Ouch, oooo, urph! Zoyzia!

[javasaurus]

I really hate zoyzia (aka zoysia) grass. In some ways, it is amazing -- when it is green, it is dense, low to the ground, like plush fine carpet that is soft as fleece, and dense enough to choke out weeds. However, it is very invasive, will cross under sidewalks, and eat driveways. When cutting, you need to bag and haul the clippings -- it's too dense to mulch-mow. And from first frost until mid-May, it is brown, dead-looking, crunchy, ugly.

When we bought our house, in 2003, there was a small amount of zoyzia in the front yard (previous owners had intentially started it from plugs), and we knew we'd have to deal with it at some point. But each summer had other tasks that were more important. This year, the zoyzia had nearly half the front yard, and was invading the neighbor's yard. It was time.

Typical yard-replacement strategy: spray yard with round-up, wait for grass to die, mow dead grass down to nubs, rake to loosen soil, plant new grass.

Zoyzia yard-replacement: spray yard with round-up. A week later, spray with more round-up. A week later, if still green, spray with something stronger than round-up, or if it's dead, mow down to nubs. Now the fun part: you can't just rake up the surface, like with regular grass. You need to break up the really dense root system. We tried a tiller on one section of the yard. The tiller did okay in some spots, but had a lot of trouble with some areas of the thick root clusters. What seems to work better, though it's much more labor intensive, is using an edger to cut the turf into 1'x2' sections, and pulling them up by hand as dead sod. Did I mention the thick root system? They don't come up easily. For each piece, shake/agitate vigorously to remove dirt (otherwise you're hauling away 2" of topsoil). Then you can smooth and treat the bare soil and plant the new seed, as normal.

I've got blisters under my fingernails, while every muscle in my neck, back, legs, arms, and nose hurts. I suspect blueeowyn is in similar shape. Ah, only one section of yard left to do!

Comments

[wilhelmina-d.livejournal.com]

Ouch! Sounds like no fun. Himself and I will be doing some roto tilling next year when we do the full garden replant. Any comments on the tiller you used?

Feel better!

[blueeowyn.livejournal.com]

The tiller seemed to work fairly well once he was through the berber carpet of evil grass.

[wilhelmina-d.livejournal.com]

What kind was it? Was it easy to use? Thanks!

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

The tiller we used is a Sears Craftsman gas-powered type, 5 or 5.5 horsepower. To start it, you adjust the choke and speed appropriately, and pull a cord (like starting a gas lawnmower). The blades don't spin until you squeeze a lever on the handle. With normal ground, it moves along readily, digging four to six inches into the ground, or more if you hold it in place. It is powerful enough to pull you along if you let it. It is great for land that has previously been used for gardening (so re-digging and old garden is easy). We found that it has problems digging through thick tough masses of roots (like our zoyzia) or through tree roots -- in both cases the tiller starts jumping, trying to climb over the roots instead of chopping through them.

[wilhelmina-d.livejournal.com]

Thanks for the information!! (And the advice about goggles! We have a more than a few rocks in there.)

[javasaurus.livejournal.com]

Oh, I should mention, it can throw small rocks and dirt clods, so goggles are a must!