Grass! Marshall's Great, Green Efforts to Create Siri Gian's Lawn!

NEW LAWN—JUST NOW COMING!  April 13, 2007   While I sit inside and endlessly write, I have been watching Marshall put in a new lawn for me!  Ah, promises of healing green outside my dry, windy, sunny, south-facing back door!   As you know, if you have been to my sweet home (please do come by!), the back has a long winding driveway width area boarded by big red rocks.  And on the other side of this border, the elevated “yard” is mulched with smaller grey river rocks.  That driveway-like, future lawn, croquet, bocci ball, badminton area is about 15’ x 100” and leads from my road accessible field to my underground septic tank at the back of the house.  I got that tank pumped last year as the first preparation for creating this new lawn.  So, with this setup, there will always be a way for a truck to get in to pump the tank—but not for a few decades, I pray!  This area has been covered with viga shavings mulch since I have been here.  It has always seemed like a sea of splinters to me—consequently promoting my thirst for lush, soft green!   It is not a huge area that would make huge demands on my well, but is selective and in my mind balances water use with living needs.  As you know, the sprinklers that you need to water lawns use a good deal of water, and a good portion evaporates in the sun of our sponge dry climate.  Also, I justify the fact that the water comes from my land (well) and goes back to my land.   So, in order to satisfy my craving for some solid green, I have watched Marshal do the following:   Over the winter, he raked most of the mulch off this area and put it around the bare base of trees and shrubs to protect their roots from the sun’s baking and keep in some moisture. In the late winter, he soaked the area, then he rented a roto-tiller from Deva Kaur and Dr. Kartar Singh 747-3739, and plowed under the whole area. I already had additional irrigation water valves put in last year that are fed from my main water pipe, and their on/off switches were electronically connected to some unused timer zones on my controller.  This happened before Marshal came on board.  (For an explanation of Drip Irrigation, please go to www.sirigian.com/drip_irrigation.html.)  He spent a while pacing out the lawn area, planning out what water volume and timing was needed.  He figured the necessary area coverage with appropriate sprinkler reach, such as putting a sprinkler that only sprayed a quarter circle pattern in a 90 degree corner, or a half a circle pattern along a fairly straight edge of the lawn, or a full circle “pop-up” sprinkler in the center of the lawn.  He also considered the distance that each kind of sprinkler reaches, so he planned the most efficient coverage with just a little overlap of spray from each. With that information, he decided to create two new zones on the irrigation system that would cover two halves of my lawn area.  By making two zones that would supply water at different times, my well would not be overtaxed at any one time, and the maximum water pressure needed to power the sprinklers would be maintained. He installed ¾” irrigation feeder hoses to each of these zones.  From the controller to the lawn, the hoses will be covered by the rock mulch on my yard.  Then when they reach the lawn, he laid the hoses in about 10” trenches down the length of the center of the lawn area.   Then he connected ¾” feeder hose branches from the central lines that supply each of the sprinklers, again down trenches he dug for them.  Then he attached the sprinklers to the ends of these branch feeder hoses, and pop ups to the center lines.  He got all these supplies in Espanola at Lowe’s and Hacienda.  Evidently it is hard to find everything that you need in just one store here. If I had been putting in this drip irrigation on my own, I believe that I would have made a scale drawing of my lawn area on graph paper and then taken it to The Firebird store in Santa Fe to get their expert advice and equipment.  For their info, please go to www.sirigian.com/drip_irrigation.html. Next, he filled in the trenches, raked out any remaining mulch, and took out some rocks, flagstone and sand that the former owners had put down.  Then he mixed in some of that good topsoil from Garcia Landscaping, and graded the seed bed.   Then he sprinkled a little ammonia sulfate over it to supply nitrogen, which helps the grass turn green.  Too much nitrogen though will “burn” the lawn—turn it brown.  Finally, he thoroughly watered the ground with the new irrigation system, and then sowed the grass seeds evenly by hand!  I had bought “Survivor Mix” grass seed from the Country Farm Store in Espanola—sort of across from the Valley National Bank on Riverside.  This is the same kind as Guruneil Singh used, and you have probably seen how lush his is!  That store has lots of varieties of grass seed.  And since I wanted a full, tough turf for fairly heavy traffic that needed as little water as possible, he suggested this mix of three different kinds of fescues that is used on golf courses around here.  I understand that Santa Fe Greenhouses has a good selection of special grass seed as well. Then Marshall fully covered the area with a thin layer of seedless straw that I also got at the Country Farm Store.  He set the sprinklers to come on for 5 minutes every two hours so that the grass seeds won’t dry out and die while they are trying to germinate.  Luckily, we are having wonderful cloud cover and gentle rains!  We couldn’t have ordered better! And now, we are just waiting for these wonderful little grass blades to appear in quantities large enough to mow!  The fellow in the Country Farm Store said that after we have mowed the grass twice, we could put down “pre-emergent” weed killer to knock off weed seeds before they germinate.  Marshal says that these cold nights are keeping them from sprouting quickly, but I have faith that I will have a carpet of moist, healing green out there fairly soon!  Then we will turn the controller to less water when the grass has fully taken root and it is ready to mow!   ……..Now it is the end of August 2007, and you never saw such a rich, thick green lawn!  Marshall has made sure to set the timer to water the grass at least 3 times a day.  Hey!  I figure the water comes from my land and goes back to my land!   He also keeps it trimmed regularly, because he says if you don’t the grass doesn’t do as well.  And he periodically fertilized it with high nitrogen fertilizer.  He says that when it gets yellowish, that means that it needs nitrogen!   This lawn is such a healing comfort to me.  As you can see, it is not very big, but it gives me lots of visual and energetic support!         Tony Valdez, our Rio Arriba Agricultural Extension Agent sent these on-line articles to us to help with growing our lawns!   tonvalde@nmsu.edu   TURFGRASS FOR NEW MEXICO http://www.cahe.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/h-508.pdf   TURFGRASS ESTABLISHMENT http://www.cahe.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/h-509.pdf   LANDSCAPE WATER CONSERVATION, PRINCIPLES OF XERISCAPE http://www.cahe.nmsu.edu/pubs/_h/h-707.pdf   DRIP IRRIGATION FOR ROW CROPS—This looks like it is for farmers rather than homeowners. http://www.cahe.nmsu.edu/pubs/_circulars/Cr-573.pdf       And when Sat Siri Kaur, astrologer was at the Xeric Conference in Albuquerque, she saw the ultimate in no water lawns!  Check it out at this website.  http://www.synturf.com/index.html.  She said it looked pretty nice, and with different colors to choose from!     Amrit Kaur, Das Vandh, DVAmritK@sikhdharma.org   We planted sod a few years back in our yard and I watered it and it grew beautifully. Dark rich green grass, however I don't remember what kind it was but it was very simple to take care of. We may do the same this year in a small area. The seeds take too long to grow for me. You might also refer to the section on “Grass Lawns” in the Sunset Western Garden Book.  It has a really nice outline of how to proceed.