jeffinsgf
Veteran Member
I'm terrible about taking progress pictures of my projects, so I have not reported much on my lawn restoration, but have alluded to it in a few response posts here and there. After weeks with a box blade, rented rock picker, landscape rake, and the backhoe (for some serious rocks and stumps), I sowed about half of my 7/8 of an acre lawn with about 450 dollars worth of zoysia seed. I dragged hoses and sprinklers all over it for about three days, then threw up my hands and faced the inevitible -- I needed a sprinkler system if I wanted a lawn. Started researching, figured out I could do it myself, found everything, rented a trencher and jumped in with both feet. Working across the newly seeded area, I was careful to do as little damage as possible. The other side still needed a little grading, so it had not been seeded yet. Anyone who has been to Branson and has driven through our highway cuts knows what I had to deal with -- ROCKS, ROCKS AND MORE ROCKS. I had both sides nearly free at the surface, but when I started trenching I found a whole new crop. Of course, when the trencher windrowed its spoils pile, the rocks rolled off the pile as far as possible. Putting in the sprinkler system was fairly easy, kind of fun (sort of like Tinker Toys), and very rewarding when everything worked right. Had everything in the trenches, tested and adjusted in about 6 days. However, backfilling, regrading, new rock picking and regrading again after the trenches settled took a couple more weeks. Following the advise of the seed grower, I have been laying the water to the seed. I am watering twice a day, once before dawn and again in the afternoon. The side sown first has had seedlings up for about 3 weeks now, and the second side is just starting to show some green.
So to make a long story short /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif that brings us to today. I was kicking and cussing and fussing and fuming because my west side (the one further along) was full of crabgrass. The best looking grass in the whole lawn was crabgrass -- I thought. I decided to make a phone call before I started ripping out all of that nasty crabgrass. Glad I did. The young zoysia spreads by surface stolon and underground rhizome both. The surface stolon is purple, which is what kept me from ripping it out -- crabgrass stolons are usually green. So, instead of being full of crabgrass, my new lawn is just a little further along than I thought.
It's kind of nice to find out things are going smoothly when you have convinced yourself the wheels are coming of the wagon. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
So to make a long story short /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif that brings us to today. I was kicking and cussing and fussing and fuming because my west side (the one further along) was full of crabgrass. The best looking grass in the whole lawn was crabgrass -- I thought. I decided to make a phone call before I started ripping out all of that nasty crabgrass. Glad I did. The young zoysia spreads by surface stolon and underground rhizome both. The surface stolon is purple, which is what kept me from ripping it out -- crabgrass stolons are usually green. So, instead of being full of crabgrass, my new lawn is just a little further along than I thought.
It's kind of nice to find out things are going smoothly when you have convinced yourself the wheels are coming of the wagon. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
