Wednesday, September 5, 2018

Groundcover Lecture Notes

  • Groundcovers and Lawns Origins
    • The hungry hunter gatherer
      • Lawns represent prey nearby
      • Groundcover may represent food plants
      • Flowers represent fertility and water
    • Lawns
      • Also represent cattle and horse ownership
      • A cattle and horse owner looks out and sees the grass cut by the grazing of their animals.
      • Pasturage and Golf have propelled the lawn industry
        • Golf was first developed in China around AD 400
      • Lawn ownership and maintenance could be a form of:
        • Exercise in Dominance of territory (master of all you see with a weapon in hand to defend it), and target sport (warrior culture).
        • Increase in sight lines for security
    • Lawn Pros
      • Highly attractive, prestigious
      • Cool down the areas they are planted in.
      • Unequalled for athletic play
      • Huge subconscious satisfaction.
    • Lawn Cons
      • Huge amount of water
      • Require regular maintenance
      • Gas powered mowers are highly polluting.
      • Most of Southern California is naturally averse to lawns
      • Increased humidity
    • Types of Lawns
      • Summer dormant
        • Fescue
          • High water use but not as much as other summer dormant
          • Clumping
          • Susceptible to ‘melting out’
          • Aerate or Dethatch every several years.
          • Creeping red -California native good for shade
        • Bluegrass
          • High water use
          • Fine texture
          • Shallow roots -can dry out inland readily.
          • Disease susceptible
        • Bentgrass
          • Very high maintenance -putting green
          • Requires lots of water.
        • UC Verde Buffalo Grass
          • Winter and Summer dormant
          • Slow growing
          • Only really does well in the inland valleys.
          • Grows too slow on the coast.
        • Rye
          • Excellent regenerative properties.
          • Great for heavy use, athletic fields
          • Requires regular watering
      • Winter dormant
        • Bermuda
          • Low growing varieties make good putting greens
          • Fine textured
          • Go dormant in the winter: turf colorant best used as overseeding can be patchy
          • Best with regular dethatching
            • Dethatch in June here
          • Uses ½ the water that Fescue does.
        • St. Augustine
          • Luxuriant, old fashioned look
          • Less watering than fescue, more than bermuda
          • Needs dethatching once every 2-5 years
            • Dethatch in June, not Fall. Overseeding with rye not the best idea, instead consider turf colorant when it goes dormant.
            • You can prevent dormancy by applying high nitrogen in the late fall before it goes dormant, however you have to water more frequently.
        • Zoysia
          • Marketed as miracle grass on the back of newspaper Sunday circulars.
          • Long dormancy period makes it problematic for this area.
        • Paspalum
          • Great for salty conditions near the seashore; also for Palm Springs lawns.
          • Cool season dormancy almost as long as Zoysia, slow growing.
        • Kikuyu
          • The ‘Surrender’ lawn
          • Does not wear as well as bermuda, but can look just like it.
      • Lawn like groundcovers
        • Dichondra
          • Impossible to keep nowadays as the herbicide that allowed it to exist without hours of weekly weeding is off the market.
          • Still a great shade groundcover, as is its native cousin, Dichondra californica.
          • Related to yams and morning glories.
          • A sterile, low growing cultivar of  once popular water-saving California native ground cover Lippia nodiflora: Kurrapia can be grown and even mowed as a relatively low growing lawn AND purchased in easy to install rolls like sod.
        • Dymondia marguerite
          • Tough grey-green low growing groundcover for full sun.
          • Initial prep and establishment are important: dig amendment in to 8-12 inches deep.so the plant can develop deep roots.
          • After about 1-2 years of establishment you can cut the watering down gradually to once every two weeks.
          • Will take some traffic after established -however limit events and parties to once or twice a year -do not play football or ball sports on your Dymondia lawn.    
      • Specialty Mixes
        • Eco lawn
        • Patch Mixes
        • Shade mixes
      • Native grasses
        • Bouteloua
        • Festuca californica
        • Carex (praegracilis and tumulicola
    • Groundcovers
      • Perception that bare ground is infertile, sterile.
      • Fear of erosion
      • The concept of ground cover is relatively recent and may have been fueled by the Dust Bowls of the 1930’s.
  • Modern reasons for ground covers
    • Aesthetics, ground-cover provides a green area of continuity between larger landscape elements and plants.
    • Erosion control
      • Can prevent hillsides from sliding down if root structure is sufficient.
      • Must balance erosion control and fire prevention.
      • Some plants might actually increase breakdown of bedrock.
      • Always consult a soils geologist if there is a question of hillside failure
    • Security
      • Perceptively maintained and/or planted areas of landscape make people feel more secure.
      • Sightlines created by low groundcovers increase security.
  • Groundcover drawbacks
    • Water need is more than just bare ground.
    • Increased humidity.
    • Vermin and pests
      • Rats and Ivy
      • Midges and Red Apple
    • Discourage ground nesting bees.
    • Many require maintenance
      • Trimming
      • Cutting back
      • Fertilization
      • Thinning
    • Some can cause hillsides to come down.
      • Iceplant
      • Sedum
    • Selected Groundcovers
      • Iceplants
        • Aptenia (Red and Pink Apple)
        • Drosanthemum floribundum
        • Delosperma
        • Lampranthus
      • Sedum etc.
        • Sedum species
      • Asphodelaceae
        • Aloe ‘Red Riding Hood’
        • Creeping Aloes
      • Asteraceae
        • Gazania
        • Osteospermum
        • Dymondia
        • Achillea
      • Rosaceae
        • ‘Pink Carpet’ Roses
        • Other low growing roses
      • Lamiaceae
        • Rosemary
        • Salvia
        • Ajuga
        • Lippia
          • Kurapia (see above)
        • Thyme
        • Sage
      • Rhamnaceae
        • Cotoneaster
        • Ceanothus
      • Berberidaceae
        • Nandina
          • N. purpurea, N domestica dwarf (shade and sun)
        • Berberis repens (shade)
        • Ophiopogon japonicus nanus

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