Not quite ready to give up yet, Tex. Dianna, you sound just like me when I first came to the Lawn Care Forum. I found this site looking for help with a new lawn I unknowingly drowned with water and was blaming my contractor because he told me to water every day. "Around here, folks water every day" is exactly what I told these guys, too. Because so many of them said much the same in the way of advice, I decided to try it and couldn't believe the results. What they were trying to explain finally clicked, so I began doing more research on the subject and found the professional turf sites, turfgrass research universities, the seed producers, advice columnists, everything and everywhere were saying the same things, which are the bottomline basics of lawn care. That all compelled me to do more research as well as conduct a few experiments of my own. I learned there is nothing more important to the health of your grass than proper watering and proper mowing. Believe me, I've studied a lot but that is little compared to some of these other folks on the forum. No one here would steer you wrong and if there is even the slightest information imparted incorrectly, someone will chime in to correct them and make sure you are provided enough information to work your lawn into the healthiest and most beautiful it can possibly be. I want to explain a little more of what Billl is saying. While your grass in the back may seem to be okay, trust that it is not thriving and it is not healthy if being watered every day. Frequent watering does not allow the roots to grow as deeply as they are supposed to. The life and health of the plant is totally dependent on the root system, and fescue grass has an extensive root system. When watered properly (deeply), the roots are allowed to grow as deep as they should. Shallow roots are weak, thin, and flimsy. Green grass is not equal to healthy grass. Unless the grass is healthy, it cannot thrive and tiller as it should, it cannot fight off disease it inherently is normally able to resist or tolerate, it cannot knit and form a thick, lush sod to help prevent weeds, and it cannot even produce its true genetic green color. What I neglected to suggest earlier, as Bill so aptly did, is to gradually back off watering rather than all at once. At this point, the grass is dependent on receiving it very often because you trained it to expect that. It doesn't need it though, and you can train the grass to be much less dependent on you for moisture and nutrients and to tell you when it wants water as I mentioned in the drought examples. Back off frequency while increasing the amount as Bill explained to work your way to just one inch just once a week. One inch of water will moisten the soil to a depth of 6-8 inches. Rather than sitting there in the upper layers of soil waiting to be fed, the roots will begin to grow downward looking for the moisture that one inch provided. See how it works? They will reach it and continue to grow beyond that point to receive the earth's water supply and natural nutrients for fertilizer. Then, you'll have a healthy root system. Just imagine yourself never being able to yawn or stretch out. Because you are located in a region of high temps, it may be necessary to irrigate more often as I mentioned earlier. That one inch can be stretched out over two or three days through the week to relieve heat stress. About the only thing we cannot tell you is exactly what species of grass you have. Without the advantage of sight to examine the parts of the plant, we're just trying to guess based on the clues you give us. Based on those clues, the only thing we know for relatively certain is it is a cool season type. You can find out for sure though by taking samples to the extension service I linked you to above. They are the real experts and will tell you the exact same as we tell you here. For starters, you can take advantage of their many publications. Type "lawn care" in the search box.

If they have been terribly overwatered and all or most of the roots are gone I have had very good luck reviving plants. I place them on a windowsill close to the kitchen sink, soak them in peroxide, allow them to completely dry out and then start rinsing the roots and give them minimal water as needed, depending on the weather. The survival rate is close to or above 75%. Yeah it takes a while and really its not worth the effort unless its something special but it is still rather fun and rewarding. It is especially rewarding when a friend brings one and begs for it to be saved after ignoring growing instructions for the months before it started visably going going down hill. It does seem that they would rather be partially neglected than over pampered in most cases.

Based on twelve years of growing teas in East Tennessee (6b), I can report that this is the meanest cold in those years. We had three periods of four or more days when highs were 20F or less. I had visions of ice crystals destroying rose vascular systems. So far, that hasn't happened. What to look for. Don't look down near the base first. Look out on stems. The new buds are just today beginning to swell. By Thursday or Friday (in these parts) the swelling will be more pronounced. We won't keep all our stems, but we will keep some. Look at the roses from the north side as well as the south. South sides are already showing sunburn and many aren't green, even though their north sides are. By Friday (we expect temps around 60F as highs for the rest of this week) we may see more winter damage, not as dead but as canker growing. Today, on a classic poly, I saw the tell tale signs of active canker...not in the canker themselves but in the magenta purple discoloration that the canes take on when the canker is producing polyethylene gasses. On small stems, that has to be cut off. On tea roses, on mature two to four year old canes, the cane can survive (unlike wimpy HTs that allow the canker to gird them by midsummer). Right now I can report that four nights with temps out in the garden that went down to below 5F, some stems survived on both teas and chinas. That makes me very happy.

I awoke this morning to find my beautiful blue hydrangea wilted and all the flowers dead. The culprit was a brown snail, still feeding on the leaves. I plucked him off and cut off the dead flowers and eaten leaves. I have never seen a snail in my garden in the 12 years I have lived here and now my neighbor has them too (which I suspect is where it came from). I have many cats in my neighborhood and birds and need a safe but killer solution to these nasty snails. Any idea's? This is also my first hydrangea...are they calling the snails?