Week 7: Filling in nicely!

A special thanks to Jerome Lew for sharing these pics from a recent green home project he has been working on! In his experience, he found that the plugs that were heavily doused in the Zeba Root Dip seemed to establish much faster. And he says “the homeowners are very happy”!

It all looks great, we can’t wait to see more! Thanks Jerome!

The Easter Bunny has come and gone and although he may be oh so cute, the last thing you probably want is for all his little furry relatives nibbling away at all your hard lawn work!

One of our UC Verde Facebook fans, Muhammad, has had such a dilemma in the past and he’s contacted us to try to prevent his new UC Verde plugs from being the Hare Family dinner again!

There are some options out there that will deter the adorable varmits, while still being safe for other wildlife, pets and kids. Here are some of our suggestions you may want to try:

• Rabbit fencing
• Deer and rabbit repellent pellets
• Deer and rabbit repellent concentrate
• Blood meal
• Predator urine

The fencing will help you to block out the little buggers from getting to your lawn in the first place. The other methods help by keeping rabbits from wanting to go near your lawn. We’ve found for most people the fencing did the job!

If you have any questions regarding your UC Verde Buffalograss lawn or are thinking about installing one, feel free to contact us!

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It’s April! The flowers are blooming, the plants are growing…and my allergies are going crazy! Ah-choo!!!

If you’re an Allegra-D/Claritin dependent like me then you can appreciate that UC Verde Buffalograss has virtually no seed heads and a pollen rating that is just slightly higher than 1. The American Lung Association recommends using plants which have a pollen rating of 6 or less for an allergy reduced landscape.

Now is the perfect time to install UC Verde – it’s out of dormancy and ready to grow and the weather is perfect for working in the yard! Visit us to place an order or feel free to contact us if you have any questions!

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Unlike other forms of Buffalograss, UC Verde was specifically created for lawn use, which means it’s a-okay for regular foot traffic! Because if you’re like me – with a kid and dogs – that’s what a lawn’s all about, right?!

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With notices going out through the city notifying customers of the upcoming switch to metered water, people are looking to lawn alternatives as a way to help cut costs on their skyrocketing bills! Yikes!

Which leaves several options to combat a rising water bill:

1) No lawn – going with drought plants to landscape your yard instead of a traditional lawn. This is certainly a way to cut back – your typical lawn accounts for up to 70% of your water use – but it’s not a look that appeals to everyone.

2) Artificial lawn – Well, pretty much you’re looking at a water free lawn here, but you’re also looking at a pricey upfront cost with the quotes for installation at anywhere from $7 sq ft up to $22 a sq ft – based off of what we were quoted here in town. And it is still, well, fake grass. It might seem kinda strange covering your entire front yard if you ask me. I suppose maintenance is about as low as you can go…unless you just have a concrete “lawn”

3) UC Verde Buffalograss lawn - Of course my opinion is biased, that’s a given here! But going with UC Verde does seem like a happy medium of sorts – you can still have your lawn and cut back on water consumption – making having a lawn still affordable with meters! Also, with other perks like a max height of just 4-6″, you can mow your lawn just once or twice a month, twice a year or even never! Saving your precious personal time and also cutting back on lawn mower pollutants in the air. UC Verde also produces virtually no seedheads, which means it’s soooo much better for allergies than your typical lawn.

So, did I give you enough reasons to turn you into a UC Verde convert yet? (nudge, nudge, wink, wink!)

We just finished up the Fresno Home & Garden Show this past weekend and I couldn’t help but overhear the conversation of a couple passing by the booth.

The husband commented to his wife, “Oh here’s that buffalograss I heard about!” to which she matter-of-factly replied, “You have to own buffalo to eat the grass if you use that.”

This, folks, is not the case in any way, shape or form. It’s quite comical really!

Why is it called buffalograss? Well, let me tell you! Buffalograss originated in the US on the prairies of the Western Plains and it was given the name because it grew under the feet of millions of American bison, often referred to as buffalo!

So there you have it! You do not need to own buffalo to have a buffalograss lawn! And also keep in mind there are lots of varieties of buffalograss out there. UC Verde Buffalograss was developed by UC Davis specifically for the conditions of the west coast!

Read more about the perks of UC Verde on our website!

•  In early spring, mow your buffalograss to a height of 1 inch. This will remove the old grass debris and allow the sun to warm the soil faster so your buffalograss will green up earlier.
• Apply a pre-emergent or a fertilizer with crabgrass and/or annual grassy weed control at this time. Any product available at your garden center should be okay to use. Read and follow the label.
• Repeat this application at a ½ rate in 6-8 weeks for season long control.

And if you’re looking to install UC Verde for the first time this spring I can’t stress enough to you how important it is to properly prep your space before you plant!

• It is extremely important to treat your space prior to installation to make sure that an exisiting weeds, plants or lawns have been killed off so that they do not overtake your young plugs when they are establishing. Take extra time and extra care to make sure you’ve killed off everything before you install your plugs and save yourself some major stress!
• Often, this is a 3-4 week process. After killing off your existing lawn or weeds with a product such as Round-Up, you will want to wait several days and then begin to regularly water your space to encourage existing weeds and grass to come up.
• Apply another application of Round-Up to anything that pops up.
• Repeat this process until everything is eradicated.

Taking the time to do this before installation will save you from the headache of having isolate the weeds or old grass from the establishing UC Verde plugs. Here is a list of helpful advice from the Lazy Gardens blog on what to do before your installation!

Prime UC Verde time is just around the corner in spring and with that being said, I thought I’d do one last status update on our painted test patch out front. What do you think? The colorant has slightly faded, but not bad after full winter exposure for 3 months (left with colorant applied late November, right left in natural dormant state)!

And now that UC Verde is coming out of hibernation you’ll be hearing from me more often! Talk to you soon!

Well, it has been about two and half weeks since I applied the turf colorant to our dormant UC Verde Buffalograss lawn and it’s still looking good! As our grass continues to lose its color as the winter weather takes over, the colored portion is looking better and better

I’ll keep taking snapshots of it throughout the winter so you can see how well the colorant holds up until spring when UC Verde comes out of dormancy!

Have a great weekend everyone! Get your Christmas shopping done!

How was your weekend? It’s getting hectic with Christmas coming up quick – lots to do!

Welllll, since only a couple of you entered into the dormant kit giveaway – you both sort of win! haha

@rctfan2 who posted on your Youtube channel wins the big prize – the dormant kit! Wooohoo!

and Amy Hayes you win your very own bottle of Green Lawnger! Wooohoo also!

I’ll try to contact you guys today or feel free to contact me to send me your mailing address ltakao@takaonursery.com

Thanks to everyone for checking out our very first demonstration video!