Contest-Winner-Corey has been keeping us thoroughly updated on the progress of his lawn! Read on below if you’re interested in seeing his detailed account – you might be able to apply some of it to your UC Verde lawn…or if you’d rather just look at his pretty progress pictures you can view it all on this little nifty web page he’s set up!

“Today marks 12 weeks in and the second mow…Not a lot different between 8 weeks and 12 weeks.  The biggest difference would be the bare spots where I spread steer manure or potting soil have either filled in nicely, or seem to be well on the way.  Of the two, I would say the steer manure worked better than the potting soil, probably because it had a finer texture (easier for runners to grab ahold of?) and maybe it held moisture better and probably also richer growing environment.  One of those regions I focused on in the “Other” picture column for week 8 and 12.

Regarding the coloration and growth pattern question I had last time at 8 weeks, I have not had a chance to test how evenly the sprinklers distribute water yet.  But, I bet that is more likely the case than soil quality.  I only have 2 inch pop-up sprinklers, and with the daily watering, the grass was growing quite well that I suspect it started to block the water spray near the sprinklers so more water would fall closer to the sprinklers, and the situation would only magnify as the grass got ever more taller.  Mowing probably helped a lot initially.  Now to toy with cutting back on watering frequency to try to slow down the growth a bit, and encourage deeper root system.  I had been watering daily at 5 minutes a shot, but now to try every 4 days at 10 minutes a shot.

I figured out the other weed that I was asking about in week 4 is probably some kind of spurge (the other you identified as purslane).  Now with the established grass, purslane is pretty much choked out (and the stragglers that do pop up are easy to pull out).  But, I can pretty much tell that spurge is probably going to be a forever battle.  It is definitely the most abundant weed in the grass, and the only one so far that easily co-habitates with the grass.  There is a picture in the 12 week pre-mow “Other” section.  The way it spreads out from the center, and the denseness of the grass, make it basically impossible to work down to the base to pull out at the root.  More often than not, I just end up breaking off stems.  Where before I was reluctant to use chemical means to control the weeds during establishment of the plugs (went with hand weeding only), now I think I may consider it.  Either just spray down the entire lawn with the Ortho Weed B Gone product that you recommended before, or maybe try spot treatment with the ready mix product first.  From what I read about spurge on the ol’ internet, it is a tough weed to knock out.  As Chris Berman would say on ESPN, there is no way to stop it, you can only hope to contain it.

Another interesting thing I have noticed is that there have been small “eruptions” of my old grass (some dwarf fescue) poking out here and there.  I thought it was pretty much all dead and wiped out from the 2+ years of neglect, and mostly pulled out before I planted the plugs, but some hardy survivors have been making appearances.  Very obvious to tell from the thicker blades.  Just been trying to pull them out.

Well, that is more than enough.  Thanks for your continued support on this project!”

– And thanks for keeping us all in the loop Corey! 🙂