I
posted our plans for having a beautiful green lawn. My husband and I are officially over the whole grass thing for this year! Ahem, before I rant, let me focus on the attributes of lawn filled with grass.
(Here's where I leave a blank post.) No, in all seriousness:
- grass is nutritious for cattle (I honestly would feel better if we were growing grass for horses and cows)
- grass prevents erosion of topsoil
- grass provides the nitrogen soil needs
- grass contains chlorophyll
Ok, I am really scrambling for any other reason it is beneficial in suburbia, but moving on to our mistakes so that you can avoid repeating them.
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| Before |
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| Before |
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| After |
As you see above, the month of April started out great. We were able to redo the landscape. We even planted our trees, shrubs, and grass seed hours before a week of gentle rain. We were elated.
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| Downpour |
After the week of rain, we watered with the sprinkler for at least 30 minutes a night. The temperatures went from up 70s down to the 50s and our dying rye grass sprang to life. That's actually what you see in the after picture posted above. Twenty-one days passed and not a single blade of grass came up.
So we were back to the store grabbing a bag of rye. We figured the rye comes up in 7 days and it would stop the rest of the summer grass seed from washing away. The last week of April, first week of May turned into torrential rains. 10 - 20 minutes bucket and gully washers. All our grass seed washed away because it was too cold to germinate. The rye looks beautiful. For now we will enjoy the last of the rye before summer burns it up.
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| Rain washing down the side of the hill |
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| washed away dirt |
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| what washed out |
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| used to spread the grass seed |
Moral of our garden mishaps?
Rye is great from Fall to Spring. Wait to plant summer seeds until the temperatures no longer dip and the spring rains aren't around to wash it out! Establishing grass seed requires patience, a lot of water, fertilizer, great soil, and ideal temperatures!
My advice is don't give up, take your time, and "if you don't succeed, try, try again." For us we will attempt it again next year.
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| rye grass |
