Lawn Madness!

The Plan and the Trial Plot

We all know the “rules” for a purty lawn: Fertilize, add organic matter, mow regularly, aerate, and kill weeds and lawn insects by any means necessary. For some of us, add de-thatch.

Mea cupla. For several years, including a couple of hard winters following extra dry summers, I did none of those things.

Now, my once beautiful lawn growing in Yazoo clay (for the unfamiliar, think concrete), is a patchwork of Bermuda, Zoysia, St Augustine, weeds, and bare spots.

Lot of work ahead, right? Rent an aerator and walk around behind it for a couple of hours to make 2-3 inch deep holes. Bring in huge amounts of suitable material to fill the holes you just made and spend even more hours raking it into them. And the expense, both in dollars and time; too much.

So I got to thinking, “Is there a way to get the holes and add organics at the same time?” Plants! The only plants I know that are deep rooted and annual are carrots and radish. Carrots have teeny tiny seed, too hard to deal with, so I went on the hunt to see how deep radish roots go.

Turns out, I’m not the first one. Check the radish in this video.

It’s the biggest radish I’ve ever seen. You might use it in rotation to help garden soil but that’s too big for the yard. Time to contact some radish experts.

Gourmet Seed International, LLC suggested Icicle and Long Scarlet when asked about long rooted ones with greens no larger than common lawn weeds. Both are prime for eating when 6 inches long. That means they’ll get even longer when left alone.

Twice the depth of the machine with the organic matter already added. Perfect!

Perfect plans sometimes fail so there is a test plot in progress as I write this.

The Test Plot

Day 1. Early morning (before 10.) Scratch up ground with garden rake, broadcast seed, scruff it up again to help ensure good soil contact. Water. Water again in late afternoon.

Day 3. Watering 15 min. morning and evening to keep soil moist in 100 degree heat and less than 30% humidity. Despite radish being cool season plants, I see signs of germination.

Day 6. It's July 6, way too warm and it hasn't rained once. Germination has been excellent. Reducing watering to "as needed" which will probably be every 3-4 days if rains don't come. Harvest time is 25-28 days. Next update will be the end of July if nothing interesting happens.

Day 32. They're a great size for lawn weeds. Not too big, not so small they'll get lost. No radishes tho. Not unexpected since temps have been 10, 15, or even more degrees hotter than ideal. Will plant the front lawn in them 6 to 8 weeks before the first frost date.

May or may not do a contiuation on that.