Native Plants
Q. Who is Mr. Smarty Plants?
A: There are those who suspect Wildflower Center volunteers are the culpable and capable culprits. Yet, others think staff members play some, albeit small, role. You can torture us with your plant questions, but we will never reveal the Green Guru's secret identity.
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Ask Mr. Smarty Plants
Ask Mr. Smarty Plants is a free service provided by the staff and volunteers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.
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Thursday - October 31, 2013
From: Fort Worth, TX
Region: Southwest
Topic: Planting, Seeds and Seeding, Grasses or Grass-like
Title: Annual ryegrass and Habiturf from Austin
Answered by: Barbara Medford
QUESTION:
We've decided to put Habiturf in our freshly cleared back yard that was overgrown with sticky burs and crabgrass, but now that it is fall, would you recommend putting in a cover crop of annual ryegrass to keep weeds from growing during the winter? If so, could we simply seed Habiturf on top of the fading ryegrass next spring?ANSWER:
We would like to refer you to an excellent previous Mr. Smarty Plants answer on the use of ryegrass as a winter cover. From that article you will learn that we would not only not recommend it because it is not a native of North America, but that it really does not work well as a winter lawn cover, and could very well reseed in your Habiturf, threatening it.
Next, since Habiturf was developed right here at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center (home of Mr. Smarty Plants) we certainly do recommend Habiturf, and have extensive material on it to answer your questions. Please follow this link to get answers to your questions: Habiturf The Ecological Lawn and any other links in that answer. Be sure and pay attention to the information on preparing the site for your Habiturf, as that will involve removing the unwanted plants. We hope you will be very happy with this water-conserving grass.
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