Ranch Landscaping Bitter Blue Grass

We're at it again! Landscaping our 1950s Florida ranch house. My sweet husband just finished laying sod in our backyard. This time we chose Bitter Blue Grass.

Let me back up a bit. Last summer we planted St Augustine Seville and it died. Got too hot and it grew some kind of funky fungus. Yuck. 

This spring we tried growing our own grass from Rye seed. Everyone told us it was gonna die and it grew in beautifully but it croaked after a month or so. Luckily it only cost us around 40 bucks for a bag of seed.

rye grass

Our backyard has been a royal pain in the butt because it is mainly shaded all day long due to these huge 60 year old oak trees. It is so hard to get any grass to grow back there. After the last batch of grass died I got really sad.

my seedlings oh no!

The landscaping gods must have heard my prayers because not only a day later, Orlando Utilities Commission came over and trimmed back the trees in the back yard. They said they were trimming back the trees in hurricane preparedness. They didn't want tree branches touching the power lines. This is true because almost every time we had a rainstorm or heavy winds, we would hear a big BOOM! Uh oh, another tree branch shorted out the transformer and the power would go out.

bye bye tree branches

The tree trimming allowed around 4 hours of good sunlight in the back yard. From around 4 pm till dark. Hooray! We could plant some more grass! My husband called around and spoke to several landscaping companies about what to plant. We decided on St Augustine Bitter Blue. It wasn't very expensive, around $150. It arrived very plush and healthy looking.

hooray the grass is here

 It is supposed to grow in mainly shaded areas. Brian just put it down and its looking good. I really hope it takes this time. Maybe tonight we will all dance around on it nekkid to appease the Gods of Grass. Grow Baby Grow!

before

 

 

Bitter Blue after