Rye Grass

A very few months of the year I can pretend that I have a lush, green lawn.  The rest of the year, the cursed sod is more weeds than lawn and much more effort than it is worth.  In October in the Central San Joaquin Valley, lawns are seeded with winter rye.  When I was a kid the event meant the stench of steer manure; but that stench signaled that Trick or Treating was on its way.  Now, most lawns are simply sown with some sort of rye and kept moist without the addition of steer manure by irrigating 3 times each day.  The salts from the manure has made it less attractive – as if it could be any less attractive.

Once the seed is up and established, the weather cools and the fog rolls in.  Nature takes care of the irrigation.  Hip Hip!

Keep on the Grass

Sowing winter rye is a pretty nice idea.  Even if it takes a bit of preparation, it doesn’t take a lot of maintenance.  Remember how terrible the lawn was back in August?  Now, the lawn is lush and healthy.  The irrigation system can be shut down for the winter for the most part.  Farmer MacGregor fertilizes and mows so I don’t have to do a ding dong thing but to sit back and enjoy the emerald green carpet. 

 

I’m not alone in the enjoyment.

Rye Grass

Planting Rye Grass isn’t exactly the most water wise thing to do in the thirsty southern San Joaquin Valley; but it gives a nice, cool pop of color to the garden with a soft, brushy texture.  The summer lawn has to get put to bed before the seed is thrown.  Farmer MacGregor buzzed the Hybrid Bermuda lawn down like an Marine haircut.  Amendments were applied to enhance the soil’s permeability.  The seeds are cast and kept moist.  This requires the sprinklers to be turned on about 2 or 3 times a day.  Not for long.  The seeds will sprout in about a week if the Mourning Doves don’t eat your work.  Once the seed is up the irrigating can be cut back because the temperatures are usually on the way down with the occasional rain.  If the weather turns rainy and foggy, the irrigation system needs to be cut completely and that’s a good thing.

People used to top the seeds with steer manure years ago; but a problem with salts and junk has pretty much made that practice extinct.  As a kid, you could tell when Trick or Treat time was approaching by the stink of the manure.  Farmer MacGregor has finally been convinced to mulch the lawn clippings back into the lawn this winter to help build the soil.  January will signal the time to start the pre-emergent schedule.  Maybe the summer of 2011 will be the year of a healthier lawn unlike the weed infested junk from 2010.