Yard care in SoCal
 

My front yard sucks. I know I need to water it more, but the water restrictions here make that a pain. I keep forgetting.

Aside from that, what can I do to help make the lawn better? Seed, fertilizer,???? What should I use and when?

Disclaimer: I do not employ a gardener, and will not. I have many reasons for this, but mostly I am a CSOB.

Most of the lawns on my street are not nearly as green as years before. I think we all accept that and don't look at it as a sloppy maintenance issue.

If you allow bermuda and crabgrass to take over and mow low, you won't have to use much water. When you do, water fairly deep. Those soil aerator machines help get the water down in.

Go for a Palm Springs (desert) theme.

He may have some restrictions on how his yard is planted. Stupid, I know, but some HOA's might not like what's going on around here in LB. That would be a lot of decomposed granite and cacti or succulents or both. Some of the houses look like Scottsdale and Phoenix. Doesn't bother me.

I need to keep the grass.

I just want to make it better and I am looking for tips.

Plant St. Augustine grass, the stuff is really tough, but it spreads by sending out runners, it will take over planters that are not separated by a physical barrier like a stone wall. Doesn't need much water.

Yes it does need water. Lots of water. It also doesn't grow very well below about 80 F. Unless it is some sort of different St. Augustine than we have here.

Call the highway department and ask them what kind of hybrid grass that is that they plant everywhere along the interstates. Around here, it's some kind of super resilient, drought resistant, needs-no-fertilizer centipede.

Funny story; a few years ago, I noticed there was a big wash of sand on the pavement along one side of an on-ramp not far from us. I drove over there one Saturday morning with my trailer and a flat-bladed shovel and in 15 minutes or so, I had a few yards of sand to spread in areas of my yard that needed some help in providing a foothold for my centipede to spread.

What I didn't realize is that sand had a lot of seed in it.

That stuff took hold and in recent years when it's been dry and we haven't been able to afford to water enough to keep parts of our lawn from dying and going to weed, the areas where I put that sand is covered with that "super grass" and it continues to spread slowly and is always the first to get thick in the spring. I wish I had it on the entire yard.

Did I say super grass? That used to mean something else.

BTW, I don't have any of it in shady areas, so I don't know how well it would do there. I've been thinking of calling the highway department to see what it is and how expensive it is.

One slight disadvantage: in times when there's a decent amount of rain, it gets high faster... I've been known to go mow it and come back to the rest of the yard a week later.

Did I say get high faster? I need to quit before this gets worse.

Xeriscape it

if you can get more info into it, please post.

No helpful advice on what varietal of drought resistant grass to grow in your front yard, but double check with local regs per milt's advice. A couple years ago there was an article in the Times about a guy in Glendale who did the desert landscape theme. If you're into the look, he did a very nice job with it. His main goal was water savings.

Apparently there's a Glendale city ordinance that specifies 40% of your property must be "green." Cactus and succulents don't qualify as green. Neither do dirt and rocks. So he started getting tickets for his yard, as it didn't fit the categorization of "green." His choice was to either convert his yard back to grass, or start paying some very hefty fines.

I think the guy that turned him in didn't even live in the same neighborhood (i.e. was just driving by and noticed the infraction).

I bet the City has tons of helpful brochures on ways to use plants that require less water -- they want you to use less water, right?

Our city water dept, which serves only LB, has the worst example of a drought tolerant landscape you can imagine. W/o any imagination, people must visit the example and leave thinking maybe not.

And this pic is way too flattering:

http://www.lbwater.org/images/conser.../pic2small.jpg

St. Augustine definitely takes a lot of water. It is used in a lot of areas where it really shouldn't be because it is very shade tolerant (and makes a nice lawn if you have the water).

Varieties of Bermuda are probably the most drought tolerant and spread very fast.
However, Bermuda does best in full sun and has little tolerance for shade. Bermuda goes dormant during times of drought. St. Augustine just dies if you can't keep it watered.

What can be nice about St. A is that it is so dense that water stays in the soil. So it does and then doesn't need a ton of water, depending on the soil. Clay, for instance, will stay wet for a good week even in hot weather (not desert hot) with SA on top. I'd love to have it, but it takes a long time to start and you only start it from stolons.

Very true. If you ever get a really lush lawn of St. Augustine (particularly in good soil and in good shade) it doesn't take a lot of h2o to keep it. Poor soil in full sun is a different matter.
The sod dealers are doing a booming business around here after our severe drought last year. 450 ft2 pallets of St. Augustine sod are $100-150 depending on the variety + delivery charges.