Before I took off for our Spring Break trip, I headed out to Portland, OR with a group of bloggers to learn all the ins and outs of grass seed from the people at Pennington Seed, Inc. Did you know that Oregon is the Grass capital of the world? Me neither, but it is. 60% of the world’s grass seed is produced there. Who knew?
Why did I want to go learn about grass?
Because I think we must have the worst yard in the neighborhood. It’s the worst yard we’ve ever had anyway. I’m pretty sure it’s 98% weeds! I don’t even have enough green on my thumb to know what kind of weeds they are…except for the thistles and dandelions. I recognize those.
This is seriously my back yard right now!
So, when I was invited to attend, I was all over it!
I wanted to learn how to make my lawn pretty, lush and green! Like this!
AND BOY DID I LEARN!
The people that spoke with us are really passionate about the environment and what impact their product has on it.
And we did a little experiment of our own. They’re going to water our “lawns” and send us pictures so we can check our progress.
In the mean time, I’ve got a lot of work to do see if I can’t turn out a lawn more like the one at the NexGen Research facility that we visited, which is where all the research, testing and development happens.
I’ve never seen such beautiful, lush grass…I couldn’t resist feeling it on my toes!
I’ll keep you posted on my progress.
‘Cause THIS is no lawn, it’s a Weed Garden!
Check out my fellow bloggers posts for more information about our trip. There’s some good reading here:
Man Made DIY
Disclosure: Pennington Seed, Inc. and their parent company Central Garden & Pet partnered with bloggers such as me to help educate us all about grass seed. As part of this program, I received compensation and was hosted by the company for a kickoff event. They did not tell me what to purchase or what to say about the use of the products. Central Garden & Pet believes that consumers and bloggers are free to form their own opinions and share them in their own words. Central Garden & Pet’s policies align with WOMMA Ethics Code, FTC guidelines and social media engagement recommendations.
Tags: Lawn
Very interesting! I am currently working on shaping up my backyard and recently heard about zoysia grass plugs I’m anxious to learn more about that type of grass.. since my yard gets heavily abused from my dogs.
I think I’m going to have to spray some nasty tasting stuff on our lawn to get Brody to stop eating it. Crazy dog!
Please share your yard transformation with us. I am in the same boat and don’t even know where to start. Should I just till up the entire yard!?! I have no idea.
I definitely will. I asked the same question about tilling up the weeds and the experts said not to. It won’t kill the weeds and the’ll just grow back. We have to kill the weeds and then seed. I haven’t decided how I’m going to kill my weeds yet.
I’m a hobby gardener & from what I learned from a biologist who is a Master Gardener she said that weed seeds can remain dormant in the ground for up to 20 years! Yikes… So if you don’t use Round up to kill them then whenever you rototill, etc. more weeds will emerge. I have an area around my new garden shed that I will kill off the weeds, rototill, wait for new weeds to emerge, & round up them before I start some new flower beds, etc. Tedious but worth it in the end! Good Luck!
They also suggested using Round up to kill all the weeds before you seed. We’re definitely going to do that but we’re not going to till. Just spike and then use some sand and seed. Thanks for your input.
Oh I miss blade grasses. My husband and I have gotten most of the weeds out of our yard, unfortunately the foreclosed house next door is sharing their weeds and they are spreading! I swear I will never win when it comes to my yard.
Oh frustrating! It’s hard enough to take care of your own without invading neighbor weeds taking over. Good luck with that.
Oh my gosh! I am so jealous of your trip to lawn land!!!! That picture of your feet on that RUG of grass is making me salivate. I literally dream about grass like that. Lawns just naturally looked like that (sorta) where I grew up in Wisconsin. But the yard we have here in Virginia is the most obnoxious excuse for “Grass” I’ve ever seen. We even pay a lawn service to come and although we have seen improvements, I am still frustrated. We paid extra for lawn aeration and power seeding last fall, but failed to keep the seeds moist over the first two weeks (it was HOT) and our yard is huge!) so most of the seeds died!
It is frustrating for me to be so in LOVE with grass, so willing to do the work, but so uneducated. It is also so frustrating to be just 1 person. I need a work team to kick this yard into shape. (That being said, I do have a husband who is able, but he’s busy and not nearly as interested in lawn health as I am…)
I would LOVE to hear more about what you learned from Pennington. I would also like to spend some time with Ty Pennington. What is the likelihood of these two wishes coming true? Lemme know. Thanks.
LOL Angie! I can’t speak for Ty Pennington but I will definitely share more of what I learned from Pennington.
No. I had no idea that Oregon was the grass capital of the world. Is that bad that I live in Oregon, and didn’t know that?
Perhaps it’s because my grass looks nothing like that. I think I need to take a trip to Pennington, now.
I think you should…and I should come back and go with you!
I so need to learn more about growing grass. I’ve had moss sprouting in bigs sunny spots! Aaaack! Using Moss Out and will have to scrape up and resoil/reseed. Any info on getting rid of moss?
I don’t but I will shoot the question to the pros and get back to you on that.