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Minor adventures
Sep. 1st, 2015 09:35 pmSo, earlier, I thought I had crabgrass in my lawn, and this is the year I was going to master it, by grooming the good grass to out-compete it.
It turns out I was wrong.
What I have is sometimes called "Brazilian wiregrass" or, occasionally, "devilgrass".
Wiregrass spreads by root and shoot. It will burrow underground - and, if my lawn is an indication, it will form a tight root network almost an inch thick. And it will send out runners that can also spread.
It's said that you can kill it with RoundUp - apply 3x at 2 week intervals. It's very hard to eradicate.
It's also not entirely a bad thing. It's considered a good turf grass (whatever that means). Some people cultivate it because it won't grow very tall, and if watered once in a while, will keep green.
It might not be worth fighting, but I found myself deciding that I'd clear a larger-than-ordinary section of my back yard, and try to grow some plain old ordinary grass.
My main weapon is tenacity - and a willingness to use limited amounts of RoundUp. My two main weapons are tenacity and herbicide... and a realization that wiregrass lays flat, letting large patches be stripped at once.
My *THREE* main weapons are tenacity, herbicide, stripping of patches... oh, yeah, and fall is coming, and at 60 degrees, wiregrass goes dormant. Sigh.
AMONGST my weapons are such diverse elements - ah, forget it. Monty Python did it far better.
But just as I got a large patch stripped and seeded, the Seattle rainy season started. If I can keep stripping patches of wiregrass, then chopping up the root network so I have loose earth to cover the seed, and can then seed the newly chopped earth, I might be able to put in a lawn strong enough to hold through the winter, growing in some roots before the wiregrass wakes up in the spring.
At that point, keeping the grass tall, so it shades the wiregrass, might be enough to keep it going. Tall grass can usually outcompete wiregrass. And if I can do that for a season, I just might be satisfied.
This is what substitutes for excitement in the chronically fatigued. Ah well.
It turns out I was wrong.
What I have is sometimes called "Brazilian wiregrass" or, occasionally, "devilgrass".
Wiregrass spreads by root and shoot. It will burrow underground - and, if my lawn is an indication, it will form a tight root network almost an inch thick. And it will send out runners that can also spread.
It's said that you can kill it with RoundUp - apply 3x at 2 week intervals. It's very hard to eradicate.
It's also not entirely a bad thing. It's considered a good turf grass (whatever that means). Some people cultivate it because it won't grow very tall, and if watered once in a while, will keep green.
It might not be worth fighting, but I found myself deciding that I'd clear a larger-than-ordinary section of my back yard, and try to grow some plain old ordinary grass.
My main weapon is tenacity - and a willingness to use limited amounts of RoundUp. My two main weapons are tenacity and herbicide... and a realization that wiregrass lays flat, letting large patches be stripped at once.
My *THREE* main weapons are tenacity, herbicide, stripping of patches... oh, yeah, and fall is coming, and at 60 degrees, wiregrass goes dormant. Sigh.
AMONGST my weapons are such diverse elements - ah, forget it. Monty Python did it far better.
But just as I got a large patch stripped and seeded, the Seattle rainy season started. If I can keep stripping patches of wiregrass, then chopping up the root network so I have loose earth to cover the seed, and can then seed the newly chopped earth, I might be able to put in a lawn strong enough to hold through the winter, growing in some roots before the wiregrass wakes up in the spring.
At that point, keeping the grass tall, so it shades the wiregrass, might be enough to keep it going. Tall grass can usually outcompete wiregrass. And if I can do that for a season, I just might be satisfied.
This is what substitutes for excitement in the chronically fatigued. Ah well.
