Indestructible

This past weekend, I spent the majority of the afternoon squatting around the front yard pulling up the wheat that was growing obnoxiously about. But, in doing so what I soon discovered was that 1) there was what appeared to be "wheat" in areas where I didn't have straw, 2) this "wheat" was in fact the indestructible grass I spent so much time trying to get rid of last year (I thought it to be tall fescue, but I'm not so sure, so until I know what it is, I'm just going to call it the "annoying indestructible grass", or "evil grass" for short - UPDATE: it is Orchardgrass). Seriously, this grass has shown its ability to survive everything, including being pulled up multiple times! I can now spot this grass very easily in our lawn. It has a flat stem which is lighter yellow in color and the blades are thick and smooth (also more yellowish than Kentucky bluegrass).

Evil grass

It's incredible. I pulled up all that I could find, but I have no doubt that I'll see it again soon. Next time, I think instead of pulling it up, I'll dig it up along with a 2 feet diameter hole around it just to be sure I get it all. But really, pulling it up has has to work eventually, right? No plant can survive if there's nothing left of it, right? Right??

Anyway, this is how much I ended up pulling up of the wheat and evil grass:

To the compost pile!

And this is what the front yard now looks like (as of 3/17):

This area wins the best grass award this year (so far). It's the area
on the right in front of the sidewalk in the previous photo.

As usual, the photos make it look worse than reality. The bright green/yellow patches are the weeds that I sprayed earlier in the week. I think they're dead and/or dying and have turned more yellow, making them stand out more. At least I hope so. I do see a few patches that I missed, though, so I'll have to go spray them. I'm hoping that the grass can recover from this weedy invasion, and I think it will.

The new grass that I planted last year has yet to really green up (I wonder if that'll happen every year or if it's just because it's young or something - I'm hoping for the latter!), but I'm excited for that to occur!

Ok, that's enough blogging for one day... time to sleep.

I'm kicking myself

I don't think I ever mentioned it, but last year I noticed a some weeds starting to grow in various places in the midst of the front yard grass. Here's a picture from last November that shows it (click on it to view it full-sized):

Weeds last November

Not wanting to harm the new grass I had just grown and thinking that with winter just around the corner the cold would kill it off, I decided to leave it be. Boy did that turn out to be a mistake - it never died!

Weeds this March

They appeared to be growing and even flowering in some cases, so I decided to spray them. On Tuesday (3/13), I walked the entire lawn and sprayed every weed I came across with Ortho Weed B Gon (it was all over the place!). I haven't noticed for sure yet if it has been effective or not, but I hope it dies soon and doesn't hinder the grass it's invading (that will soon be greening up). We'll see.

Also surviving the winter and starting to grow again:

Happy wheat

Yep, the wheat that I unknowingly planted last year via the straw that I used. I guess I'll have to pull these buggers up by hand (or learn how to make our own bread, one of the two)...