Our company is the developer and patent holder of Empire Zoysia. We do not recommend a 1-0-1 fertilizer, but rather a fertilizer with a 1-0-1 ratio. An ideal fertilizer would be a 15-0-15 in the spring, or a 20-0-15 if your lawn appears to be lacking in nutrients. One way to get the green without the N is to use iron that can be found in products such as Ironite. Be sure to apply an insecticide such as Bayer Advanced Grub control annually in the spring to prevent billbugs and other insects. Empire is typically pretty resistant to fungus and disease, but occasionally in wet conditions problems can arise. If you see sudden browning in spots, it usually a fungus issue and a systemic fungicide should be applied and will cure the issue. The link I included is to the maintenance page for Empire on our site. If you have any other questions let us know. If you would like more info on fertility, be sure to check out the post on understanding fertilizer on our Turf Talk blog. Good Luck! Drew Wagner Sod Solutions Inc. Here is a link that might be useful: Empire Zoysia Maintenance Schedule

Molly, I popped over here by mistake, I live near Seattle. I can't comment on what to plant in your zone but I wanted to say that I don't see an ugly ugly side yard. What I see is a whole lot of potential. If there were great beds there before that means there is probably some pretty good stuff to work with under those weeds. Smothering the little buggers with newspaper is the cheapest most effective way to go. It will save you all the work of pulling and save the soil from chemical weed killers. The real question you should be looking at is what would you most enjoy in that space? Maybe right now your feeling overwhelmed by a new house and all the inherited problems but try to think ahead a year or two when you are more settled in. Would you like a tropical hideaway, a cottage garden, a watery oaisis or maybe hose and go concrete all the way? There are a million and more ways to deal with that space and every gardener here will have a million more ideas. You are the one who will have to live there and do the work so what would be your fantasy space? If you could post a question such as "here is my space and the issues, what I would love to have is a tropical hideaway with a koi pond... or something desert looking. Can you help me with ideas for how to make that happen?" I think I understand. I also inherited a mess. Our house is on the side of a mountain and all the dirt had been scraped away to use as the house foundation. There was zero dirt anywhere. Instead I had 15 years of weeds and compacted driveway gravel serving as the front yard! Now I have an 18,000 gal. pond, a 200 gal pond and a cottage garden. Took me three years with no money and no help but in the morning a sit by the pond with my coffee watching the fish and the birds and I absolutely love the space I once hated with all my being. So what do you really want?

I think the nutgrass is very distinct from spiderwort and rain lilies in color, texture and leaf shape. Nutgrass is very bright green, shiney and stiff. Spiderwort is a bluegreen leaf, softer texture and normally will grow to be about 18" tall. Nutgrass tops out at about 8". Rain lilies have a smaller, curlier leaf that sprouts in a whorl and then sends up the delicate flower stalk about the size of a pencil lead. Nut grass has no stalk, and spiderworts have thick, fleshy stalks of the same blue-green color. Also, rain lilies will bloom within a day or so of sprouting, nutgrass just sends up new grass shoots. I'm glad I caught this thread, I've had nutgrass multiplying in my rose beds now for about two years and it's driving me crazy trying to keep it pulled out. I'm going to try the molasses on it. Patriotizm, try mixing a 1 TBSP of liquid molasses with 1/4 C. orange oil, three drops of dishwashing liquid in a gallon of water. Pour that on your fire ants and then sit back and watch them suffer. They are attracted to the molasses and the orange oil will kill them. For a very large mound I will use 2-3 gallons. If you're wondering how orange oil works, try putting a drop on the back of your hand and count to 50. Smells wonderful as it burns the hide off! I recently heard that pouring club soda on the mound would kill them too. I haven't tried it yet, but a good friend said that's what he does and it's even less damaging than orange oil to the environment. We'll see.

Thanks again for all your help guys! I had a couple more quick questions... Even though the grass is on the "thin" side, it grew enough in height that I could cut it for a second time this week (6 days between mowings). I set the mower so that I only cut about a 1/2" off the top. I wanted to get it cut before this round of rain we're supposed to get this weekend and hopefully to stimulate more growth and filling out up top. Do you guys feel its wise to keep doing this or should I let it grow more? Secondly...as mentioned before, I've stopped all watering due to the amount of rain we've received. We had two good days (yesterday and the day before) without rain. I noticed that the blades began to fold in on themselves a little which I thought was an indication of the need for water. Having said that, I tested the soil and its pretty moist at a 6" depth and the pieces have all taken root to where I can't lift them. If we get some dry days after this rain and I see the blades folding in again, should I continue to hold off on watering and let the soil dry out even more? Sorry for the newbie questions...just waiting for the grass scares me =D I guess it takes some experience to learn its better to give the grass what it actually needs vs. what you think it needs.