The Dead Lawn Society

Yep, I often do and sometimes you can tell which plants don't have 'em. I add all kinds of stuff to my blow sand property when I'm planting, sometimes I say it's just to slow the water down. Coupla summers and ya can dig down and find it 'all gone' almost as if it had never been added.

Actually that's probably why the lawn wasn't doing so well to start with. So much sand blows in and is caught by the grass that the local cemetery has to lift and re-set headstones every few years.

The world is an amazing place ain't it ~Blooms

Julie, are you still here?

Is Blooms right? Your kids play in the dichondra? Or you have other lawn with grass where they play? I had a piece of dichondra once (came with the house); if the hose lay on it for a few hours, the yellow line would be there for months. Parts would die if you crossed your eyes at it... Now, you don't get that much more rain than we do (do you?) -- are you watering every day?

~'spin!~

My kids and dog play all over mine. But I seem to remember someone here (dont' know if it was you or not) saying that their Dichondra gets flowers. It's obviously a different species than mine as this one doesn't flower at all. The GCs called this Dichondra micrantha I believe, but I can check again to see. The EofGP says that D. micrantha does indeed flower. Perhaps what we have here is a modified cultivar that doesn't flower? In any case, yes, if I leave a pot on it or rock ro what have you for a few days, it will kill the Dichondra underneath. But for me, it comes back within a week or two thick as ever...with regular watering that is. We couldn't have dichondra here in summer any more than we could have grass without a sprinkler system. But the kids have worn tracks in the grass where they play soccer with their father and under the swing set. But despite the heavy traffic on the dichondra, there aren't any spots worn on it....on the path leading to the upstairs garden, nor in the upstairs garden itself. It's really tough as nails and comes back faster and prettier than our grass if it gets killed (like the example above). Our grass takes constant and long-term care to repair even the smallest of damaged spots. It took me the 3 months to repair the grass in the back garden that had been killed due to a month long water sprinkler malfunction in late June-mid July. The Dichondra, with the same sprinkler malfunction, came back in just a week. And it never needs mowing! :-)

-Julie

Oh, it's pretty alright, but since my experience at previous house, I just kinda thought of it as a "look don't touch" ground cover. It's for sure that a "proper" mowed grass lawn takes LOTS of care and is not all that forgiving, either... and it's more than possible that the hose lay there more than "a few hours"

I am probably not a candidate for the Society since we have never had a lawn since we moved to this mountain 30 years ago. What prompts me to post is a notion from the dichondra discussion.

I must preface this by saying things are pretty wild and native around here. No neighbors to chide us. What we do have are identifiable deer trails. One runs right outside the window in front of me where I am typing this now. It is dark so if they are there, I don't know it; but it is a pleasure to look up and see one ambling by. As a matter of fact, many of the roads through these mountains were based on the route "planning" the deer population generated hundreds of years ago.

How does this impact the dichondra discussion? Maybe paths or patterns in the dichondra, or whatever, that reflect the human activity that occurs there would lift the spirit, prompt one to think that this patch of earth is used and loved. How bad would it be to look out your window and see that family had been there (or are there now)?

The glossy magazine look of perfection is seductive. Give me the real world instead.

What a lovely point of view :-)My untidy garden will fall into your definition of "loved" anytime day of the year LOL

-Julie

Poppy, I like that ''no neighbors to chide us'' - The mess I'm trying to turn into a desert with oasis is large and what I'm doing is small steps at a time. The results are mostly in my mind... which keeps running off with Tazzy's to play.

The neighbors definitely have no idea I'm even doing anything...... what I call a light hand. So far it's mostly removal gardening. Like de-weeding the introduced nasties, yet leaving every desert mallow plant or seedling.

It meant doing it myself, as hired hands tend to go whole hog and take down every thing. With the mustard and cheat grass removed it was really great to see how many of the mallows were there for my coming desert scape.

It'll look like a piece of out there moved in next door. The tough part is getting rid of and then controlling the weed grasses and tumbleweed like plants that love disturbed ground. So easy to say. ~Blooms

bump :- )

All right John, you're gonna remind me that I still need to roll that RU on my DG, so I can really have a dead lawn to replant with goodies.
I have a used paint runner cartridge after painting my BR last week, and will see if I can use that to put the RU right where I want it.
I saw some of my Hosta Liner roots bare today, so I'll put new soil on them In the morning.
Just in case anyone's interested, the Alminac said today and tomorrow are great to start seeds.
Sidney

will do today - very late as it is - Dyson

Sugarweed, I read a nice tip several months ago (so I dont' remember who to give credit to) about using a cup or jar to hold the RU and then painting it on with a small paintbrush (like kids would use for watercoloring). This eliminates all worry of it flying about in the wind like it does when you spray it. And you can control the drips fairly well too so long as you are patient and don't get too rushed. I did it in an area where I had about 50 gazillion baby weeds coming up in a bed where I just couldn't spray as I'd end up killing all my lovely big plants too. It worked like a charm. One bruch across each of the baby weeds, they all died never came back and my big plants weren't affected one little bit :-)

Hope this helps.

-Julie

Julie,
Yes, that's the idea here.
I have a paint roller you put a quart of paint inside the roller head, thus putting it where I want it.
The plan is use some water soluable paint to dilute my RU concentrate so I can tell where I put it.
This is a large area, 15' x 90'. I will then turn it and supplement it, and plant it right to the edges.
It's totally partial shade under 3 huge live oaks.
It's the area right behind me in this photo http://davesgarden.com/forums/fp.php?pid=1256287
I love that shovel.
Sidney
PS I am not as wide as that picture makes me look.