Landscaping

I know you guys hate zoysia but this is my front yard, which I wasted God's aquifer on once this year in either the last week of June or first week of July, whenever it was that we had that 2 or 3 days of 90° weather. Zoysia laughs at crabgrass, scares away dandelions. Last year I pulled out a sprinkler twice, in 2021 I may have wasted water three times. I gave away my grubicides, fungicides, herbicides and haven't fertilized in four or five years. I did put down granular lime each spring the last few years as I got some of that damn wild garlic, seemingly the only thing that can penetrate the zoysia. Being in my early 70s I really did not want to waste time or water on Kentucky bluegrass, perennial rye, etc. etc. anymore. Only drawback I have seen since I let seeds from a neighbor a couple doors down take over my own lawn 15 or 20 years ago is that zoysia needs sun, which I have plenty of now that the last tropical storm eliminated my last decent size trees, and it does go dormant from November through April, and during any extended drought.
 

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Funny thing about the zoysia. When it started it took over a small triangle at the edge of my property near the sidewalk.
Being a different shade of green, I dumped a pail of water on the spot for a few weeks until that fall when it went dormant.
Eureka ! It's John's zoysia, coming to conquer another lawn ! It quickly spread and I started to cultivate squares of it, putting it wherever the rye and bluegrass had bare spots. Very little of that needy grass left here.
 
Funny thing about the zoysia. When it started it took over a small triangle at the edge of my property near the sidewalk.
Being a different shade of green, I dumped a pail of water on the spot for a few weeks until that fall when it went dormant.
Eureka ! It's John's zoysia, coming to conquer another lawn ! It quickly spread and I started to cultivate squares of it, putting it wherever the rye and bluegrass had bare spots. Very little of that needy grass left here.
My front lawn had a small area when I bought my house over 5 years ago. Now 3/4 of front lawn is Zoysia, stopping right at the shade line. I don’t want it to get to the backyard
 
I tried transplanting it from the front yard to what very little is left of my backyard ( I used to use a push mower in the back until I replaced my corded mower with a cordless) but I still have to mow the back weekly as it had been mostly shade until the last t.s. three years ago.
My front lawn had a small area when I bought my house over 5 years ago. Now 3/4 of front lawn is Zoysia, stopping right at the shade line. I don’t want it to get to the backyard
Don't let the zoysia seed !
 
Yea, Im a big fan of the KBG. I know it takes a while to germinate and you need to care for it a lot. I'm going to stop at Delea in Deer Park and talk to them about seed.
KBF makes for a beautiful lawn, but oh my does it take a lot of work and chemicals to keep it that way, as well as regular watering. I do believe that the day will come when watering one's grass will be frowned upon as well as strictly regulated.
Years ago when my kids were little and I was working two jobs counting the reserves, (zoysia would have been a Godsend) I recall going to Gardiner Evans on the Amityville border and then to a Farmingdale College co-op to buy mixtures of KBG, perrenial rye and fescues which at the time (way before anyone but the very rich had "others" mow and trim for them) was what was recommended. An uncle's brother, both of them truck farmers in then North Amityville, had married into the DeLalio sod family and I went with their recommondations to see Gardiner Evans and the Aggie school experts for seed.
 
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I just finished detaching in the backyard, raked a ton of stuff up. Taking a quick break then I'll head out there with the mower again. Keeping same height has yesterday's mow, I'll just run over the grass in the opposite direction and try and suck up whatever little may be left on the lawn.
 
Just picked up some topsoil and seed from Delea. Going to start sifting and filling in holes around the yard. Defiantly will take a couple of days. Was only able to load 1/2 yard into the bed of pickup.
What kind of pickup. I put a yard and a half in my Colorado and no problem
 
Guy came this morning to Aerate and slice seed. I had 35lbs of seed and I was short ? He went a little heavier in the areas I had used roundup. So I ran back to Delea after he left and got another 25lb bag. I threw some down where he wasn't able to finish. I then rented a peat moss spreader from HD. First put down the Scott's triple action- built for seeding (blue label). Then 5 bags of peat moss and watered. Hopefully it fills in nicely.
 
Guy came this morning to Aerate and slice seed. I had 35lbs of seed and I was short ? He went a little heavier in the areas I had used roundup. So I ran back to Delea after he left and got another 25lb bag. I threw some down where he wasn't able to finish. I then rented a peat moss spreader from HD. First put down the Scott's triple action- built for seeding (blue label). Then 5 bags of peat moss and watered. Hopefully it fills in nicely.
You work very hard on your yard, hope it all works.
 
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