[Mike Benham]

Does your front lawn have a tinge of brown?  

Is the soil a bit firm?

Do you have parts of your turf area that is native, unmowed edges?

Do you have a waterfall in your landscape?

Are the trees on your property used for safety, visual separation or framing your home?

[TEPaul]

"Do you practice what you preach ..."

Of course not. I mean, come on, how predictable and boring would that be?

Matter of fact, even if I hate most everything about Islam, I think I'm beginning to admire one facet of it.

Apparently there is no concept over there in Arabia that we know of and call hypocrisy.

Think about that for a second. They don't even have a concept like that apparently so how can we hate them for being hypocrites.

We can't, of course. Matter of fact it may be a pretty neat thing to try and adopt. Just think if it'd be AOK to do anything as long as you pulled it off without anyone knowing about it and as long as you said the opposite.

Do I practice what I preach?

Well, heretofore, I'm not saying. How do you say that in Arabic?

[Kyle Harris]

Mike,

Front lawns and landscapes are aesthetic in purpose and nature. They're supposed to be green.

Golf courses are playfields and the first priority is for those fields to setup such that the values and challenges of the game are maintained in conditioning.

Different means to different ends as I see it.

I find your analogy akin to comparing a term paper to a Monet.

[Tony_Muldoon]

Mike I hope you aren't casting aspersions on Tommy Williamson? What have you heard?

[RJ_Daley]

I know a number of supers who don't practice the green and lush turf maintenance at home.  Hardly any of them have time to do their own yards.

With regards to allowing the lawn to get brown and baked, we don't have too much choice in our area.  We have some of the highest water rates in Wisconsin, so let it get burned out.  It has been a good spring with plenty of rain, so right now it is nice and green.  But, the only thing I spend any extra time on are my tomatoes and basil.  

[SL_Solow]

My wife has been upset with me for years because I will not water the lawn as often as our neighbors insisting on infrequent deep watering.  I have underground automatic sprinklers so there is no reason other than practicing what we preach.

[Tommy Williamsen]

Does your front lawn have a tinge of brown?  

Is the soil a bit firm?

Do you have parts of your turf area that is native, unmowed edges?

Do you have a waterfall in your landscape

Mike I hope you aren't casting aspersions on Tommy Williamson? What have you heard?

?  

If you have driven past my house you should have stopped in.  Actually, I do have a waterfall in the backyard, my front lawn is a wreck becaause I just had three trees removed.  Maybe the community association has put me on a hit list.

[Adam Clayman]

Does your front lawn have a tinge of brown?  YES

Is the soil a bit firm?YES

Do you have parts of your turf area that is native, unmowed edges?YES

Do you have a waterfall in your landscape?NO

Are the trees on your property used for safety, visual separation or framing your home? WIND PROTECTION

[Jeff_Brauer]

When I had a house and lawn to maintain, I only put the automatic controllers on when I knew I would be out for extended periods in summer.  Otherwise, I watered by the old fashioned method - if the grass crunched under my feet and didn't spring back when I went out to get the paper, I watered deeply that night.

I watered about once a week until July, and then usually twice a week, and never more than 3 times per week in August.  The lawn never went brown, but it was just as green as everyone else's with about a third the water.

It was mostly St. Augustine, with patches of bermuda, which never bothered me as to it imperfect mix. ST Augustine is never firm and fast no matter how dry you keep it.

[RJ_Daley]

I wonder if Tommy has ever been to Ted Robinson's home spread?  I'll bet HE has pretty waterfalls!  

[John Kirk]

I also let the lawn go a touch brown in the summer.

[Jeff_Brauer]

I wonder if Tommy has ever been to Ted Robinson's home spread?  I'll bet HE has pretty waterfalls!  

Years ago, Ted had a in Malibu, and a townhome on one of his courses in Palm Springs.  Neither had a lawn.....or a water fall, but the Malibu place had one hell of a water feature nearby!

[Kalen Braley]

I currently water only 3 times per week and have been trying to switch over to the deep watering techinque.  Last summer I did the water for 15 minutes every day and that was no good.

I do try to keep a nice green lawn, and I have 5 trees on my property because I do like them for the shade and the aestethics.

