Hi silphion. The grasses I have seen used at beach parks and beach resorts are either zoysia tenuifolia or seashore paspalum. Here on Kaua'i, the little islands in the parking lots at the mall are covered with the zoysia. It looks exactly like a very light green astroturf. It grows slowly and very tight. The cool thing about seashore paspalum is that it is very salt tolerant. You can even irrigate it with seawater! If you get weeds or another invasive grass, just sprinkle some salt, or saltwater on the area. Both are warm season grasses. I do not know if they will survive in Oregon.

I love it! Actually you are really hitting on the whole "feel" I will be going for. I tell you what ... I will give you a pic of the backyard in progress. We are putting up a fence at the moment. But .. on the slope I am thinking I want to do something involving a natural looking setting with some sort of water feature. A natural looking waterfall type feature?? There will be a gate at the top of the hill and I would like to build on the cinder block stairs someone put in once. Any ideas would be appreciated if you still feel like working with your new SW program! Hill: I want to terrace the slope - have some natural stairs a water feature and some screening behind what will be the fence. I need a lawn area for the dogs to run and play. I have no idea how I will plant along the fence ... perhaps some grasses and flower gardens. Not sure yet! Back of house: I am thinking we will put lattice up under the deck and I will grow confederate jasmine up it ... something evergreen. Then who knows. I have a lot of space to work with. =) Front with the beautiful dogwood!! I can not WAIT to see it in the spring!! THANK YOU -- really for all your ideas =)

My first guess at the problem you have in the corner is lack of deep water leading to just a slight increased susceptibility to chinch bug. Chinch bug almost always strikes at the edges of warm concrete. Notice how only the edge is being attacked along the sidewalk. For more on what chinch bugs look like, check YouTube. There are some very good images of them. How often do you water and for how long? What kind of sprinklers do you have?

#1 A weedy Campanula such as C. rapunculoides. #2 Likely Lotus corniculatus - Bird's-foot trefoil. #4 Taraxacum sp. - Dandelion & Plantago sp. - Plantain. #5 Trifolium repens - White clover. #7 Centaurea cyanus - Annual Bachelor's button.