Autumn Is A Great Landscape Planting Time:
Shrubs, trees, spring bulbs and many annual flowers can go in now. The Ocean Shores autumn offers a mild climate, sufficient rains and even a shot of colder temps, all of which favors underground root growth. Most of what you plant now will hold out a promise of spring glory. Not being patient by nature, that is a bit of a trial for me.
There is, however, a fall landscaping project that you do not have to wait long to see the benefits of: those beautiful “Garden Carpets,” otherwise known as lawns. Considering our nutrient lacking, sandy soil, unrelenting winds, and salt air, most people simply mow whatever grows up. If you are “lucky” you might get a native lawn-like grass, Poa annua. This is an annual low-growing turf grass, widespread in temperate meadows. If you are vigilant and pull up the dandelion-like hairy cat ears that otherwise smother grass under their flattened rosettes, you will get a fair to middling ground covering. Native plant lawns work well. You can see lots of examples in any neighborhood.
(A note about Poa anna: This grows on much of our local golf course, especially between the greens. While it certainly beats beach grass or broad-leaf plants, most lawn aficionados try to get rid of it. It’s an invasive weed that can out-compete perennial lawn grasses and creates splotches of a lime-green that interrupts the darker, blue-green field of a finer lawn.)
Early August, I watched as one of my neighbors began preparing his yard for something different. I noted this process, as he prepared the ground and covered it with lovely green sod. He had an instant, gorgeous Garden Carpet!
I stopped by and met Eric Partika, who kindly gave me a short rendition of what he had done. He first added loam to the natural sand and rototilled it in 3-4 inches. Then he laid out a straight edge border for the lawn. Next, he covered the soil with a starter fertilizer and watered it until the ground was level and smooth. Now came the fun part! He rolled out the sod (a mix of rye, fescue, and Kentucky bluegrass.) Then he cut it to fit. Next came the meticulous part. He watered three times a day for three days. (Remember early August, we had not had a drop of rain!) After that he cut back on the watering to every other day. He was careful not to walk on it for the first 7 days. (I do not know what he did to deter deer tracking!)
By two weeks (still watering every other day) the lawn had grown about 4 inches, which Eric mowed back to 2 ½ to 3 inches. At 3 to 4 weeks he added some fertilizer (which he will do four more times in the coming year.) So, his routine will be to continue to water every other day until the rains come, to keep mowing, and to fertilize on schedule. I will be noticing the progress as I think about what I will do in my own yard.
If any of you attended the 2019 Master Gardener Garden Tour, you probably remember Gene and Paula Grazier’s yard featuring a golfing area with a chipping green. I gave them a call and set up a meeting with Gene to see how he had accomplished such a great Garden Carpet, here where great lawns are difficult to grow.
They actually live in an area where the best of Ocean Shores lawns lives and thrives. After a few minutes chatting with Gene, it became clear that such gorgeous Garden Carpets take a lot of work and dedication!
Gene had planted his backyard lawn of 5,000 square feet, ten years ago and his golfing area of 10,000 square feet just three years ago. On both areas he had used a blend of three types of rye grasses, but whereas he had prepped his backyard with topsoil, he started with the native sand in the golfing area. Today you cannot see that the addition of topsoil has made much difference.
In both cases he laid down the seed and covered that with a starter fertilizer. Then, like Eric, he watered, and watered carefully so as not to wash away the seed. Grass seed takes about one to two weeks to germinate. Planting in the fall, the grass seed needs 60 days before a hard frost. Here, you would want to seed before the end of September.
Gene’s meticulous care results in a near perfect lawn. During the spring, summer and winter growing season, he fertilizes every three weeks, adding iron, to green up the grass. He mows about every three days or so to keep the grass at 3 – 3 ½ inches, leaving the clippings to mulch and feed the lawn. The chipping green he mows every two days to keep it closer to 2-2 ½ inches. He continues mowing until the November rains come.
To my eye there were no weeds in any of his lawn. Not only does Gene occasionally spray the lawn with a weed killer, but he also scours the lawn seeking out individual weeds to hand-spray or dig out.
Fortunately, he seems to enjoy keeping up the lawn almost as much as actually golfing on it. And it shows!
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For questions, comments about this article or to share your gardening experiences, please contact Dauna at: dauna@gardenbytheseaoceanshores.org
This article was originally printed in The Ocean Observer, September 2020.
