lngrid – posted 02 April 2008 22:21
Hi. I wonder if I’m looking for the impossible. I work seven days a week and my fiance has serious medical problems that nearly prevent him from doing yardwork. The yard in our new house is a disaster — literally all weeds under a lovely, but leaf-tossing sycamore tree. We need to do something to our front (west-facing) and back (east-facing) yards. I’ve thought about groundcover, but we really need to mow in order to take out tree and shrub seedlings sown by birds and to manage the sycamore’s leaves. However, I find it difficult to make time for weekly mowing and my fiance is unable to, so we’re hoping for something low-maintenance. We live in Sacramento and next year we go on metered water. We’re also being told that climate change will affect the snowpack in the Sierras, which is where much of Sacramento’s water originates. So we also need something that uses much less water than traditional lawns. Our winter temps are usually in the thirties, but can get as low as 24 degrees and our summer highs can go up to 113 degrees, so I guess we’re looking for warm-season grass, huh? The parts of the yard away from the house get sun a good part of the day, but there are trees near the house that provide shade. I bet we need more than one kind of grass. I’m really new at this, and I’ve been studying it out, trying to make a good decision, but I sure would be grateful for any advice you can offer.
tommy – posted 04 April 2008 17:33
Yep, this is a tough one alright! A lot of cities in Calif. now have info on water saving plants and ground covers. You might want to research your city web site for more info. Zoysia grass would give you just about everything your looking for, but I don’t know if any sod farms in your area carry it. The only draw back to zoysia- is that it’s brown in the winter.
Alex_in_FL – posted 06 April 2008 04:49
Agree with Tommy. Zoysia is probably your best bet. Consider Emerald or Empire zoysia. I like Empress but you really need a reel mower to cut it.