Fixing erosion / a lawn that never took, during a drought?

In North Carolina, we remain in severe drought conditions. I have a newish house where the lawn never took.

Besides eroding swales I need to fix, part of the "lawn" slopes and the top soil is eroding. I need to stop the erosion and get something to take. No jokes about Kudzu please. :-)

My plan is to till the worst areas with a gas powered cultivator (I've done this for other parts of my lawn, when I could still water, and this has worked well), lay down some top soil, and use annual ryegrass. Annual ryegrass, though it will die in one season, germinates fast, and seems to germinate with very little water.

My questions are these:

1) Would it be a waste of money to mix-in some sort of a creeping grass seed with the cheap annual ryegrass seed? Centipede and bermudagrass seem to thrive here in central NC--and require little to no water, fertilizer, or anti-weed chemicals. Once established, the centipede and bermuda grass are so thick that they choke out the weeds, and grows slower than other grasses (less mowing). Only "downside" is the lawn goes dormant / brown in the winter. I'm not running a golf course, so who cares.

Centipede and bermuda grass seed is terribly expensive. And I wonder if it would safely lay dormant until it got enough water.

Am I throwing money down the drain, quite literally, by mixing in expensive seed with annual ryegrass? Or should I do the ryegrass now, then aerate / overseed in spring of 2009, when hopefully water restrictions will be lifted.

2) Are there any good online videos or resources, or books, for methods on stopping erosion on swales?

Mike

Reply to
mikeerdas
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If you never intend to plant any other grass type, I would recommend the Sahara version of Bermuda grass. Very hardy. But, its very hard to get rid of. Don't seed anywhere near a garden.

Reply to
Dioclese

Thanks Dave. I've also heard Zoysia grass works well for my area-- really deep roots, little watering required (in part due to the deep roots), crowds out most of the weeds, requires little to no fertilizer, etc. Hopefully grows slowly like centipede (less mowing). Sounds great to me. Don't want to be a slave to a lawn.

Still wonder about getting turf established in a drought. Fortunately, sod is out--too expensive and requires too much water anyway.

Reply to
mikeerdas

Unfortunately, at least by my own experiences, Sahara version of Bermuda grass requires substantial wetting and maintaining that damp soil to get the seed to germinate.

Reply to
Dioclese

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