All I can say about our lawn in general this year is aaaarrrggggh! With the sprinkler system not working and not much precipitation the lawns has taken a real beating. And the time when I think about just turning on a sprinkler is also the time of night when our water usage is highest: the evenings, what with bath time, dishwasher, Kim keeping up with laundry etc. So the lawns look bad.
But the back lawn has become especially frustrating for me, starting really when we moved into the house. When we moved in the back area of the house was heavily landscaped and gardened. But we didn't really like that, so we started clearing that all out. The consequence of that however was drainage, bad drainage, resulting in flooding into the house. So we had a landscaper come in and really fix up the back yard. The problem was that the grass seed they put in the back yard is a kind of wild grass rather than traditional blue grass, so ever since then it has grown as this clumped lawn, with bare spots for weeds to grow into. Last year I wanted to just till up the whole thing and reseed it with a different seed. Also smooth it out some, part of the landscaping was to put in a large swale in the middle of the yard, which was supposed to even out over time, but really hasn't.
So this year I have to start manually watering what is there so it doesn't go completely to pot. Then try and figure out how to get some decent soil and fertilizer in or till it out to the point where I can lay sod. Of course this is all moot without a decent sprinkler system. Sigh... if I had known how disruptive that would be when we had the sewer work done I would have arranged to have a sprinkler guy come in the same day and make sure the sprinkler was repaired at that time.
This part of my back yard project is going to take some time and money to fix, and it honestly probably won't get fixed this year.
Mike, Mike, Mike! The lawn in your back yard is fine! The wild grass is MUCH better to have than bluegrass! You don't really want to have a golf green back there! You live in Colorado, and that patch of grass is beside an alley. Your water bill is high enough as it is. Take the lawn mower (set it at its highest) and mow down both the grass and the weeds. It will still be green. It will still be a good place to play Bocce ball. The people who work at Blackjack's do not care whether it is wild grass or bluegrass. The wild grass will survive, whereas the bluegrass would not. There is nothing wrong with most weeds. They are green. Dandelion flowers are quite beautiful. James loves to blow the seeds off them when they go to seed. Their leaves can be eaten, so none of the children will be poisoned by them (although weed killer might harm the kids!). The children and a place to play Bocce ball are important. Bluegrass and weed killer are not. Get some perspective! If you really want some bluegrass, select a SMALL area in your front yard, where the world can see it, and tend it like a garden
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