I live in the High Desert of So. Cal, namely the Victorville area How can I keep my whole lawn green?

Question

When our house was built in 2003, the builder used sod to put in our lawn both front & back. I water every day at 8AM for 7 min. There are parts of the lawn that seem to be dying while other parts are doing just fine. Is there a certain brand of fertilizer that I can use to keep my whole yard green? I have neighbors whose lawn is always green. So I'd like my lawn to look as nice as theirs. I've noticed that my lawn appears to have two different kinds of grass. Is this possible with sod?

Answer 1

I noted in your other question that you have an automatic sprinkler system.

I grew up in the desert to the South of you, so I'm a bit familiar with what you're facing.

First off, the watering. You might consider changing your timer to water around 6am instead. This will give your grass time to dry before it gets too hot. Where I'm from, a wet lawn can sunburn and some sods are more prone to burning. Sunburn could be why you have dying patches. It will also give the water a chance to soak in instead of evaporating in the heat. Avoid watering after dark as it can promote fungus and disease.

As for fertilizer, I would avoid Ammonium Nitrate (in the summer) as it will burn your lawn a bit too easily. I would find one that has a good balance of Nitrogen, Phosphorus, and Potassium. Also known as NPK, they will be the numbers listed (in that order) on the front label.

Good luck with your lawn.

Answer 2

Well, that might be tough without using lots and lots of water, I'm familiar with Victorville and it tends to be dry...The sod that was laid for you might not be drought resistant, and if it's not, 7 minutes of water every morning won't be sufficient. What you really want to do, short of removing your lawn, is to deep water your lawn every 3-5 days. That means really soaking it for about 1/2 to 1 hour. This will help your lawn develop a deep root system, which will in turn help it to remain green. The watering you're doing right now isn't encouraging root growth, so your lawn is turning brown.
As far as the 2 different types of grass, it may have come that way, or you might have grass invading from another lawn, or growing through the sod that was laid. Many of the grasses used for landscape in CA are invasive, so that might be the problem. Hope this helps!

Answer 3

If you live in Victorville
and want a green lawn,
I would suggest you limit your lawn to a small area
and give it much, much longer watering times of 20 minutes minimum every-other-day. The deeper soaking will encourage the roots to grow deeper for what they need during the drier times. You will also find that an evening watering time will allow the water to soak-in before evaporating in the heat of the sun.

As far as the types of grass in your sod - whatever seed was planted at the sod farm is what will come up. A positive can be said for mixing kinds of seed, depending on conditions one type of grass will perform better than the other, and this allows the sod to be more versital according to where it is planted, or how it is cared for, with the goal being a successful lawn.