Here's another photo

The Wire Grass shown is a variant of Aristida from what I can tell. This grass prefers a Pine Tree canopy but you see there's not much in the way of Pine trees in this canopy. The Wire Grass grown at Pine Hurst #2 rough areas is Aristida Stricta but isn't shown to grow in this county. There are several variations of Aristida so any help on identifying this particular patch would be helpful.

That's either a real steep grade you've got there, or the pictures are sideways. :)

No not sideways it's that steep. Several homes needed retaining walls but I got lucky.

LOL.

My concern is soil erosion... It plainly sucks with that much soil exposure whenever I get very heavy rainfall.

I'm letting grassy kind grow on the side of the house that I never see. They put down decomposed granite on the entire side and that's about it. Whatever it is took over looks pretty cool, not unlike yours. I just have to get rid of certain weeds. I want to get rid of as much bermuda as possible but it's not as easy as it looks...

The solution to erosion is to control the direction and rate the water flows off of the slope and through the yard..

For gentle slope a series of small ridges that run across the slope, and direct the water to the side is all it takes to prevent erosion. These do not need to be deep so as to prevent the mower from mowing the area. The one on my slope is only a couple of inches deep and extends the length of the slope. I created this one with a mattock and a rake.

The one down the side of my lot diverting water to the ditch in front of the house is about 12 inches tall and about five feet wide. This was created by the people who originally graded the lot.

These ridges do not need to be obvioius and can be a significant feature of the yard adding interest to an absolutely flat yard.

As far as erosion this soil is very rocky and the water drains away from the natural area. The goal is not to use mulch etc but let the area flourish while maintaining the desired natural grasses.

When I decided to clear the area I looked at what grasses I wanted to keep what I learned is the native grasses etc are easier to maintain as they are adaptive to the environment requiring less water etc.

They are also adapted to an environment full of weeds to fill in the bare spots between the clumps of grass.

Trying to match a golf course, plant for plant, is a losing game. You can't afford their resources, you don't have access to their machinery, you don't have the same original soil prep, and you can't use the same chemicals they use. Did I leave anything out? Texas Weed is our newest USDA Certified Groundskeeper, so maybe he can help with some more detail. bpgreen is the only person I know of who has been successful with native grasses. One difference is he planted them to make them dense.

dchall_san_antonio

Watch this video and understand the approach is less is more! The basis of NC State program toward sustainable turf management is to reduce the required specialized maintenance. Leaving native grasses that thrive in natural environments requires less money and specialized personnel. Also the grass in Pinehurst is native to that area and my wire grass Is native to my area as well.

Here is a link that might be useful: Pinehurst grass

This post was edited by BermudaTamer on Wed, Jul 9, 14 at 23:35

They selected adapted species, prepped the soil, and sowed the seed to achieve a certain density. Is that what you did?

I sympathize with the use of native grasses. I think they picked the wrong ones. Personally it looks awful to me. Stop the video at 8 seconds. The entire picture looks like an unkempt sand trap. That location does not look much better in the Google Map image. It's greener in the Google Maps but the rough east of the trap looks like desert scrub.

Here is a picture of a lawn made entirely of native grasses growing in Salt Lake City. This area is desert by every definition.

{{gwi:79340}}

That is a mix of wheatgrass varieties, blue grama, and strawberry clover. It gets mowed monthly and watered about the same starting in June.

The use of native grass is meant for the natural areas not for the Bermuda fairways etc. You mentioned the condition of the course understand it was designed in the Sandhills of North Carolina and restored to the original 1907 design which included weeds wire grass etc. You should review links style golf courses most have Wiregrass in play.

This post was edited by BermudaTamer on Wed, Jul 9, 14 at 23:53