Drought Lawn Ideas
montel (CA US 10b/Sunset 16)
8 years ago
last modified: 8 years ago
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montel (CA US 10b/Sunset 16)
8 years agoRelated Discussions
Need ideas for drought resistant lawn zone 4
Comments (2)Buffalo grass and blue grama are both warm season native grasses that are often planted together for native lawns. Buffalo grass spreads by stolons and blue grama is a bunch grass. Buffalo grass is often planted alone for a native lawn. Blue grama isn't often planted by itself for a lawn, because of the bunching growth it shows. Both are native to Minnesota, so they'll grow there and they'll stay green in the summer with little or no water. However, they will probably be brown until Mid to late May and then turn brown in the early fall (probably late September to early October in Minnesota). Western wheatgrass is a cool season native that is native to Minnesota and would be green most of the year. It might need a little water in the heat of the summer to stay green, but even with no water, it'll live and just go dormant for a little while. There are fields of wheatgrass near me that are still green even though we haven't had rain in nearly a month and that was only about an inch. They'll go dormant later this year, but spring back in the fall. Western wheatgrass has a somewhat blue color to it. Creeping red fescue and sheep fescue are other choices that may work for you. The sheep fescue would live even in my area with no watering, but it's a bunch grass. It would probably stay green in MN with natural rainfall, even in drought conditions (drought in MN usually means a lot more precipitation than a normal year in UT). Creeping red fescue spreads and would probably do fine with no additional water in MN, although it might need a little water to stay green during drought. If you decide to go with the cool season grasses, I would either plant western wheatgrass by itself or a mix of creeping red fescue and sheep fescue. Whatever grass (or grasses) you decide on, you should kill the existing lawn first if you want the natives to have a chance to succeed. Once they're established, they'll do fine, but they won't be able to outcompete an established lawn....See Moredrought tolerant lawn choices for So. Cal
Comments (23)elbeardo - I can't help you on the dormant look, cause I haven't had it long enough. But it will go brown eventually, which doesn't bother me. Just give her the "brown lawns are really GREEN" spiel, or let HER take care of it. If you plant in early September with 12" spacing or closer, you should get full coverage. We went with the 18" spacing because of budget. A few places where we used up the extra plugs had 9" spacing and they were touching within a couple of months. We probably has the first batch out the door after a Nebraska winter ... they weren't exactly out of dormancy yet. Getting late-summer plugs might give you faster results....See MoreTips for creating Drought Resistant Lawn
Comments (2)First, I applaud you on deciding to xeriscape. >>What do I have to consider as far as my soil's ph goes? I hear some people say it's important, and others just seem to plant what they want. Do I pick the sort of plants I like then make sure my soil ph is compatible? It's usually easier to do the opposite. Determine your soil pH (please use a good laboratory as hand-held testers and home testers are notoriously inaccurate). Once you know that, choose plants that are compatible with your soil. You can push it a little bit, but it's generally easiest to make certain that the plant you use is appropriate for your pH. Restricting this immediately stops you from falling in love with a plant (like, say, a rhododendron) that absolutely won't perform or look good--or even survive--at your pH. >>I also have some nice palm and pomegranite trees around my house. I don't wan them to be adversley affected if I had to change my soil's ph. Within some limits, I wouldn't change the soil pH, I'd choose compatible plants. >>Also I want to use decomposed granite as a ground cover. Forgive me for asking what may seem a silly question. But I plant and root the plants in the actual soil right, not the DG? In the actual soil. >>Also when roto-tilling out my grass how to I assure I don't destroy my sprinkler system? You're going to need to know exactly where your lines are, and how deep. While we don't generally recommend roto-tilling, I accept this one as an exception to that rule. :-) >>Should I compact the DG or is that bad for the plants? I have no idea, sorry. DG isn't something we use around here; mulches are generally hardwood. I'd listen to anybody else's recommendations for or against DG over mine as I have no familiarity with it at all. >>-Starve my current lawn of water until it dies. 4-6 weeks? 4 to 6 weeks is survivable by most grasses. Ten to twelve is less survivable. The tilling will destroy most of the root mass, however, so even the four to six should be OK. I'd still consider spraying down the lawn with Round Up to kill it while it's green, however. That's inexpensive, fast, and reliable. Some grass will somehow manage to survive and re-sprout in your wet season (grass really is durable stuff). It'll even come back through four inches of mulch, although that will make it even more rare. Plan on needing to weed out some here and there. >>- put in weed blankets Generally not recommended. Weed blankets work, sort of, but starve the soil below them of oxygen and bacterial/fungal action (which is critical for the plants as they have tons of symbiotes). If you do use them, cut extremely wide areas for each plant, not just a little slash in the thing to get the plant in. >>-shovel in 4 inches of DG >>- replace sprinkler heads with drip irrigation I think you're going to find it easier to put in the plants (with large holes in the blankets if you use them, as absolute minimum as big as the plant will get at maturity), replace the heads, and THEN put in in the DG. It takes a lot longer, but you get to set everything up properly before burying it under stone....See MoreLawn has been dormant for couple of weeks due to drought
Comments (4)+1 mishmosh. Adding fertilizer right now (when the weather is still hot) will force the recovery process and tap energy out of the roots. That's energy it's going to need later. Technically...you could. But you'd absolutely have to keep the grass out of dormancy for the rest of the season at this point, and that could potentially cost you a lot of watering in August. At this point, and in the same shape you are, I'm planning on letting my grass do what it wants for a while yet, without me pushing it around any....See Moremontel (CA US 10b/Sunset 16)
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