You only need to water during the growing season. When does your bermuda go dormant and come back in the spring? I don't want to nitpick but I only know of 52 weeks in a year, so I already saved you 5 weeks of watering. :)

I'm cheap too. So I took the long term approach. I mulch mow and mulch all my leaves in the fall to get the organic material in the soil to help hold the water. I use a combination of organic grains and urea for costs savings. In your case, a 50# bag of 46-0-0 would give close to a pound per 1000 of nitrogen and my cost is $20. Check a local farm supply in your area. You may want a slower release fertilizer or just do smaller amounts more often.

Some years may need more water than others. If it is dry then cut back on the fertilizer. The other cheap approach is to limit the size of the area you want for lawn. Maybe only a portion of your property needs extra care, the rest is Mother Natures worry.

Your post cracked me up. I'm a (female) UPS driver in Iowa and we do notice everything about your property - and more if you're one of those people who lives in the boonies and likes to get an all over tan by mowing in the nude! :)

Seriously though, I don't know squat about lawncare yet but ask your driver about what the feed store or coop carries for fertilizer and what he's seen other property owners do in your area with similar restraints.

Thanks for the reply... again.
While at first take your mention of 52 weeks in a year was humorous to me, I looked back and I've only included 47 weeks total (because I just skimmed the charts and based counting on 4 weeks per month... was just easier. I think (if I'm interpreting what you're saying correctly, that you thought I had included MORE than 52 weeks. Maybe I'm missing something... again.

Everything else is well taken (also). I'm TRYING to stay away from synthetics, but might have to make an exception for my lawn at some point. Have been looking into SBM, Cornstarch, and alfalfa meal as have been suggested here. SBM will cost 70 per feeding, cornmeal 82, and alfalfa 100 for the entire yard. Not unmanagageable but still more than I'd hoped for.

Unfortunately for me (I suppose) is that we don't have a whole lot of trees in my yard per se, but we are surrounded by pine tree forest and front yard is surrounded by hardwood forest.

Pine needles are easy to aquire but not worth much (I don't think) other than for flower beds. I don't know, maybe I could chop that up with a mower and use it for a mulch for the yard. I have my doubts as to whether this makes sense however.

The hardwood forest and leaves are, well, going to be difficult to aquire. Maybe not as bad as I'm anticipating but, seems like a real pita to me.

So, I really don't have a source of good composting materials.

Have considered taking a rather large strip of land that aligns my driveway, and turning that into a "field" of sorts... maybe a deer plot or something, that I can crop for mulch/compost for my yard and garden. It's currently bahaia grass with crepe myrtles and some dogwoods... so that complicates things. I'm not in love with any of the crepe myrtles (I butchered them some time back... another story) but some of the dogwoods are worth keeping so I'm kind of torn.

Besides all this, I made a mistake in my original post that I'll blame on someone else for misinforming (really).
I don't have bermude, I have centipede grass (for the most part). So it makes for some differences in fertility requirements and water demand. I THINK both should be less.... but not certain.

I'm going to try and update the title and the references in the original post to Bermuda.

Thanks.
Eddie

Oops!
No edit button!
Apologies, but I don't have bermuda, I have centipede!!

Centipede and Bermuda are entirely different grasses in terms of maintenance/fertility. Centipede grass has been described as a "lazy man's grass" because of its low maintenance requirements. Centipede performs best at a more acid pH range of 5.5 to 6.0. At this pH, centipede can better compete for nutrients than others lawn grasses and weeds. If in fact you have a centipede lawn, you basically have 2 maintenance choices.

1. Fertilize once a year with a 1/2 to 1 pound of slow release Nitrogen per 1000sqft after spring green up.
A 3-0-3 ratio would be perfect for your lawn.

2. Dont fertilize at all.

Since your soil test showed you were low in potassium I would also apply Sulfate of Potash 0-0-50 @ 2lb per 1000sqft in October and again after spring green up.

skoot cat-
Wow. That makes my expense a LOT less than I had anticipated and very managable (because yes, it is centipede... verified).

Since the fertilizer requirements are as you've suggested, then am I correct in thinking that I'm going to have a hard time finding ANY other ground cover that will be less demanding as far as expense goes? Clovers, dichondra etc in some areas?

Any suggestions as to when I would want to water to maintain a decent looking yard (yes subjective)? Is there any period of the year that I would definitely want to water SOME (say spring summer when less than 1/2" of rain per week) and/or periods that I don't need to water (say winter and fall). Just trying to get a handle on how much water my centipede lawn will require over the course of the year to keep it looking reasonable (primarily to eliminate bare spots and keep them eliminated).

BTW, do you know if centipede will generally choke out weeds and BAHAIA grass if it's maintained? Any secrets?

Anyway, thanks a bunch. You have already saved me a bunch of money. My old school stepfather apparently knew what he was doing when he sprigged the yard. Imagine that.

Clover...

