Subject: Re: Zoysia! That's right, Zoysia!

From: [email-masked] (Jim Huber)
Date: 5 Mar 1995 12:24:20 -0800

I have a Zoysia grass lawn in my Northern California garden and it's
nearly the perfect lawn for my purposes.  I've a small yard and two big
dogs, German Shepherds.  I wanted to use the lawn as a play area for
tossing balls, or playing tug with the dogs, and I needed a really tough
thick grass, plus I wanted a lawn that would fill in the brown spots 
quickly that inevitably occur from dog urine.  Zoysia succeeds admirably. 
It is also exceedingly attractive to the eye and luxiuriantly soft to bare 
feet.

It is also supposed to be very drought tolerant and need infrequent mowing.
I water daily as I find that keeps the brown spots to a minimum, and as a 
result it definitely needs mowing on a weekly basis.  My Honda electric 
has a really tough time of it if I let it go a day or two longer.

I go on patrol of the lawn edges for stolons every couple of weeks when I 
trim the edges, so it won't spread into my ornamental garden areas.  My 
cultivar, El Toro, is sterile so I don't have to worry about this grass 
seeding itself into ornamental areas.  I was also told that it does not 
spread underground by way of rhizomes as Bermuda Grass does, which I 
appreciate, as again I don't want it invading ornamental garden areas.

The downside for me is that I have to watch carefully for stolons.  And
that it turns brown in winter.  This year it browned about the first week
in December and greened up in mid-February.  Not bad, but this was an
unusually warm winter so it is usually brown for a somewhat longer period. 
But it was essentially dormant for sometime before that as I stopped
mowing in October, and it's probably not really growing now, even though it
looks green.  Again, this is a mixed blessing - relief from lawn mowing, 
but not sturdy enough yet for playing with the dogs.  Next year I'm going 
to consider overseeding with rye.

I bought this grass as sod, and it had all the instant gratification 
associated with buying a new sod lawn.  It establishes slowly, so I 
definitely thought this was the best method, but it was expensive this 
way.  My source was a grower in Bakersfield, I think the name is Old 
River Sod Company.

Jan Mountjoy
Northern California - Zone 9

Name withheld by request ([email-masked]) wrote:

: Hello all! I have been reading this group just a little and have
: much catching up to do, but I want to hazard a post now. the 
: question is, just how good would Zoysia type grass be for my lawn?

: We are doing without chemistry and the yard we bought is a mish-
: mosh of grass types and weeds, with crabgrass and, I think, henbit
: and burdock.

: The ad I see for Amazoy probably hasn't changed in twenty years,
: except for getting rid of the photo of "professional garden man"
: in the cap. They must have a good (legit?) business, right?

: Well, we live in Denver, with basically sandy soil, and could really use
: some input, encouragement-or horror stories about this stuff.

: Answers may be posted here, or I will gladly take E-mail at:

: [email-masked].

: Don't let the address fool you, I AM Reed Loefgren, and thanks!

: s

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From: [email-masked] (Jim Huber)
Date: 5 Mar 1995 12:24:20 -0800

Jan Mountjoy

: s