Grass Question

[JGMotorsport64]

Originally Posted by DetroitN8V

I was thinking the exact same thing. I don't even own a mower. The cost to have someone else do it is negligible.

I like doing yardwork. I probably look like a lunatic based on how OCD I am about my hard looking perfect. It's my break from doing real work.

[ElleTea]

Originally Posted by asufan

It actually just depends on what your time is worth. I own a business and can make more money when I work longer, and I can make more in the 20-25 minutes it takes them to finish the yard (would take me more like 1.5 hours + each time to get it to look as good). I pay $45 every 2 weeks which is likely on the low side because he does about a dozen properties in my little area on the same visit (economies of scale at work). I like to be able to enjoy my house and yard whenever the weekend starts, so I exclude yard work from my list of responsibilities.

Contrary to what you think, desert is actually NOT much less work than grass, period. I have rentals with no grass, but they have substantially more bushes and shrubs, etc. (can't just have 500 Sq Ft of gravel, right?). It takes just as much time/effort/money to constantly keep up on trimming the shrubs and picking up the clippings as it does to mow a couple lawns.

I'm mowing weekly right now, it's growing like crazy even without being watered. I have a big yard (about 9000 sq ft) that takes time to mow and edge. That is definitely a lot more time than I would spend with rock/gravel and some bushes (which I have little of and won't add once the grass is gone). Nearly $100 a month to pay someone else to do it is too much for me, but even if I had that kind of extra cash just laying around I'd use it toward other projects first.

[puntin]

Originally Posted by ScottsdaleMark

No, there is no grass that is green year-round here. Is your house landscaped? Was there a time in October where your lawn got cut really short and they were watering it a lot for a week? If so, they were putting in a winter lawn.

Basically the bermuda lives forever, but is dormant in the winter. The rye grass has to be planted every fall (October usually) by scalping the lawn and laying down a lot of seed and some fertilizer. As it gets hot again, the rye will start to look patchy and more yellow and pretty soon you'll see the thicker, green bermuda grass start to come back and fill in the lawn. If you fertilize it comes back stronger/quicker but it'll come back either way, just like dormant bermuda lawns that didn't get overseeded in the winter.

Here are a couple nice links I found:

About fall over-seeding with rye


About spring transition back to bermuda

I hope this helps.

We are responsible for the landscaping and never changed the grass. The lawn is much more lush looking now, but was still green this past summer. Like I said though, I have no idea what kind of grass it is since it's just a rental and we moved here in July. Thanks for the like thought - we are building and trying to figure out what to do with our small yard.