Week 3 progress and questions

16 years ago

Ok so 3 weeks ago I hand pulled a lot of weeds in my yard and started mowing. I bought some organic compost and threw that down then I fertilized with SBM and adjusted the watering to 90 minutes in the morning on Monday.

I believe the watering isn't working for me. As after 2 weeks 2 spots turned a greyish blue color and look like they're dying or dead. So I adjusted the watering to 60 minutes 2 times a week. (It's very hot and dry here so I think asking the lawn to go a week w/o water is a bit much) Hasn't been long enough to see how that's going.

I broke the chain on the used mower I bought so couldn't mow for 2 weeks. Just got it back this week and mowed earlier this week and am thinking about mowing again tomorrow to get it shorter still but it looks pretty brown b/c I cut it so short. At this point my yard is looking pretty pathetic. I think the grass has been chopped too much. It looks better short but it looks like a lot of brown.

Now I have little holes in the grass where I pulled up weeds and there's 2 big bare spots with very little grass just coming in (progress I believe). How do I get those holes and the bare spots to fill in quicker? I have Bermuda grass but I have no idea what kind so can I just buy Bermuda seed and reseed? Is it the appropriate time for that?

My wife is upset that it's taking so long and while I know a service couldn't do anything faster than I have yet, I am not sure this is working the way it's supposed to. I know the fertilizer has another week before it starts really kicking in and that the grass is just now getting close to the appropriate length, but I have so many brown spots due to mowing short and pre-existing spots from before or from pulling weeds.

Temperatures this week are near or over the 100 mark. While working in the back yard (the sprinklers aren't working right!) I found the soil was very soft (still on short time watering every day there). Does the front have the same soil? Does that mean it won't hold water well? Would I do better to be like everyone else I see everywhere watering their yard every morning?

GAH! So many questions and concerns and I feel like I'm screwing things up.

Comments (5)

alabama_lowlife
16 years ago
i think the once a week rule is really more of a suggestion than a rule. i started reading and following the instructions on this site in late april and the results so far for me are great. BUT i still can't go an entire week in this heat before the grass needs some water. the "revised" watering info i keep seeing here is to water ONLY when it looks like it needs it. when the blades start curling, water it heavily. the theory is that it will eventually stretch to once a week due to deeper growing roots forced by infrequent deep watering. and i think even after there are good, deep roots that more frenquent watering may still be required during a dry scorching august like we had this year.

i can't offer any help on bermuda. and give the sbm some time. during july when it was raining regularly, the sbm from my 2 applications in may/june was killing me. i couldn't keep up my prefered once a week, early saturday morning mowing lol. i was out there on wednesday and thursday afternoon trying to keep it in check.
dchall_san_antonio
16 years ago
You do have too many questions to address properly here, but basically you cannot break into low frequency watering all at once. If your soil cannot accept all the moisture at once, you must stop when it starts to run off. If you can come back to watering 30 minutes later; however, the soil will have soaked the water in, and become more receptive to more water.

With all the questions you have I'm going to suggest something that I think will do your soil the most good. Get a black plastic soaker hose long enough to stretch the length or width of your yard at least twice. So if your lawn is 50 feet wide, get 100 feet or more of soaker hose. Attach that to another hose that connects to your faucet. Find the high side of your lawn and start there. Stretch the hose out along the high side back and forth so the hose is about 18 inches away from itself (does that make sense?). Turn the faucet on to a trickle - where the water stream just barely breaks into drops as it hits the ground. Connect the soaker hose and let it run continuously for a full week, day and night. At the end of the week, you should be able to seed a wet mark in the soil where the water seeped. Move the high side of the soaker to that wet mark and move the low side 18 inches away again. Let that run a week and move again. Continue moving it weekly. You will have to continue watering your lawn normally all this time. When you have moved the soaker to the bottom of the lawn and let it run a week, move the soaker back to the high side and start over. When you complete the cycle for the second time, repeat a third time. At the end of three cycles, your soil will be completely different.

What this does is set up a near perfect moisture and temperature environment to dramatically increase the population of beneficial soil fungi. Once you have the beneficials working for you in large numbers, your soil should absorb as much moisture as you can throw at it. When wet your soil should feel like a wet sponge (soft); when dry your soil should feel like a dry sponge (hard); and when you water the water should soak right in like a sponge.

After you have your soil softened, you can go to weekly watering.
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skoot_cat
16 years ago
Read the Newbie With Question post. I just explained about water/when to water. Plus read the link how to calibrate your sprinkler. This is a must. It the only true way to determine the amount of time you need to run each zone to apply 3/4 to 1" of water. I just did it this morning, because I re-arranged a few of my sprinkler heads. I recommend doing this test every 3-4 months.
texasredhead
16 years ago
I've been keeping my St. Augustine organically for 35 years. 3 weeks?
fescue_planter
16 years ago
I never used the sprinkler calibration technique. I was lazy and just fired up each zone of my sprinklers and timed the water meter for a minute to see how much water passed through. So if I got 12 gallons covering 1500 sqft I could just work it out to see how long that zone would take to cover the area in .75" of water. If you want me to, I could supply conversion rates. It of course assumes that you are getting even coverage throughout the zone.