Sometimes I hate my back yard

[iwannadie]

I have a nice size backyard for my neighborhood(tiny compared to other parts of the country for sure). I typically bag my lawn clippings and can fill a 45 gallon bag doing my front and back yard so it's not that big of a yard.

At the end of the last season I shut off the water and mowed a few times very short until the grass went dormant and turned brown and I assumed stop growing.

Well, I swear it keeps growing under the brown layer or something. I have yet to turn the water on and started mowing to get some of the new patches of grass cut down. I kept mowing and it's as if I was vacuuming the yard, just endless brown grass that's almost dust. I filled 7 45 gallon bags... 7! I kept my mower at the same height setting and just kept going around and around and filling my mower bag each time. I swear I don't know where it all comes from. Mowing dusty dead grass is the worst as the cloud of dust just billows from my mower too.

Maybe I should continue to mow longer at the end of my season? I try to cut it as short as I can at the end of the season without damaging the sprinkler heads I can only go so low and mow until it turns brown. It never seems to grow any taller after I stop mowing either.

Or, is a layer of grass growing below the normal grass level and I need to de-thatch during the mowing season to keep it from building up? When I was mowing today it was like a carpet layer of dead grass. As I mowed/vacuumed I could see the ground through the grass again.

Oh, during the season my grass is awesome, green and thick with no problems at all.

/mystery grass.

 

[tbburg]

Put a layer of 2-mil black plastic down, then 2" of crushed granite/volcanic rock. End of problem.

 

[iwannadie]

Put a layer of 2-mil black plastic down, then 2" of crushed granite/volcanic rock. End of problem.

A large part of my back and some of the front yard is rock and I hate rock. The weeds push through the plastic eventually and looks horrible. Pulling weeds sucks when the roots are long under rock, dirt and plastic.

 

[Lowrange2]

I hhave a 3 acre front yard and a 2 acre back yard. I've never bagged anything. I have dead spots, green spots, oily spots, spots where my dogs sh!t, spots where pecans fall, spots where water stands, places that get muddy, parking spots, and many other fun things. I even have spots that are still singed and scared for life from my 55 gallon burn barrel that used to be there.

Now, with all that I have lots of obstacles to cut grass around. Lots of trees, hills, ditches, buildings. It takes about 7 hours to cut my grass! I hate MY back yard!

 

[GrimmJeeper]

roomba + pneumatic tires + cutting blades = end of problem.

 

[mcantar18c]

I hhave a 3 acre front yard and a 2 acre back yard.

5 acres? Yall are complaining about 5 freakin acres?! All you're doin is mowing too, nothing even too tough!

 

[xjtrailrider]

What kind of grass do you have? It sounds like Bermuda Grass. You may have to just kill it off, scrape it up and start over. I have a mixture of Kentucky Bluegrass and Tall Fescue and it is soft to walk on but grows even in the shade of all the White Oaks in the back yard.

I hardly ever bag except in the fall when there are at least a ton of leaves down on the yard.

 

[iwannadie]

I honestly don't know what type of grass, it's pretty thick and dark in color and was here when I moved in.

If I don't bag the clippings just dry out and turn into big brown clumps, I tried it one season and loved how easy it was not bagging. The Arizona sun makes short work of clippings, they don't seem to break down and turn into fertilizer for the grass. From what I've seen around the neighborhood everyone bags the clippings.

 

[WB9YZU]

Needs a mower deck

 

[chpmnsws6]

Needs a mower deck

I've often thought of a way to add a PTO off the back and a 10 foot deck for mowing the pasture.