Boulevard battle

Kentucky bluegrass, Fescue, Rye and Bent, etc
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Austve11
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Joined: July 3rd, 2020, 2:53 am
Location: Minnesota
Grass Type: Northern/fescue/kbg mix
Lawn Size: 1000-3000
Level: Some Experience

Boulevard battle

Post by Austve11 » July 23rd, 2020, 12:20 pm

Just wondering if anyone has luck with keeping their hellstrip green all year long. In my front yard (44%roman tall fescue, 44%barbarian tall fescue, 10%midnight kenticky blue) everything looks pretty nice, that is,where guests neigbor kids and the mailman dont walk on. I have a triple whammy going on with a shady,sandy soil, high traffic boulevard and every year it looks amazing in the spring and fall when i overseed it but in summer it thins out in the shady areas and 50% of it completely dies everywhere anyone walks on it in the shade and in the sun. Does anybody have any suggestions PLEASE! Ive done a lot of reading and experimenting and all i do is read and talk about my grass and my gf hates it. Please help me, i need to solve this problem and i need to get rid of the dead spot that leads to my neigbors front door every year. Im using the northern mix from outside pride which stays very dark green where it is healthy, and im afraid to just mix in any old grass like the old man and everyone else says to do who all say grass is grass which to me is extremely laughable.

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ken-n-nancy
Posts: 2571
Joined: July 17th, 2014, 3:58 pm
Location: Bedford, NH
Grass Type: Front: KBG (Bewitched+Prosperity); Side: Bewitched KBG; Back: Fine Fescue Blend + Prosperity
Lawn Size: 10000-20000
Level: Experienced

Re: Boulevard battle

Post by ken-n-nancy » July 23rd, 2020, 1:41 pm

My impression, from seeing this question posed by many others, seeing the results of their investigations, and experienced it myself when helping out relatives, is that the biggest problem on that section of grass between the sidewalk and the street (regionally known as a boulevard or hell strip or frontage or greenway or parking strip or berm or curb strip or tree lawn, or verge, or...) is that the soil is poor and shallow.

Almost universally, that section of "soil" is no more than 2-3 inches deep before turning into sand or gravel or road construction debris or subsoil. I don't recall who, but somebody here did some digging in their "hell strip" and found that it was mostly gravel. Everybody else that I've seen post their findings here or elsewhere has found the same. There was at least on person here who excavated the entire thing to a depth of 12" (before doing this you should call "DIG SAFE" or whatever the equivalent is in your local area, so that they can mark any underground utilities, and even then be VERY careful when digging in that area -- although 12" should generally be safe, you really need to check) and replaced it with garden-quality soil. The next year, it was the best looking part of their entire lawn and they kept it looking great right through the summer.

If you're having trouble in the boulevard, I'd wager it almost surely has bad soil. Replace the soil with a sufficient depth of garden-quality soil, and you'll have a fighting chance to grow good grass there, potentially excepting the last couple inches up to the pavement where the summer sun on the pavement raises the soil temperatures to 100F+ on a daily basis in July.

Sowing new seed in the boulevard (of any type, well, maybe excepting crab grass for July and August) without first fixing the soil is going to give the same result you've already experienced. If you put in 12" of garden-quality soil, you'll have a very different outcome.

northeastlawn
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Re: Boulevard battle

Post by northeastlawn » July 23rd, 2020, 4:59 pm

That’s really something I never considered. Recently I started using the screw driver test on the hell strips and it wasn’t oreatty. It really explained why many of my heat stressed areas are always the first to go, they had terribly compacted soil.

I have been trying to put down BLSC and kelp help whenever we get a big rain, and it seems to have helped.

I also have used my pitch fork in the spring to spike the hell strips, my theory being that spring rain will get deeper into the soil. I do it again in the fall to see if the rain will get deeper down and many cause some frost heaving. It probably doesn’t work like that, but anything to break up the compacted areas over time is better than nothing.

bpgreen
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Joined: January 3rd, 2009, 2:28 am
Location: Utah (Wasatch Front)
Grass Type: Western, Streambank, Crested wheatgrass in front (with blue grama added in the heckstrips), sheep fescue in back; strawberry clovetr in both
Lawn Size: 3000-5000
Level: Experienced

Re: Boulevard battle

Post by bpgreen » July 24th, 2020, 12:36 am

I'm in Utah, so there's almost no precipitation during the growing season. The hellstrips are often neglected by sprinkler systems.

I've been planting blue grama, but that won't work for you.

One neighbor tore out the head and put down decorative white rocks.

There are varieties of juniper that are low growing and require very little water.

Paul
Posts: 366
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Re: Boulevard battle

Post by Paul » July 24th, 2020, 10:57 am

I really think it comes down to three things:
1) Good soil at least 6 inches deep
2) Good irrigation
3) Good Cultivar

I have 100% Bewitched and my strip no matter how hot, and how dry, always looks good. Sure a few dogs have killed some spots from peeing on it but it comes back. I have some areas that are in the shade and some areas that get allot of sun. The entire strip always looks good. I water it every five days with 1 inch of water. I did an irrigation audit last week and was surprised that running the zone for 45 minutes, I had 1.25 inches in the gauge. I backed the time off to 30 minutes.
Image

Image


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ken-n-nancy
Posts: 2571
Joined: July 17th, 2014, 3:58 pm
Location: Bedford, NH
Grass Type: Front: KBG (Bewitched+Prosperity); Side: Bewitched KBG; Back: Fine Fescue Blend + Prosperity
Lawn Size: 10000-20000
Level: Experienced

Re: Boulevard battle

Post by ken-n-nancy » July 24th, 2020, 12:20 pm

Paul wrote:
July 24th, 2020, 10:57 am
I really think it comes down to three things:
1) Good soil at least 6 inches deep
2) Good irrigation
3) Good Cultivar

I have 100% Bewitched and my strip no matter how hot, and how dry, always looks good.
Image
That looks awesome! Thanks for letting us know how you do it!

(I'm fortunate to get away without having a "boulevard" -- there aren't any sidewalks on our street, the pavement and shoulder just transition directly into the lawn -- although that poses its own set of challenges, particularly since there is no curb to constrain snowplows from plowing up the turf in the first snowfalls of the season before the ground is frozen!)

Austve11
Posts: 4
Joined: July 3rd, 2020, 2:53 am
Location: Minnesota
Grass Type: Northern/fescue/kbg mix
Lawn Size: 1000-3000
Level: Some Experience

Re: Boulevard battle

Post by Austve11 » July 25th, 2020, 1:33 pm

Well I did just get internet reinstalled at my house recently and they gave me a discount for putting a sign in my front yard, i asked if i could have like 15 of them to keep everyone from walking on it but they didnt want to give me that many lol

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