# Salt loving grass?



## jessehurlburt (Oct 18, 2017)

Hey All-

I reseeded my front lawn this spring and had good results for not using any weed controls whatsoever. Here is what I started with 



Here is where I am at today. 



There is a strip all the way along the road where the grass didn't make it and crabgrass took over. Based on where the grass failed, I am wondering if it is the higher salt content near the road that caused it. Are there any grasses designed for this type of scenario? If not, any other tips?

Thanks!
Jesse


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## LawnNerd (Sep 2, 2017)

Could be heat related. Asphalt is going to absorb a lot of solar radiation and transfer that into the surrounding earth. The extra heat located there with a spring seeding probably cooked the young grasslings. Best tip would be a fall seeding to help mature the grass before the heat strikes the following summer. Also you could try doing a little spritz during the really hot / sunny days to help cool it off. This is a risky move because in those temps if the grass is damp going into nightfall you're inviting fungus.

They don't call them "hell strips" for nothing.


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## jessehurlburt (Oct 18, 2017)

Interesting- I hadn't considered that- good call.


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## chrisben (Sep 11, 2017)

This is the tag on the bag of commercial seed that Scotts sells as 'Salt Loving' was thinking of looking at, and mixing in a few of these cultivars into my hell strip overseed next year depending on how the hell strip does thru the winter. (plows are my worst problem on that line of grass, always scraping off too much.



Also, try the screwdriver test, On my lawn, that chunk of grass has a very thin soil content over crushed stone where the road is, and where the entrance into the storm sewers is located. (town has us run drains into the crushed stone along the road, and crushed stone drains into the storm sewers)


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## FlyMike (Aug 27, 2017)

Firecracker SLS is marketed as a salt tolerant TTTF cultivar. It was a big percentage that came in my blend of TTTF that I did my renovation with even though I don't have any salt issues that I'm aware of. I'm very pleased with the look performance of it so far.


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## jessehurlburt (Oct 18, 2017)

Thanks, guys. So I take it "Hell Strip" is a commonly used term to describe the first foot near asphalt that gets baked? Too funny.
What made me think this was salt related is the area on the corner that died up 2-3' from the road. This is where a monster snow bank was all winter. I bet it is a combination of both.


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## LawnNerd (Sep 2, 2017)

chrisben said:


> This is the tag on the bag of commercial seed that Scotts sells as 'Salt Loving' was thinking of looking at, and mixing in a few of these cultivars into my hell strip overseed next year depending on how the hell strip does thru the winter. (plows are my worst problem on that line of grass, always scraping off too much.
> 
> 
> 
> Also, try the screwdriver test, On my lawn, that chunk of grass has a very thin soil content over crushed stone where the road is, and where the entrance into the storm sewers is located. (town has us run drains into the crushed stone along the road, and crushed stone drains into the storm sewers)


 :shock: that bag gave me cold chill down my spine. 25% of that bag is labeled as Annual & Italian Rygrass (They are the same) and Rough bluegrass (A.K.A Poa Trivialis.). Also, The Annual ryegrass will die in the heat (called Annual for a reason), and the trivialis will go dormant, and this is what they sell for "Curb Side"? You need to go with some Firecracker TTTF like FlyMike suggested below. It'll stand the heat the best, and it seeds really easily, plus it's also a rhizomatic TTTF, so you might get some filling in on it's own.


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## FlyMike (Aug 27, 2017)

Just to clarify my previous post a little bit, there is a Firecracker LS(Lateral Spread) and a Firecracker SLS(Salt Lateral Spread). The SLS is the salt tolerant one.
Mt. View has data sheets on both
http://www.mtviewseeds.com/turf/tall_fescue.php


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## LawnNerd (Sep 2, 2017)

jessehurlburt said:


> Thanks, guys. So I take it "Hell Strip" is a commonly used term to describe the first foot near asphalt that gets baked? Too funny.
> What made me think this was salt related is the area on the corner that died up 2-3' from the road. This is where a monster snow bank was all winter. I bet it is a combination of both.


I'll be honest, i don't have much experience with the effects of snow packs on turf here in N.C. :lol:

The reason i suggested heat was from personal experience, and the pattern. I looks like you have the issue up the driveway and along the road, but it's the worse where they meet (compounding effect of both the driveway and the street).

The other thing i noticed, was that right there at the corner it's a pretty decent slope, and i bet you get some runoff there a lot and the rain has a hard time soaking in. You might want to look into baby shampooing it through the summer along with the extra water.

Check out video where he shampoo's his lawn next to the driveway.


> GrassDaddy


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## ken-n-nancy (Jul 25, 2017)

jessehurlburt said:


> So I take it "Hell Strip" is a commonly used term to describe the first foot near asphalt that gets baked? Too funny.


"Hell Strip" is the colloquial term for the section of grass in city or suburban neighborhoods between the sidewalk and the road. Depending upon one's region, it's also known by many other names, including a median strip, a parking strip, a tree lawn, a terrace, a boulevard, etc.

Almost no matter where you live, though, it's a tough area to grow desirable plants, with issues from compaction, wildly varying temperatures due to proximity to pavement, poor soil, poor or no irrigation, pedestrian traffic, dog traffic, public works construction, ... The list of complications goes on and on.

In short, it tends to be a very difficult (hellish?) place to grow a lawn.

The good news is that we don't have one (no sidewalk) but without the sidewalk, we lack a clear border between lawn and road (other than the road pavement itself) but we're working on that this fall...


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## cclaeys (Dec 2, 2017)

gypsum works on sodic soils and salt damage, not an overnight cure but it works, if it was crabgrass infested that would be my first concern, pull the dead straw and pre-em next spring and amend with gypsum.


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