I tried buying some clover seed and it didn't work too well for me. Some of the seeds sprouted, and 2 months later I still have clover plants but they are TINY and I doubt they're gonna survive. I have red clay so you may have better luck. The soil has never been fertilized and never watered so I'm sure that had something to do with it ;)

I bought innoculated dutch white clover since it is the lowest growing. I looked online and it was pretty expensive (to me anyway)... cheapest I could find was like $5/pound plus shipping. I went to a local seed store and got it for $2.50/pound.

BTW, do you know if centipede will generally choke out weeds and BAHAIA grass if it's maintained? Any secrets?

Proper mowing and watering practices are going to be your best defense against weeds and Bahia grass. For example: Bahia prefers to be cut high 4+" where centipede should be mowed low at 1-2". Cutting low will help your lawn become dense and spread outward, and should choke out some of the Bahia over time.

MOWING: Mow at 1 to 1-1/2 inches. Mulch mow with sharp blades, and mow often enough so only 1/3 of the plant height is removed. High and infrequent mowing tends to encourage thatch development, which can lead to chlorosis, drought stress and winter injury. However, during periods of drought the mowing height should be raised about 1/2 inch.

WATERING: No more than once a week, but the best way is to Let Your Lawn Tell You When it Needs Water. As the soil begins to dry out, the lawn will show a lack of available moisture by wilted leaf blades. This condition is evidenced by a lengthwise folding or rolling of the blades, caused by a loss of turgor or water pressure within the plant. Also Footprints remain visible on a drought-stressed lawn long after having been made. Unless rain is forecast in the next 24 hours, lawns should be irrigated when 30 to 50 percent of the lawn shows signs of wilt/stress. Irrigate in the early morning hours between 2-6am

Your objective when irrigating is to get the maximum amount of water to the root zone without over-irrigating. In clay soils,(which Im assuming you have) is somewhere between 1/2 to 3/4 inch of water. This will target the majority of the root system and encourage more rooting at lower depths.

So, how do you know how to apply this amount of water? An easy method of measuring the amount of water applied by your irrigation system is to set out several straight-sided, same-size cans (tuna cans work best) at random in each irrigation zone. Monitor how much water is applied if you run your irrigation system for fifteen minutes by measuring the amounts in the cans. If, for example, you have 1/4 inch after that time, your system should run for thirty minutes to apply 1/2 inch of water.

hsvcara-
OK then. Maybe clover is not a good idea.

skootcat-
Thanks for the thorough reply. I'm printing it for future reference.

Eddie

Eddie, my apology. You were quite right at 47 weeks and yes, simply I thought I was saving you water up front. I'll have to work on my addition tables.

Soccer dad-
Wow, somebody elses math was off for a change. Maybe things are finally turning around for me afterall!

You were shocked at the number of gallons it would take? You calculations were WAY off. You better sit down because you may not survive the actual amount it takes to water your .57 acre yard to a 1" equivalent of rain. If your yard is 25,000 square feet then you have about .57 acres. To irrigate .57 acres to 1" of water of water you would need to pump 15,478 gallons EVERY time. (It takes 27,154 gallons of water to cover an acre 1" deep.)

emyers, I envy your situation! For seven years a passable(?) lawn without water and irrigation; and very few beside myself to enjoy it. The bare areas are quite understandable- grass does not grow well under trees and we all are familiar with the adage that "grass does not grow on a busy street". What if you mulched the bare area under the trees? You might try a similar remedy for the parking area. That would leave those bare spots. If you can find out why they are bare (compaction, hard pan, high spots, etc.) you will have options for remedial action. I have no experience in maintaining centipede grass but you seem to have an essential requirement in acid soil and acid irrigation. If you get the mowing schedule aligned (frequency and height of cut) you will most likely be able to have that 'decent lawn' without too much cost. Be prepared to put in some labor, though.
I am sorry to hear that you 'butchered' the crepe myrtles but they fill out and flower well although they do need irrigating to do so satisfyingly.
Stand back and look at your property as a whole and consider the whole landscape and fine tune the individual components. The whole is often much more than a sum of the individual parts.

Apologies for the late reply...

rdaystrom-
I thought the formula I used was accurate. I interpolated information about a specific sprinkler type that gpm that also included the inches per hour. Don't remember the exact formula. It was pretty easy to figure out that I really didn't want to water that much.

The numbers you give are, well, maybe staggering. What is the formula you are using?

Anyone else have a formula?

ronalawn82-
"Passable" is probably a stretch, but it really hasn't started bothering me enough to do something about it until recently.

I purchased an aerator yesterday because I think hardpack/pan conditions are causing a lot of the problems (doesn't really absorb water there).

I can live without the crepe myrtles. Considering just pulling all of them up and planting hay or something that I can use for compost.... but maybe not.

Really am trying to think of the property as a whole and figure out someway to cut down on the grass, but, as it stands right now, I'm having a hard time coming up with anything that could be less maintenance than what I already have.

Would be nice to get grass growing under the trees but if I have to I guess the worse thing to happen is put a ring of monkey grass around them and fill with pinestraw, with a few plants here and there.

Eddie

Indylane-
I see my ups drivers been talking about me again. And to think he promised to keep my lawn mowing practices between the two of us.

I somehow missed your post originally, but found it funny also.

Eddie