Question
QUESTION: Hello LIG from St. George, UT -
We relocated last summer and moved into our new custom built house in September.  It is our first house (we moved from a condo on the West Coast) and we love living here - this is one of the best places to live in the country.  My husband and I both work in computers.  We do not do any gardening or lawn work and have never been in this position.  Although we are not going to be doing the actual work, I want to know enough to be able to prevent the people who are hired to do the work from doing anything we would not approve of, specifically use of pesticides.  We are hoping you would give us the basics that we need to know and so my first question would be, What should we do with all of this rubble and rough soil that surrounds our house?  Also, what grass would we use here?  Pros and cons? We want to get started with a lawn and landscaping this summer.  Thank you so much for any advice you can offer, sorry for the long winded question.

ANSWER: The St George, Utah, weather sets it apart from the rest of the state.  Southern Utah homeowners almost always select warm season Grasses.  They HAVE to.  With average July temp highs around 102 degrees F, cool season Grass would be going dormant from now through October, when the thermometer plunges to 80 degrees F average.

So although Bluegrass is the most popular seed in Utah, St George -- which holds the record high temperature of 117 degrees F (set in July 1985), you can forget about Cool Season Grass in St George.

Preferred Warm Season Grass: Bermudagrass and Zoysia.  They can take temperature extremes without a sweat -- which means they stay Green all Summer long -- and still survive the cold Utah winters.

Most Warm Season Grasses go dormant early in the Fall.  For the rest of the season, the Lawn is the color of straw.  On the bright side, these Grasses don't drink as much as Cool Season Grass.  They don't need to be watered as often.

Note that Bermudagrass is so aggressive it is OUTLAWED in other parts of Utah.  You can't grow it -- BY LAW -- outside of Washington County, the only Utah county where Bermudagrass is not listed as a noxious weed.

So you want Bermudagrass for your new lawn.  Which should BE PLANTED NOW!

To quote Seedland.com: 'The BEST time to plant Bermuda seed is in late spring/early summer after soil temperatures are 65-70+ degrees or higher and all danger of freeze or frost is past.  This generally takes 80+ consistent day highs in temperatures to achieve this level of temperature in the soil.'  Bermudagrass THRIVES when the thermometer hits 90 degrees F.  This is the opposite of Kentucky Bluegrass, which is also a very thirsty Grass.

Now, about that rubble...

New construction is always a problem, and sometimes the only thing you can do is truck in some topsoil.  After you do that, instead of putting down your seed, spend the year turning the topsoil (which could be ANYTHING) into dark, nutrient-rich Earth.  First step will be to get yourself a good Green Manure.  You can buy these on the internet or your local garden center.

Green Manures defend your real estate from weeds and other uninvited visitors, while turning your Topsoil into the perfect growing medium.  Clover, Alfalfa, Wheatgrass, can be a Green Manure.  Specialized Cover Crops that put nutrients and organic matter into your soil, and make space for Oxygen-loving microbes.  Grow your Green Manure all summer long.  Next spring, in May 2007, rototill that in -- ROUGHLY, so you don't upset the Earthworms.

Also look around for Humus -- a long term Nitrogen generator.  We love it because it contains a lot of Humic Acid -- the stuff you get when a plant dies and decomposes.  To quote the Land and Sea Organics experts (http://www.landseaorganics.com/productsfr.htm), Humus 'is not considered a fertilizer, but rather a compliment to fertilizer.'  Which is why Humus will make your soil incredibly healthy.

Since you're sounding Affluent and Educated, I'm going to also suggest that you plan on using something else for your Lawn: a new product called Messenger by Eden Bioscience.

Messenger is a product that was originally discovered at Cornell University's School of Agriculture.  This stuff is actually a bottle of protein molecules that trigger certain responses in cells of treated plants -- to make them grow, to make them resist disease, to set flowers and fruit.  I am planning on using it on my own Lawn this year.  In certain areas, I expect it to be my new gardening secret.  Because very few people outside of the gardening community are familiar with it.  I'm optimistic about the tests I am doing at home on my lawngrass.  If you use it on your Bermudagrass -- in 2008 -- I would appreciate your report.  This is something that should be SPRAYED by the way on plants to treat them because watering the stuff in leads to loss of much of the product in the runoff.   And this is expensive.

So that's the deal.  Start with rubble removal.  Then get yourself some topsoil.  No chemicals.  Thanks for writing and let me know when you're ready for step 2.

---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Hello LIG, We have arranged to have delivery and application of a truck next week with high quality topsoil.  We are not going to work on the entire property yet, as we are hoping to learn from this first step and later we will finish the work in the last stage.  I do not see any product called Messenger in the stores I have been to nor have I met anyone familiar with it, would you please describe it for me?  Also, the benefits, the risks, and how much you think it will cost?  Thank you.  J.F.

Answer
You can read about 'Messenger' (generically this is called Harpin Protein) on the Eden Bioscience website:

http://www.edenbio.com/garden/

Unfortunately, since this product is not being sold in the entire state of Utah, you will have to order it online.  You can do that on the Eden website or you can order it from other online retailers.

Remember, this is best applied via a spray bottle.  Not hard to do.  You waste a lot when going through the roots.  Very little is lost when you spray leaves and stems.  I used it this aftenroon myself to spur recovery of some Alyssum saxatile Basket of Gold that I had divided.

This is the 2007 equivalent of a Magic Wand.  If you do your own testing, and treat only half your plants, you will be impressed.

As for risks, there are no risks, and this is a purely organic product that requires no precautions and will not cause cancer or weird liver diseases, it will not kill fish or birds, it will not change the genes of anything you use it on.  Sound, spectacular science.  You WANT to get this stuff.

Any more questions, I'm glad to address.  Keep me posted.