Tall fescue makes a comeback

Tall fescue sticks out like a sore thumb; I've noticed these clumps as the Kentucky bluegrass has gone dormant during the drier weather.

Either these are new plants (I doubt it), or they survived the Certainty treatment and have come back. Perhaps this is why the Certainty label was changed to remove use on cool season grasses?

I'll have to pull these by hand... and take care of those weeds :)

Do I pull in vain?

I just can't believe the amount of tall fescue I am finding (also some orchardgrass, but less than my last round of pulling) - I pulled all of this up last year, multiple times (and also supposedly "killed" with the selective herbicide). Or so I thought. I must be missing something.

Am I pulling it up improperly? My technique has been something like this: using a hand weeder and a piece of wood for leverage (when I first started, I was using my other hand for leverage and my finger went numb for several months after - not good), find the base of the bunch of grass and stick it down into the soil as far as possible below the roots and using the leverage push down so that pushes the bunch up from below.

My grass pulling tools

I try to get as much of the roots as possible, but this is sometimes difficult especially with the larger clumps. I must be missing some roots... It amazes me that a plant can come back over and over again after so much torture. Impressive!

Yesterday I decided to be more aggressive and less concerned about collateral damage. This has been my weakness. If the undesirable grass is intermingled with the precious Kentucky bluegrass, I try to separate the two and keep as much Kentucky bluegrass in tact as possible (often replanting it). This has probably left roots of the undesirable plant behind. But not anymore. I now throw it all out, good along with the bad.

Another thing I have done in the past is to try to put the soil back that came up with the roots. To do this I would shake at it and try to loosen it with the end of the weeder. This may also have allowed the roots back into the soil. But no more!

We'll see if these changes help, but at some point, if it just keeps coming back, I'm going to give up on pulling (as therapeutic as it can be sometimes). The areas that don't have any tall fescue this year are the areas that I sprayed with Roundup last year...

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.

Planning

It's time to start planning - no, not for our landscaping project (although, those plans have also yet to be finalized), but for grass planting. The optimal seeding window for central Indiana of August 15 - September 15 is quickly approaching. According to the Establishing Lawn Areas From Seed publication by Purdue University and University of Illinois:

It is critical to seed as early as possible within these windows. Even when seeding within these windows, waiting one week to seed may mean the stand will take 2 to 4 additional weeks to mature.

I put that to the test last year, but not this year (I hope)!

The Lawn Improvement Programs publication (also by Purdue University and University of Illinois) states that August 15 - September 1 is the optimum time to plant cool-season grasses (hm... conflicting information?). In any case, I plan to hit the early side of the window. This publication is the one I will likely be following as the other one focuses more on new seedbeds (don't want to do that again), while this one focuses on existing lawns and includes directions for both overseeding and reseeding.

First off, I've got a little secret to tell. For the past few weeks I've been pulling up undesirable grass by hand... Yes, I'm going crazy again. Just every couple of days for an hour or two at a time - nothing too crazy... no, not crazy at all... nope. Yesterday, one our neighbors walked by as I was out pulling and started talking to me. I told them that I enjoyed working in the yard and that it's kind of a hobby, to which they replied (and I quote) "A hobby?? More like an obsession!" I guess people notice more than I think! They must think I'm crazy... Oh well, I think everyone's crazy, just in different ways. There, I feel better now.

Now, back to business. I think I've made some good progress. Here's a look:

This side is nearly 100% tall fescue free

My new yard work buddy!
I'm slowly making my way this way.

It's looking a lot more uniform as a whole now and aside from the patchiness, I'd say it looks much improved over earlier this year. The Certainty herbicide I applied seems to have greatly weakened the patches of tall fescue, making them much easier to pull (which is the main reason I've even tried), but what I have found is that if I don't get the whole plant root, it grows right back... I'm continually amazed at how resilient it is.

So, as far as seeding goes, I have two options: overseeding or reseeding. Overseeding means planting seeds over the existing grass, and reseeding (as I'll define it) is killing the grass and completely reseeding. I'm really torn between the two. On the one hand, reseeding would result in a nice fresh stand of pure tall fescue-free grass, similar to last years reseeding, with the downsides of 1) the lawn not looking good for the end of summer into early fall, 2) the risk of two different color tones of grass between the new and existing grass, and 3) the grass not growing well due to the soil being too compact because I absolutely will not till it like I did last year. On the other hand, overseeding won't make the lawn look bad and likely won't result in an obvious edge between different areas of the lawn, with the downsides of 1) it may not look great mixed with the existing grass (could look patchy if colors are different), 2) I'll have to continue fighting with the tall fescue, and 3) I haven't had much success overseeding.

My general thinking at this point is that I'll overseed the areas that are free of tall fescue and reseed the areas that are still in large part either mostly dead and patchy or still has high concentration of tall fescue.

For the areas that I'm going to kill first, I'll need to give an extra week or so for the grass to die. In addition, I need to make plans to 1) purchase seed, and 2) look into either renting a aerator or finding a company do it for me. All this to say, this project begins in less than a month!