Update on Grass Renovation Project 11/14

Rye grass looking North from our back porch door

I am happy to report that the Rye grass has taken hold and is looking very lush.   The view above is looking north towards the bare spot that was shown in the first post I made on the project.  ( see: http://candbscene.blogspot.com/2014/11/our-grass-renovation-project-1114.html) You can clearly  see the difference between where our seeding stopped and the baren areas beyond begin.

Looking North  from our next door neighbors porch.

 The photo above was taken from almost the same spot as the first photo in  the Nov 20th post.  Look how much the grass  has filled in.  Once the Rye seed germinated it grew unbelievable fast.. almost and inch a day.  We've already had to mow it once.  Yes I said we had to mow it.  It seems that the HOA also forgot to mention that the yard maintenance crew are not going to be mowing the lawns during the winter. Actually that is probably a blessing in disguise as they would probably just rip the Rye up driving their heavy equipment over it.  By the time the maintenance people begin mowing the weather will be warming up and the annual grass dying back.  By that time we will be able to by a perennial sod to replace any missing in the  original lawn.

Update on our grass renovation project 11'14

You may remember that ten days ago Bruce and I started a project to renovate the grass behind out condo For details see  http://candbscene.blogspot.com/2014/11/our-grass-renovation-project-1114.html

Looking North at the newly sprouted annual rye

Surprise! surprise!  After  anxiously days of waiting the  Rye grass is starting to germinate. We weren't at all sure it would even germinate.  .  Ideally we would have aerated the soil before putting down the seed, but we got started so late in the season, that we had little time to prep the area.  All we had time to do was to rake up the leaves and put down a thin coat of mulch to provide the seed with some nutrients and protection from drying out... And, oh yes.. the HOA forgot to mention that they were turning off all water to the gardens for the winter months (starting the day we set the seed out). so we also had to water it by hand twice a day.  Now we just have to wait to see if it will set in well enough to survive until spring.

Looking  South at the newly sprouted  rye grass.

Our grass renovation project 11"14

The grass behind our condos has taken a beating this year.  The trees in the nearby forest compete with the grass for nutrients. Months of prolonged ran has  further leached out much needed minerals, The maintenance people dig ruts in the grass when they run their heavy riding  mowers over saturated soil, then more rain eroded it even more.  Threes have been removed, but the HOA has refused to cover the area with new grass because they feel it is a waste of money. The final blow came when the contractor power washed all  the buildings with bleach  prior to painting them. The heavy dose of chemicals came just before the cold set in so there was no time for the grass to recover before dormancy.  The end result  of all this abuse is huge areas where there is no grass at all, and many places where the grass is so spare as to look like a mud hole.

Not wanting to look at mud all winter, much less risk losing more soil due to erosion, Bruce has obtained permission from our HOA to put out winter Rye seed to cover the area behind us.  It is about a month later than  ideal for starting such a project, but we had no choice but to wait for the painters to finish running their trucks back and forth before we started. It is TBD whether the seed will germinate and have enough time to  get established before the first frost arrives.  But we are determine to give it a try.