I donÂt have enough strength in me to hire a different company  I feel bad leaving these guys without a job. Yes, IÂm that weak... Well grow some brass ones, because you are being taken advantage of. Your contractor is use to getting told to take a hike. You will being both of yourselves a favor, fire him NOW. The problem is not your variety of Bermuda grass, keep the same practices you use now, and whatever variety of Bermuda you use will fail. Fire your contractor NOW, he is killing your grass with his advice and practice. Otherwise continue dump money in a bottomless pit. Ok enough of the soapbox stuff. What is giving you problems is watering schedule, fertilizer, and mowing Watering: You are over watering the grass, and is the source of your fungus and weed problems period. You cannot depend on anyone, the grass will tel you when it is time, You have to learn when by observation period. No one can be trusted. GOT IT? To determine if it needs watered is as simple as when you wake up, or go to bed each night. Go out and walk around and look at the grass. When you walk look back where you walked. Do your footsteps disappear quickly, or do your footprints remain? If it springs back means it is hydrated and OK. If your footprints remains it needs water. But the best method is a color change from deep green to a slightly blueish or graying color change. When Bermuda or really any grass is properly hydrated, the leafs of the grass open fully to expose the upper surface to sunlight and looks vivid dark green. However when it dries out it has a built in defense mechanism. The leaf will curl up to minimize its exposure to sunlight to conserve evaporation losses. This exposes the underside of the leaf which is a different color. For Bermuda grass that is a blueish or grayish color telling you to water. Sorry to be ruff on you but you need a wake up call, and learn to take care of the watering yourself. As for fertilizing and mowing, let's stop here until you respond with questions.

In the first picture the weed looks like common mallow to me based on how it's growing, but with the amount you have in the second picture it could be ground ivy. The two look similar and are frequently confused. The way to tell the difference is when you pull common mallow it's one plant that comes up with a small thin tap root. Ground ivy grows along a vine-like stolon. If you pull it and it doesn't come up with a root, try pulling it more carefully and with a finger near the base try and see if there's a stolon moving around as you pull. If you get your finger under it and pull up the stolon and a whole row of the leaves. Where the grass is thin and soil loose I've pulled up ground ivy that has been about 2 feet long. Ground ivy also has square stems while common mallow has rounded stems. I think I read that common mallow also spreads by stolons but still has a straight taproot at the nodes where ground ivy just has thin roots. I've never seen that myself but that might be because I usually pull them when I see them and it hasn't started spreading yet. If it's ground ivy, I read a blog post earlier this year on how to remove ground ivy using a thatch rake and the techniques helped. This fall I used a thatch rake to prepare for overseeding and it took up all the ground ivy easily and most of the dutch white clover. Even some other weeds. If it's ground ivy, you might want to hit that area with a thatch rake once the new grass plants are well established. Probably in the spring.

It is possible that lack of light could cause the lower production. Also, given your region, it might be lack of heat. Unless you have really poor soil, I wouldn't suspect that problem. And, no, I wouldn't trim the vines. Do you see pollinators around the flowers? If not, that could indeed be a factor in low yield. Some parts of the country have a great scarcity of pollinators. If this is the case, then hand pollination would certainly be worth a try. It is not too early for those squash to have ripened. I don't know this variety. But it is from the c. maxima family, and those squash often ripen fairly quickly. See if you can dent their skin with your finger nail. If you can, leave them on the vine until you can't. Once you can't dent the skin with your fingernail I'd say they are ripe. Days to maturity are almost always more of an estimate. Conditions affect this so much. So don't just go by DTM. Can you camouflage your squash to protect them from being stolen? If I had that problem I'd probably lay a light layer of dried weeds over top of them, to obscure them from view. Hope this helps! George Tahlequah, OK

How long? About 3-4 years. I can't remember. I let this ensete die because it was so big. I didn't dare take it outside during the summer months because the wind would break it off. Because of this, I couldn't flush the soil with water to flush out salt build up from fertilizers and other stuff in my hard water, so it eventually went down hill. I just put it outside to finish dying a week ago. However my other 3 that I put outside during Summer are down stairs in my unlit, unheated basement room in dormancy. In the Fall, I cut them down to 5-6' stumps, repot them in 15 gallon nursery pots, and stick them in the basement till next Spring. They have large thick "trunks". I do this every year and they come back to full beauty in the Summer.