"The grass is always greener on Jackson Madnick’s lawn in Wayland,
Mass.: green in a drought and green when it emerges from under the
snow. Yet, he barely waters and mows it, and he never uses chemical
pesticides or fertilizers."

Read mo
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2012/09/08/inventor-cultivates-no-mow-easy-grow-grass/?intcmp=features#ixzz25vCWnmIB

Oren wrote:
"The grass is always greener on Jackson Madnick's lawn in Wayland,
Mass.: green in a drought and green when it emerges from under the
snow. Yet, he barely waters and mows it, and he never uses chemical
pesticides or fertilizers."

Read mo
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2012/...#ixzz25vCWnmIB

Before you start salivating, check the prices.

On 9/9/2012 6:47 AM, HeyBub wrote:
Oren wrote:
"The grass is always greener on Jackson Madnick's lawn in Wayland,
Mass.: green in a drought and green when it emerges from under the
snow. Yet, he barely waters and mows it, and he never uses chemical
pesticides or fertilizers."

Read mo
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2012/...#ixzz25vCWnmIB

Before you start salivating, check the prices.

Hmmm. It's a mixture of taller-growing varieties, so you have to mow
it to a minimum height of 3 inches. Doesn't surprise me, since tall
fescue is in the mix. For those who aren't familiar with what tall
fescue looks like, an awful lot of people confuse it with quackgrass:
fast-growing, long stem, coarser blade than bluegrasses. That longer
stem is one major reason why you have to mow it higher. Folks who like
a shorter, tidier-looking lawn won't care for that.

Recommended seeding rate is nearly 3 times that for most grass seed
mixtures (8 lbs/1000 sq. ft. versus 3 lbs./1000 sq. ft.).
Understandable, since it is mostly a variety of fescues, and fescues
don't multiply and spread the way bluegrasses do. Fescues tend to
clump, so you have to seed more thickly for good coverage.

Overseeding an existing lawn with this is asking for trouble, not to
mention a hell of a lot of work. It claims it will (eventually)
outcompete existing grasses and weeds, but to be on the safe side they
want you to undertake a significant amount of prep work. Even so,
grassy weeds/undesirable grasses are notoriously persistent.

Whether you overseed an existing lawn or start a new lawn, it calls
for another round of lawn prep and overseeding the following season. I
wouldn't be surprised if these lawns need periodic overseeding, as
fescues simply don't spread the way bluegrasses do (which is why you
tend to see patches or tufts in grass in shady spots, where
bluegrasses don't thrive).

Conclusion: this is a possibility for the highly-motivated and/or the
owners of small lawns.

Me, I'll stick with my traditional American mongrel lawn: blues,
fescues, clover, and bentgrass. As long as it's green, I'm satisfied.

On Sep 10, 1:26*pm, Hell Toupee

I'd go one further. This sounds like one of those news
stories that gets blown out of proportion and has little
substantiation. Like the claim that he barely mows it.
As you point out, it has tall fescue in it. There are all
kinds of tall fescue, but I have yet to see one where it
doesn't need to be mowed about once a week. The
tall fescues tend to be among the faster growing,
tougher grasses, which is why they are used for
applications like parks and athletic fields.

Also, I'm wondering how John Q Public gets thousands
of grasses to experiment with. Most of the seed out
there that you can buy in a 7lb bag is a blend. And when
you can buy a specific seed variety, it's frequently hard
to find a supplier and then comes in commercial quantities,
ie at least a 50lb bag, wholesale only, etc. It's kind of
hard to imagine that JQP could stumble on some great
new blend of seed when you have researchers the world
over working on exactly that for decades. Not impossible,
but you have to wonder.

When his new miracle grass has been put through
a real evaluation, ie NTEP, where they grow it under
test conditions at multiple sites, then evaluate it under
the same criteria as all the other turf grasses, then
I'll be a believer.

On Sep 10, 1:57*pm, "
wrote:
On Sep 10, 1:26*pm, Hell Toupee

I'd go one further. *This sounds like one of those news
stories that gets blown out of proportion and has little
substantiation. * Like the claim that he barely mows it.
As you point out, it has tall fescue in it. *There are all
kinds of tall fescue, but I have yet to see one where it
doesn't need to be mowed about once a week. *The
tall fescues tend to be among the faster growing,
tougher grasses, which is why they are used for
applications like parks and athletic fields.

Also, I'm wondering how John Q Public gets thousands
of grasses to experiment with. * Most of the seed out
there that you can buy in a 7lb bag is a blend. *And when
you can buy a specific seed variety, it's frequently hard
to find a supplier and then comes in commercial quantities,
ie at least a 50lb bag, wholesale only, etc. *It's kind of
hard to imagine that JQP could stumble on some great
new blend of seed when you have researchers the world
over working on exactly that for decades. *Not impossible,
but you have to wonder.

When his new miracle grass has been put through
a real evaluation, ie NTEP, where they grow it under
test conditions at multiple sites, then evaluate it under
the same criteria as all *the other turf grasses, then
I'll be a believer.

