Grass

It seems like I've come full circle.

One of the biggest reasons why I moved from Fargo, ND to Phoenix, AZ a few years ago is because I'm allergic to grass.  It was so awesome to get away from grass.  Period.  Now, here I am in Phoenix with a newly purchased home, and guess what I'm doing?  That's right.  I'm trying to grow grass.

I have a very small yard, but there are two reasons why I want grass cover in my backyard.

1.  It will stop the mud from splashing up on the patio when it rains
2.  It will give me a place to practice my wedge game.

The fact that it will also look better is a distant third.

My first attempt was rather lackluster.  I just figured I'd throw a bunch of seed out, water like crazy, and see what happens.  Well, nothing happened.  I think the reason why is because there were some 30 years of oleander droppings in the backyard that I don't necessarily think anyone had ever bothered to clean up.

Now keep in mind that I already missed the opportune growing moment for bermudagrass in this part of the country.  I was trying to plant in early June when the window really officially exists in early to mid-May.  But I figured I would try again.  I bought a thatching rake and thatched up piled of ole oleander crap.  I think I thatched a good inch off the top.  I filled four large garbage bags, so there was a significant amount of plant debris removed.

For the second try, I bought some sand to use as a dressing over top of the seed.  The results were actually better, but I was still lacking something.  I ended up growing four small patches of grass, three of which died about a week after poking its head through the soil.  So I called a couple of golf course people to see what I was doing wrong.  It turns out, I was doing a lot wrong.

The third try involved in using an aerator to loosen the soil.  Then I threw down some seed, and then I put some dressing over top.  I had much better results this time.  I would say that half of the yard that I planted has splotches of thriving bermudagrass that would need a full season to creep into a full fledged lawn.  However, the reason why that area just isn't making any more progress is simply because the dirt here is so weird.

Back home, dirt acts like a sponge.  It expands when it gets wet, and most rainwater is absorbed.  Here in Phoenix, the dirt is like concrete.  A guy I golfed with a couple of years ago called it "moon dust", and I think that is a very good description.  It's hard, it's rocky, it's brittle, and it does not hold any water.

The bare parts of my yard right now are bare primarily because that's where the runoff flows.  You see, the dirt might not hold any water, but the dirt most certainly clings to the water.  My yard is full of little tiny arroyos.  Grass won't grow in the arroyos because water erosion carries the seed away.  Grass won't grow on the high points, either, because the dirt doesn't hold any water.

So I made a fourth try, but this was only on the half of my yard where the oleander tree was removed.  I had a huge hole in the ground, and I needed to buy some dirt to fill it.  I ended up buying garden dirt, and I spread it around the whole area to try to make the place where the hole was look less obvious.  Then I used an aerator to kind of mix that garden dirt with the crappy phoenix dirt below.  I threw down the last of my seed partly because I just didn't want to keep it all winter, and I put down sand as a dressing over top.  The result, considering the fact that I didn't have enough seed to cover the whole area adequately, has been pretty good.  It's too late in the year to go buy any more seed now, but it is pretty obvious that I'll be buying more dirt when I overseed this fall.