You could try creeping bentgrass. Its not low maintenance per say, but if you could manage 4 lbs per 1000 sq ft of fertilizer a year and mowing every 3 days, it could work for you. I mow mine at 0.625" every 2 to 3 days and I use 6 lbs per 1000 sq ft of fertilizer per year. Here are some pictures of my lawn:

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You can buy penncross creeping bentgrass at www.outsidepride.com and it is about $15 per lb of seed. 1 lb will seed 1000 sq ft approximately at the light end.

Boy, that bentgrass is something else. Really looks great.

You could go with a lot of the new varieties of bluegrass. They are slow to start the first year or so, in which you won't have much reason to mow because you don't get much upper shoot growth. And as those in this thread all testify to. They are bred for low/slow growth habit (commonly referred to as dwarf growth habit) so once they do get going, you'll mow once every 7-10 days and you can mow much lower than the common 3 inches. I normally advise mowing at 2-2.5 at the upper end of their tolerance, but they can be maintained at 1-1.5 inches just fine. Requires the usual 3-4 pounds/1000 fertilizer a year and the usual 1 inch of water. However, most are much more drought and heat tolerant and have reduced water requirements. Are you interested?

I meant to ask if you and the wife have considered the fact that you will have to kill the existing lawn in order to plant the new and get what she wants.

Buffalo grass would not be a good choice. It is slow growing, but I don't think it does well when it is kept short. Most natives do best at higher settings. It would also not do well with lots of rain. Ohio's also probably farther east than you'd usually find buffalo grass. Your soil is probably somewhat acidic and buffalo grass prefers somewhat alkaline soil.

Oh Yea, Bentgrass. Thats a great idea to keep your wife happy. Putting green short. Go for it.

Thanks for the replies. The bentgrass looks awesome and I wish my lawn looked like that, but I don't think mowing it every three days would work for me. I work 12 hour swing shifts and it can be 7-8 days sometimes before I get an opportunity to mow (when mother nature ruins my days off). I also have a 1/2 hour commute to work. So, the days that I work are usually spent working, eating, and sleeping. The watering requirements of bentgrass has always turned me away from them as well.

The dwarf bluegrass varities I guess you can call them sound good to me. I really like the color of the midnight/moonlight but I wasn't sure on the growth rate. I think I could maintain a shorter lawn if the growth rate of the grass wasn't as high. My lawn right now looks like it hasn't been mowed within a couple of days of mowing and I think that is what drives my wife nuts the most.

As for the DW and killing the lawn, she didn't like it too well when I overseeded with some generic bluegrass seed back in fall of 2006 but she got over it rather quickly. Especially when a couple of the neighbors commented on how green our yard was. It happened to go dry right after I overseeded. Since I was watering and the neighbors were not, we ended up having the best looking lawn that fall. All of the starter fertilizer really turned the existing grass green. Of course, I am pretty brave or crazy; I am not sure which. Living in the dog house doesn't bother me, and she can't stop me from pulling the roundup out while she is at work :P.

Thanks for the advise on the buffalo grass. I spent almost 4 years out in Nebraska when I was in the air force and everyone always talked about how they rarely had to mow their buffalo grass lawns. That is what sparked my intrigue.

Fish,

Slow growing, low maintenance, and ability to take a fairly short cut in your, and my, climate, equals Chewings fescue. It will never look like a super-dark plush KB lawn, but you can't have everything.

A.J.

Buffalo grass is a good choice for much of Nebraska, but Ohio isn't Nebraska, and many of the reasons it's a good choice for NE make it a bad choice for OH. Also, the people who talked about rarely mowing it were probably mowing it at 3-4 inches, which is a good height for it.

fish43512

First of all..... all of our neighbors cut their grass short and it looks nice ALL SUMMER LONG, ours is the only lawn that is 3 inches long. #2 the kids complain that is scratches their legs and they can't find their toys and #3 in the dog area, she can't even squat to pee, it is too long. It is absolutely ridiculous to compete with the neighbors to have the "greenest lawn in the neighborhood" when you have children that need to play outside. And please my DH don't forget we have kids that tell ALL, so getting the roundup out may not be the best option for you. Just mow the grass short and be done with it! Who cares about the "proper" height as long as the kids can play! And since when have we ever had deer in our backyard? The last I knew we had an 8 foot privacy fence up.

LOL!

Do you stay home or what? If so, at least you could learn to mow instead of b*tching to your husband who works 12 hours a day. I can't imagine having to mow when you work that many hours and I certainly will not tolerate that kind of attitude. Women wanted equal rights... go mow the lawn yourself.

Move over, Lou, surely this one is all mine. LOL
From one woman to another, I think you are so wrong to come on this board and tear your husband down like that with something you could and should have said to him in front of the computer and not on it. He is only trying to grant your wish. What could possibly be wrong with him wanting to do it the right way? For the record, he and everyone here cares about the "proper" height of the grass, especially since it is so important to you that the children play on it. If it isn't mowed at proper height, it will not be able to withstand the traffic, the wear and tear. The "greenest lawn in the neighborhood" will end up the least of his concern and yours. Proper mowing height is directly attributed to promoting the overall health, but I won't bother to explain how that works since you've made it more than apparent that you don't give a darn.

Oh, that's funny...if it was a joke from a board member, it's really funny. If it was actually his wife, it's hysterical. And the name is perfect.

Posted by fishswife (My Page) on Tue, Apr 29, 08 at 21:05

ours the only lawn that is 3 inches long...... the kids complain that is scratches their legs and they can't find their toys....


Wow.... how tall are the kids? 3" grass is scratching their legs? (I'm having trouble figuring out how 3" grass blades go up higher than oh maybe their ankles.) How small are those toys? do we let em play with matchbox cars & hotwheels outside? toys get lost in 3" grass?


Really now, I hope you have some sort of idea just how ridiculous your claims sound, particularly for you to be coming to a place like this where the folks are interested in maintaining healthy turfgrasses using proper cultural practices.

Sorry, but just because you happen to have a few neighbors who do something other than what DH does, doesn't make what they do correct. In the neighborhood I live in, many folks don't have a clue & maintain their grass quite poorly & just because they do it that way, doesn't mean I'm going to do what they do.

Good day, Dan