That being said, I will agree that maintaining a golf course and a small amount of front yard are two different animals.

[Kirk Gill]

"I don't practice what I preach, because I'm not the kind of people I'm preaching to."
                                 -Anon.

[Bill Shamleffer]

Yes!  I NEVER water my lawn.  I allow the grass to get the water it needs from natural rain fall, and I cut not for perfection but when needed.  I do not allow the grass to become overgrown.  I accept that during drought the grass will not do well, but that grass will recover.  I do NOT put any chemicals on my lawn, either to kill weeds or as fertilizer.  I live by the notion that a weed is only an "unwanted grass".  My trees and other growth are kept to the perimeters (back, sides, front between sidewalk and street, and right infront of my house).  They plantings I do have in the outer perimeter are not uncommon for the Northeast.

Trees DO of course have a purpose around a home.  They shade the home, thus keeping the home cooler and reducing my energy costs.

[Dan Kelly]

The only sprinklering our lawn has received, in the 18 years we've lived there, has been for the purpose of entertaining girls in swimsuits.

I am a fertilizer minimalist, too.

For a man who would rather be playing golf (or virtually anything else) than cultivating a lawn, it's the Ideal Maintenance Meld.

P.S., as for trees: The buckthorn are my sworn enemy. I will be attacking them till the day I die. Every other tree is my friend.

[Matthew Hunt]

I'm probably to only person to have double cut the lawn to putt on!

Sad I know.

[Evan Fleisher]

We just removed a bunch of trees and related underbrush from our backyard 'scape...we've lost some of our privacy, but the look will be cleaner and the grass will grow better.  

[Don_Mahaffey]

Down here in South Texas I've appointed my 14-year-old son Ryan as the Supt of our 3 acre spread. But I do retain title of head consulting supt.
Thus, if its screwed up or undone, its his fault and my responsibility to point out his shortcomings.

[James Bennett]

Sometimes I have a waterfall.   It normally means that it has rained, the gutters are overflowing and that I need to clean the downpipe outlets.  Very pretty though.

We did some tree removal at home near the lawn over the last year, and the improvement in the turf, despite severe watering restrictions (once a week, in a 3 hour window, in the dark! for the whole property) was significant.  I hate to think what level of house cracking we would have had during the summer drought if the trees had still been there, next to the house.

Of course, the impact of low levels of watering could be seen - much turf looked worse, and a number of local lawn mowing companies probably went broke (grass doesn't grow when it doesn't get water), and a number of households have 'discovered' what infrequent watering really means (less lawn mowing for dad!) so future years will be interesting.

James B

PS  Don Mehaffey - are you the 'Course Chairman' at home?  If so, I expect you also report to Madame President.

[Don_Mahaffey]

James,
I gladly serve a benevolent dictator.  

[Doug Siebert]

Dan,

Sounds like you have the same 'minimalist' maintenance policy for your lawn that I do!  The house I live in was built almost 60 years ago, so I figure the grass should be pretty well established and drought tolerant by now.  It has gone very brown during prolonged droughts but it always recovers.

The main hassle I have is two gigantic 150 year old oaks that shade most of the lawn (but also the house, so I rarely need AC!) which make grass tough to grow in some spots.  So long as there is a bit of moisture, moss and violets grow in those bare areas, which is fine with me, adds a bit of variety and color to the lawn!

However an ex girlfriend of mine insisted the moss and violets I had in those bare areas were weeds I should eradicate and talked me into getting a lawn service to try to get grass to grow in.  So they sprayed weed killer which killed everything but the grass but couldn't get grass to grow in those areas so matter what, so they were just bare ground.  So I dumped the girlfriend, cancelled the lawn service, and this spring the moss and violets have returned

I building a new house, and once the sod is well established I'm planning on giving it only enough water to survive, and let all the less drought tolerant blades die and be replaced by hardier blades in Darwinian fashion.  Not because I am trying to make my lawn F&F, but because I don't want to be bothered to water the damn thing everytime it hasn't rained for a week like everyone else in the new neighborhood appears to do.  Plus it may serve as a hint to the super of the course it overlooks!

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