Weeding the new backyard sod

After getting a little frustrated by the influx of weeds that resulted largely from extensive damage done to our grass during the basement renovation of 2013, I turned over and re-sodded the backyard with Zoysia again just about a year ago in May 2017.

I used fresh Meyer Zoysia from Summit Hall Turf Farm out in Poolesville, MD once again, except this time I went out to pick it up myself with a special helper.

By the way, there are few places more beautiful and serene in the DC area than the Summit Hall farm just north of the Potomac River on a quiet Saturday. Immense wide open spaces of green as far as you can see during harvest season in the spring. With the river just on the other side of the stand of trees to the south.

The sod went in like a champ though I had a heck of a time finding a turf roller to rent. Someone had taken the only one for rent at the DC Home Depot for the better part of a month and I ended up driving out to MD to find one to rent.

The grass did great last year and got thoroughly established.

As the weeds predictably started to pop up in this second year, I found a *good* concentrated weed killer that I used as the Zoysia started to come back from dormancy. It’s concentrated stuff — just a few tablespoons per gallon or two of water to spread across the entire yard.

Whatever it was, though, wasn’t enough, because the weeds just continued springing forth, though no clover or milkweed, so maybe it did work in part. I got loads of something else I didn’t quite recognize. By the time I realized that the weed killer didn’t do a thing, I was knee deep in a busy work schedule and then we had a nonstop week of rain. After all that, the  weeds were bonkers and the Zoysia was also starting to finally emerge, so my options were more limited.

Which meant lots of weeding by hand.

But it’s amazing how much progress you can make on weeding when your mom helps out for an hour…

…oh and when your yard is only 100-something square feet in size. Check out the Saturday to Sunday gif.

Time to get the rest of the garden planted and rebuild the blueberry tree cage!