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Old 06-03-2011, 08:41 PM
 
Location: Nashville
597 posts, read 2,100,464 times
Reputation: 668

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I don't water mine either. Just mowed the front and it looks great. Must be the nice undercoating of well-fed weeds and bermuda. I'm debating on whether to mow the back in the morning or just let it rest. It's fairly weed free back there and not so tough as the front. It's a little sensitive. My backyard is like the Brentwood YMCA, spunky, but beautiful and delicate. The front is more like the East YMCA, tough, and going at it with some blades doesn't scare it much. Grass, it's a turf war out there.
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Old 06-04-2011, 09:47 AM
 
Location: Tennessee
1,363 posts, read 4,264,012 times
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I let mine go dormant if it doesn't rain.

A landscaper moved in next to us and put in a sprinkler system. When the water company came to read the meters, the person asked me if my neighbor put in a swimming pool because the water reading was very high. I told the person "no, they put in a sprinkler system for the lawn", and the person said "ok, that's makes sense too." I would have to know what they are paying to water daily.
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Old 06-04-2011, 10:04 AM
 
Location: Bellingham, WA
9,726 posts, read 16,670,834 times
Reputation: 14887
Quote:
Originally Posted by aaronmidnight View Post
@Lamplight & JMT - I presume you don't live in HOA communities? Or are your HOAs more lenient about brown lawns? By the way, do you happen to know what kinds of grass you have? I wouldn't mind the grass going brown as long as I knew it would green up in the fall or spring and I wouldn't have to resod or reseed, both of which I imagine would be CRAZY expensive!
No, no HOA in my neighborhood. My lawn is usually beautifully green in spring and early summer, then about July or August it starts getting a bit brown. Never completely brown, mind you. Just not nearly as lush as it is in spring. It basically just looks dry. Then all winter it's varying shades of brown and green, and every spring it's bright green again. No idea what kind of grass it is, but I imagine it's a mixture of a million different things, considering my house has been around since the 40s.
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Old 06-04-2011, 03:29 PM
 
455 posts, read 1,134,321 times
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@IngleDave - gotta admit, I'm a little scared of your front lawn

I gotta say, you all sound kinda brilliant when it comes to lawn care. It sounds like none of you spend any money on watering the lawn and like you don't really worry about the weed/grass mix. I envy you all. Seriously.

But I think that the fact that our home is newer and the land sucks (scraped, compacted, tiny bit of topsoil, solid clay underneath) may explain why our grass is already browning up despite the fact that we're trying to give it a bit of early morning water with the sprinkers.

Lamplight, for instance, probably has about 70s years worth of roots breaking up his/her soil at the 1940s house. So the grass probably has deep stores it can draw on during dry times.

We had one landscape guy come to look at our lawn and take a core sample. I saw the sample. It was about two feet of solid rootless clay and a thin layer of dark dirt and roots on top, not even an inch thick. So if we don't water, the grass has no reserves and I think it's probably toast.

Sigh.

I have a feeling the next few years will be one BIG (and very humbling) learning experience vis-a-vis lawncare, gardening and the great outdoors.

On a side note, are any of you gardening / container gardening? Any tips or lessons learned?
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Old 06-04-2011, 04:28 PM
 
Location: Franklin, TN
3,760 posts, read 7,052,833 times
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Any of you into gardening?????

(he gently inquires . . )

YOU BET!!!

Here is the Gardening thread. It was overtaken by the Cicada thread. As soon as the buggies are GONE then I'll be back into it . . . .

Nashville Gardening 101 . . . SPRING ARRIVES!!!

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Old 06-04-2011, 09:58 PM
 
Location: Melbourne area
593 posts, read 1,349,015 times
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After reading what you said about your soil, I see your concern -- the roots are shallow and they'll probably stay that way. So my advice about needing to water only infrequently might not hold if you're trying to keep it at least somewhat green. However, I still think you need to increase the amount of time watered per zone -- even as shallow as the roots are, the ground likely needs to absorb more water than a few minutes' worth is providing.

Anyway, you're just trying to get to the next rain. It's the people who want a showcase lawn 24/7/365 who are going to rack up the big water bills.
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Old 06-05-2011, 10:20 PM
 
455 posts, read 1,134,321 times
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@ExIslander -- Totally! Like you said -- just trying to get to the next rain

I think it rained for about 2 minutes in Brentwood today. We did have some ferocious straight-line winds come through. Ripped the mesh cover right off our raised garden.

Didn't help moisten the lawn, but how great to have the temperatures knocked down for the rest of the afternoon! (As usual, the weatherfolks totally dropped the ball. They said it was going to be another scorcher today, but it actually ended up being lovely - for once! - from about 3 p.m. onwards.)

In any case, after the advice from the board, I have increased the watering time to 4 minutes per zone, but decreased the frequency to twice per week. Honestly I think that in an extended drought, all but the most intensively watered lawns will go brown anyway. We have neighbors who water far more frequently than we do and their lawns are still going golden.

In the end, Mother Nature always wins.
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