Help with my lawn

10 years ago

Hi there. I have been looking around for some pointers on what to do with my lawn, and this seems like a great place to start.

We recently finished building a house, and now I am trying to get the grass to grow and look a little better than what it currently does.

I attached a picture of our lawn and my question is if I am watering to much/to little or mowing to often/not enough? Or if there are other issues I have to deal with.

Right now I water twice a week 40 minutes per zone. Schedule starts watering around 5:30am and is done sometime before 9am.

For the last few weeks I have been mowing every weekend at about 1,5" mowing height. I could go a step lower on the lawn mower, but the yard is very bumpy so I would be scalping spots even more than what I am doing now.

Any pointers would be appreciated. Oh and I am in Austin, TX.

Comments (4)

chaoticut
10 years ago
I'm assuming the type of grass is bermuda?

Are you following the 1/3 rule for cutting? Never cut more than a 1/3 of the grass in a single mowing.

Have you fertilized at all?
holmern
Original Author
10 years ago
The first time I cut the grass I did not follow the 1/3 rule since the grass was way longer. Ever since then I have been mowing often enough to not cut more than 1/3.

We just finished putting down the last sod, so I haven't done any fertilizing yet. We have a company named "Real Green Lawn" starting next week who are supposed to do all the fertilizing and taking care of pre emergants and stuff for weeds.
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dchall_san_antonio
10 years ago
You are watering way too much but more importantly, is this bermuda?

This time of year in Austin you should be watering about once every 10 days or more. When you water apply about an inch as measured by cat food or tuna cans placed around the yard. Watering frequency is a function of the tendency for soil to dry out. You are in full sun so you have that going against you. You are mowing short, so that is going against you (really need to know if it is bermuda or not). Other factors bearing on the watering frequency issue include soil type, soil health, humidity, clouds, wind, and probably some other elements that don't come to mind.

Once we know what kind of grass you have we can get a lot more specific. If this is bermuda you are at the upper edge of the right mowing height. If it is St Augustine, then you are at the bottom edge of killing it off. Almost all St Aug should be mowed at your mower's highest setting. The dwarf varieties should be mowed at the mid heights.
holmern
Original Author
10 years ago
Ok so I emailed the people that put in the sod. Apparently I have something called Bermuda Tiff grass. In the back I have MP rotator sprinklers that has a precipitation rate of .39 inches per hour. In the front I am using a different kind that has a higher rate, but I gotta measure that to get an excact reading.

The builder is suggesting I do 154 minutes total per week for the area with the MP rotators to get up to 1", but he says to split it into 3 days, but that seems to contradict what you guys are saying.