Scotts Turf Builder Grass Seed Perennial Ryegrass Mix, Ideal for High Traffic Areas and Erosion Control, 3 lbs.

I live in Tucson Arizona, one of the most challenging environments to grow grass. Perennial Ryegrass was suggested by University of Arizona here in Tucson for fall-through-spring lawns (summers too hot and the grass goes dormant).WATER: The first thing you have to understand about this grass is it loves water. The seed really does required daily water to germinate. And it will germinate like crazy if you can provide this. When it mature grass, it still requires lots of water, however less frequently. I installed an automated sprinkler system that comes on every two days in the hot summer, three to four days depending on temp, for 45 minutes.FERTILIZER: This grass LOVES and NEEDS lots of fertilizer. I apply 5 pounds of 12-12-12 fertilizer to my 200sqft of lawn every three months. I didn't realize fertilizer was so critical until I accidentally dropped a handful-sized-amount of fertilizer in one spot on the grass. Normally this much fertilizer would kill any plant, however around that spot the grass started growing thick and lush about 3x faster than surrounding it (4 inches per week instead of 1.5 inches per week). This proved to me this grass needs a ton of fertilizer for best results. However if you are sick of cutting your lawn and its already lush enough, holding back on fertilizer slows growth and makes it more convenient to maintain. Please do not hold back on fertilizer especially in the southwest where the soil is alkaline and doesn't hold onto fertilizer very well.CLIPPINGS: As will all lawns, if you are fertilizing and watering frequently (and aerating if necessary), the lawn has everything it needs to digest itself. This means clippings will magically disappear in a week, and completely degrade in 1-3 months.SUMMER: This grass slows down growth considerably in the summer (100-110 degrees F here). The grass will die completely if temperatures rise above 105 F. I estimate its growing 3x slower around 100 degrees F than it does around 70 degrees F, although it still requires the same amount of water. If you live somewhere it is likely to reach 105 F, plan on this grass dying completely, and seed with a hot climate grass like bermuda, zoysia, etc.WINTER: this grass loves cool weather, however it stops growing around the freezing point.

I live in Phoenix. I failed trying to grow bermudagrass last summer, and I was in a hurry to get grass in. I don't intend to overseed in the future, but I needed some turf on my dirt ASAP.I'm dealing with native Phoenix dirt, so I don't take my first attempt with bermuda to really be a failure. I had much different results with this.I scalped what little areas of bermudagrass that had grown, and I saved the dirt/grass clipping mixture. I laid some fresh composted dirt down and mixed it with the native dirt. Then I laid another small layer of the composted dirt , spread out the seed, and dressed it with the grass clippings/dirt mixture. I figured that, given my lack of success over the summer, that I would need to replant some areas after a few weeks.But that didn't happen.I timed my planting with what the local golf courses were doing. After about 10 days, I felt like I had failed again because nothing had sprouted. Then it rained. The next morning, I saw a few sprouts.I still figured I would have to replant spots, but the stuff just kept getting thicker and greener. And then it started to rain again in mid November. And it didn't stop until mid February.That is extremely rare for Phoenix, but I need to point out that I didn't water this grass manually a single time from the first week of November until today, as I'm now letting it die to try to replant the bermuda. By the middle of December, it had become some of the most lush lawns I had ever seen. And I couldn't mow it because it was constantly too wet.I did end up with a clover problem towards the end of the rains, but I think that was just because it was so wet. When the rain stopped, the clover died off long before the grass did.I'm guessing that this stuff just loves water. I have no idea what it would do through a typical Phoenix winter, but I have to give it five stars because of how beautiful it looked all winter long. Because of how successful I was with it, I'm giving the Scotts bermuda grass seed another chance.

This grass is easy to grow as long as you follow watering directions.Results are a rich color of soft grass.The only drawback is that I believe it requires more seeding than suggested to avoid bare spots.Note: birds love this grass as it starts to shoot up, so will need to deter them. I used flower spinners and colorful garland as well as my faithful dog.