Hi, y'all! Been a while since I've been back here, since my husband and I
moved out to California this summer (and oh yes, it IS the land of fruits
and nuts, I am here to testify!!). At any rate, it seems to me that I read a
post here once upon a time about grass that stays short ...? A zoysia or
buffalo grass or some such? The thing is, my husband and I just closed on a
fixer-upper here in Northern California that stands on just short of an
acre. Part of it will be my garden (of course!) but that still leaves us
with a fair amount of lawn, and husband has announced that he is NOT mowing
half an acre every two weeks. So now I am looking for a grass that stays
short or at least grows slowly. We have the advantage in that most of the
lot is now just bare dirt, since the former owners have been keeping animals
on it. Since it is still raining quite a bit here (the tail end of our rainy
season), it seems to me that if I put in some sort of grass right away, it
might actually germinate before summer gets here. (And I know if I don't put
in anything, it will immediately start sprouting weeds!)

For further information, the ground here is black adobe clay (very fertile
but hard as a rock in the summer, mucky mud in the winter). In the winter,
low temps are about 32 F, just enough to nip plants a bit, and in the
summer, high temps reached 105F last year (though in the 90's is more
common). We receive 99% of our rainfall between November and May. Last
summer, there was NO rain -- I saw a figure of about 1/4" over the whole
summer, I think -- and this is the normal state of affairs. We have a well
that is a good producer so we can do some watering over the summer, but I
would like to keep it to a minimum.

I will be calling my extension agent next week to ask about this, but I
thought I would ask here first, since I seemed to remember seeing that
original post once upon a time. If anyone knows about any tough grasses that
grow slowly or to a pre-determined height, please, please let me know about
them!!

Thanks in advance,
jordan