It’s not like I am running out of things to write about, but I think I need to cover this subject for everyone. When I was growing up in Wichita, Kansas a place with such bad weather and crummy soil that it was hard to grow anything, I noticed that most people had bermuda grass. I have decided that they had Bermuda because it was really hearty. As a matter of fact once it rooted you couldn’t get rid of it. Have you ever seen how they start a Bermuda lawn. Basically they plant little Bermuda plants in rows to take root then all of the open space in between fills in. Bermuda roots like no other grass that I am aware of. There are thousands of little roots that go into the ground making it virtually impossible to pull out. This grass dies in the winter and regenerates in the spring. During growing season it gets really thick. In the fall when it dies. (dies is the wrong word) it doesn’t really die it just stops being green and goes to sleep, so to speak for several months. Many people in our neighborhood would burn the dead Bermuda lawns in the fall. I ask why they did that and the answer was so that in the spring it would regenerate even better and the grass would be even thicker. Was this really necessary? I always thought it was dumb to do this. If you didn’t burn it then you had to thatch it. That is a process of thinning it out. Whatever. I remember most of the golf courses had Bermuda fairways. When you took a divot you took the top off the Bermuda. Sometimes you would go into the dirt and roots of the grass. Never mind, the place where you made the divot will certainly grow back whether you replace the divot or not. Like I said, you can’t kill this stuff. One of the other things I remember about Bermuda grass was the “chiggers”. I don’t know if that is a thing but whenever I would roll around in the grass as a small child the chiggers would bite me all over and that was annoying. I have many reasons not to like Bermuda grass.
When we moved to California the entire grass culture was different. Most yards were seeded. Everything grows in California. Put down seed with some mulch and you have a lawn. The other popular lawn is where you put down sod. Instant lawn…really awesome. It became a pet peave of mine when people would scrape away any remnants of their previous lawn and leave it bare. Not do anything with it, seeding or sodding for an extended period of time. They could always justify the lengthy time lag between scraping it bare to seeding or sodding because it was too hot, or they wanted to make sure that everything was dead before they put sod down. Ok…how long is that. A week, a month, in some cases a year or two. Come on, who is buying that excuse after several months. Then there is the rock yard. This is a replacement for grass. It actually makes a lot of sense. I don’t happen to like it but for many in California and the southwest you see a lot of these. The good news is that you don’t have to water rocks. Then in recent years we have seen an increase in artificial grass. Turf now comes in many quality levels. I remember walking my dog in Turlock and our Dentist had put some really good turf down. It was so good that I had to go over and touch it to determine whether it was real or not. I am sure that stuff was really expensive but he didn’t need a gardener after that and kept his water usage down. Since California has been in a long drought period we started to see more and more turf in the neighborhood. I’m sorry…unless you spend huge amounts of money the stuff looks like cheap carpeting with seams…its green forever but it can get dirty, stained, start coming up at the edges. I can’t help it I feel like we are heading toward a front yard that makes me think of a miniature golf course without a windmill. Also what do you do when your dog or some other dog eliminates on the turf. Nature’s Miracle is probably the best for the job but will it leave a mark. You have signed up for no scent of cut grass forever. Do they have aerosol cans that have that scent in them. What about any stuff that didn’t die under the turf that starts to grow and you know it will. What happens when a dog chews a corner of the turf or grabs it and pulls on it. What do you do? Since it is like carpeting do you cut out the affected portion and replace it? Then what, do you have to stitch it back in place and for that matter if the stuff starts coming up at the seams will the company come back and fix it. How long is the warranty? What happens when it gets wet or freezes? How many years does it look good? These are all legitimate questions. Even though I caved for an artificial Christmas Tree I am not ready to move to turf as my lawn of choice. Buyer beware…not all that glitters is gold and not all turf is created equal.
