Watching grass grow isn’t the most interesting topic in blog land, but hey, at least it’s not another mason jar project.
Everyone berated us about sowing a lawn in July, but Mother Nature has been pretty badass and bequeathed us with one of the best July’s ever! It’s been warm(ish) and sunny, but not sweltering or humid. We’ve even been able to turn off the a/c some nights and let the breeze flow through. My apologies to everyone who wants Arizona heat right now, but too bad, this weather is fab for my grass!
So here’s the blade by blade of how the lawn has gone down (well up, really.)
Day 1 – Seeded with sun/shade hearty grass seed (not coated, apparently coated seeds are not helping our bee population) and white clover. We mixed em together, and shook em on our freshly tilled lawn. We raked them in, and watered.
Day 2 – Dirt & seeds. No action yet. Except noticing how many rocks we tilled up, yet failed to remove…
Day 3 – Holy Crap! The clover started to germinate. There’s only a few of em, but they are there! They look like tiny happy little trees. Why happy little trees? Cause Bob Ross. That’s why.
Day 6 – The first of the grass seeds has germinated along with the rest of the clover. I’m watering three times a day, and things are looking pretty good. And by good, I mean the grass is looking like a teenage boys patchy first mustache, so we must be reaching the awkward teen years of grass growing. Don’t worry, I had the talk with them, although we are kinda encouraging fornication. ReproduceĀ grass, reproduce!
Day 13 – (Today). It is actually starting to look like a lawn! We for sure have some patchy bits, especially where the downspout drains, but it’s getting to a point where maybe soon we can walk on it.
Keeping Odin out of the yard is incredibly hard. He sits at the door crying and all hell breaks loose when a squirrel runs past. The squirrels never use to step in the actual yard (they would fence and roof hop) but must have realized Odin’s jail sentence, and have taken to sashaying past the door to torment poor prisoner Odin. A bark, a scratch at the door, and a look of contempt shot in our direction ensues.
How much longer do we need to keep him off the lawn? Ideally another month, but we all know that is not happening. I’d say another week, and after it’s first mowing, we will probably let Odin out for on leash backyard outings. Why on leash? Vizsla’s have a signature move that the dog community likes to call the Zoomies. It involves a high burst of speed run, then an abrupt stop and turn. [Check out minute 1:30 or so in this video.] This can result in a rototilleresque effect on the lawn. We don’t want him going bananas until the grass roots are more established. This is the driving reason we planted grass along with the clover. Grass has a deeper and heartier root structure, and hopefully it will help the lawn stand up to Odin the Canadian God of Zoomies.
I think I will topdress & overseed the bare spots this weekend, and try to get them to catch up with the rest of the lawn, but overall, it is on it’s way!
Grown any grass lately?
” . . . sewing a lawn . . . ” should be written “sowing”. With a lawn as nice as yours, it deserves the correct description! Hope you aren’t offended at the correction š
Never offended! Thanks so much for finding it. I write posts on my iphone during my commute, and my spiteful autocorrect gets me every time!
Dear Kristen… you are such a hoot. I got such a giggle with your byline when you referenced yet another mason jar idea! I so agree. The mason jar companies must be laughing all the way to the bank. To think I have taken all kinds to recycling because I actually used them for what they were meant for (canning preserves) and sometimes ended up with way too many. We all can fruit in my family. To answer your question about my grass seeding experiences… I reseed my grass three times a growing season to help keep the weeds out naturally. (I should write a blog about that.). I also had to reseed bare burned patches every year that our lovely Yellow Lab left after the winter season. (I did write a blog about that). It is really easy and fun to do!