The article contains these 2 lines, the first spoken by a professional
and the second by a consumer:

1 - "And if you don’t mow it, it flips over and becomes a meadow."
2 - "I mow it once a month, and my daughter never mows it because
they’re too busy.”

So what does the daughter's lawn look like, assuming it has "filpped
over and become a meadow?"

Yes, I can use Google images to see various meadows, but what does
"flips over and becomes a meadow" mean in this case, and would someone
want one as a "lawn"?

On 9/10/2012 12:57 PM, wrote:
....

Also, I'm wondering how John Q Public gets thousands
of grasses to experiment with. Most of the seed out
there that you can buy in a 7lb bag is a blend. And when
you can buy a specific seed variety, it's frequently hard
to find a supplier and then comes in commercial quantities,
ie at least a 50lb bag, wholesale only, etc. It's kind of
hard to imagine that JQP could stumble on some great
new blend of seed when you have researchers the world
over working on exactly that for decades. Not impossible,
but you have to wonder.
....

One presumes this guy was/is a fanatic wrt to this quest. Given that,
it's not at all unlikely he reads the sod/turf professional mag's, etc.,
and it's certainly not difficult to find the listings of the various
seed producers and their various varieties and there's a "veritable
plethora" of stuff available from the various universities w/ turf grass
programs and the annual evaluation summaries published, an so forth for
hints of what are potential cultivars to try...

I'd guess he did precisely that--order directly from the seed
producers--there's nothing in these that is at all exotic--the newest
cultivar I noticed was one release for commercial use in the early
2000's--the FC-11 fescue.

In an area such as he is, "drought" and lower moisture tolerance is
certainly a relative thing as compared to the mid- or west coast and
certainly the temperature is much more temperate than out here--you'd
have to water the dickens out of any/all of those to get them to survive
here.

The ideal low-maintenance grasses here would include buffalo, blue- and
sideoats grama, etc., etc., ...

--

On Sep 10, 4:04*pm, dpb wrote:
On 9/10/2012 12:57 PM, wrote:
...

Also, I'm wondering how John Q Public gets thousands
of grasses to experiment with. * Most of the seed out
there that you can buy in a 7lb bag is a blend. *And when
you can buy a specific seed variety, it's frequently hard
to find a supplier and then comes in commercial quantities,
ie at least a 50lb bag, wholesale only, etc. *It's kind of
hard to imagine that JQP could stumble on some great
new blend of seed when you have researchers the world
over working on exactly that for decades. *Not impossible,
but you have to wonder.

...

One presumes this guy was/is a fanatic wrt to this quest. *Given that,
it's not at all unlikely he reads the sod/turf professional mag's, etc.,
and it's certainly not difficult to find the listings of the various
seed producers and their various varieties and there's a "veritable
plethora" of stuff available from the various universities w/ turf grass
programs and the annual evaluation summaries published, an so forth for
hints of what are potential cultivars to try...

I'd guess he did precisely that--order directly from the seed
producers--there's nothing in these that is at all exotic--the newest
cultivar I noticed was one release for commercial use in the early
2000's--the FC-11 fescue.

I didn't say they were exotic. Only that typically commercial
seed producers don't deal with JQ Public and have order
quantities that start with 50lb bags, if they will even deal
with the public at all. I've gone looking for a specific seed
variety that I wanted and it was extremely difficult to find it even
though I was willing to buy 50lbs. After much searching, I finally
found one sod farm that sold it.

Also, do you really buy that he planted and actually
evaluated 1000 different grasses on his lawn? Like
I said, when he has NTEP data that shows what it
does, then I'll be a believer. All this is to me is a cute
little story with little to back it up.

clipped

Me, I'll stick with my traditional American mongrel lawn: blues,
fescues, clover, and bentgrass. As long as it's green, I'm satisfied.

I would vote for crab grass, esp. after the recent drought. My son
always has the greenest lawn in the neighborhood and does nothing other
than mowing it; mows higher in the hottest part of summer. He has more
important things to spend time and money on. Whatever else is growing
in his yard, it is green again. Neighbor reseeded half his yard last
year, spends a huge amount of time on it, and now is redoing landscaping
because his professionally planted grass didn't sprout.

On 9/8/2012 6:55 PM, Oren wrote:
"The grass is always greener on Jackson Madnick’s lawn in Wayland,
Mass.: green in a drought and green when it emerges from under the
snow. Yet, he barely waters and mows it, and he never uses chemical
pesticides or fertilizers."

Read mo
http://www.foxnews.com/science/2012/09/08/inventor-cultivates-no-mow-easy-grow-grass/?intcmp=features#ixzz25vCWnmIB


I went with a blend of fescues similar to what they are describing for
the grass we have mainly to get the hardiness. If you are in the my lawn
is better than your lawn competition you may not win because it is
coarser looking. The price of the seed is a little less than double
what I paid but no big deal since it is only a one time thing and is
only like $100 more for a 1,000 square foot planting.