texas looked a lot like that. Good luck.

[Deleted]

Jul 23, 2020 18:57:02 GMT -5 countrygirl2 said:

Maybe not much top soil and mostly sand so dries out really fast. Mine in Texas looked a lot like that. Good luck.

How often did you water? 

I can't decide if I burned it, since it looked green before I put the aerator on it. or if I am over/under watering it...