No sprinklers allowed!

17 years ago

I live in a community where sprinklers are not allowed - AT ALL. Period. Year round.(Unless you have your own well). All watering must be accomplished by a hand held hose.

That's fine if one has a postage stamp sized lawn but I do not! So I am completely reliant on the bounty of mother nature to provide water to my lawn. Sometimes she good to me, other times she's not.

I'm wondering about a grass mixture that will be able to withstand limited (as in close to none) water in the heat of the summer.

I believe that the yard had a good amount of Kentucky Blue when we bought it. I've since learned that it's a water hog! We've started seeding the dead parts with a tall fescue.

Are we on the right track?

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Comments (5)

moonshadow
17 years ago
I don't know how well this is going to turn out, but I just saw some Scott's seed on store shelves this year I've never seen around here before. It's "Heat and Drought", tolerates high heat, drought, and requires less water. I sowed some on a rental lawn this spring, the front slopes a bit so rain tends to run off to the lower spots. The higher spots of the front lawn tend to scorch by July/Aug where the sun blazes down and moisture doesn't stay. So I'm hoping that seed will take hold well and not scorch, offer nice curb appeal.

Here is a link that might be useful: Scott's Heat/Drought
yarddoctor
17 years ago
Dear No sprinklers,

Thank you very much for your inquiry. You are the first neighborhood that I have heard that outlaws sprinklers. I will use this in my class this fall.

The idea of using tall fescue is solid and that is the Scotts heat/drought seed on the web site referenced by the other post. It is a good choice and since you have started this I would keep going that way. (Another option for future reference is fine leafed fescues).

One tip for establishing tall fescues is rate and establishment method. Go with a rate of 9 lbs seed/1000 ft2 and seed the grass in three directions to get good coverage (3.0 lbs seed/1000 ft2 per direction.) Tall fescue does not tiller quickly, so the establishment method is a key to turf density.

Again, thanks for the question and let me know if you have more.

Respectfully

Trey Rogers
The Yard Doctor
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Thanks for the replies. Dan ... the dirt was indeed placed directly on the native soil, although calling it "native" might be misleading because it was backfilled against the front porch when the house was built 3.5 yrs ago. The width of the bed is about 6-7', and the distance from the bed surface to the previous surface is probably a couple of feet under the tree. The bed is held in place by a retaining wall about 3' high on one side and the front porch on the other side. I'll try to snap a photo and post it. Ken ... you may be right about the sprinkler, but I didn't want to trust my diligence in watering it so I had dedicated heads put on all of the plantings in the primary landscaping beds ... the head seems to soak the area pretty well, but my wife and I were planning to investigate as you suggested to see if we needed to do something different ... The heads are small adjustable units that spray a continuous wedge-shaped curtain of water ... we have this head placed about 18" from the trunk so that it covers a fairly wide swath around the base of the tree. In the hot season, I run it twice (with a break to allow the water to soak in) every other day ... other times I back it off to every third or every fourth day. The tree is about 30" tall, with a canopy about twice that in one direction and about 3' in the other (it's growing mostly in one direction, which is why we selected it for this area). The trunk is perhaps 2-3" dia, so it's a fairly solid little guy. Thanks again for the feedback ... I still have so much to learn!
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fgirl21
Original Author
17 years ago
Thank you both for the information.

Mr. Rogers - for information for your fall class, you may want to research water restrictions in southeast Massachusetts. There are quite a number of communities that have an outright ban on any type of automated watering systems (except on private well). Additionally, dependent upon the amount of moister recongnized from the spring thaw and rains, FURTHER RESTRICTIONS are placed on the use of handheld hoses over the course of the summer months.

It does pose some challenges for those interested in lush green lawns!
Billl
17 years ago
Tall fescue is more drought tolerant than KBG, but unless mother nature is providing a pretty steady water supply, it is still likely to brown out in the hottest months. It probably won't die, but it will go dormant.

For seeding, you might want to skip the box store and check out ntep.org. They test diffent grasses in different areas of the country and rate them on drought tolerance, disease, color etc. You'll probably be able to find a tall fescue that stands up better in your area than the generic scott's blend.
neilaz
17 years ago
Why don't you put soaker hose under the ground and weave it back and forth like i did. It has worked well for me in AZ for about four years now. It's the ol hidden ball trick. I did it so the sprinklers would not get water spray on my truck. I am strange that way :)

No sprinklers allowed!

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moonshadow

yarddoctor

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No sprinklers allowed!

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moonshadow

yarddoctor

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