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| THE COLONY NEWS | OCTOBER 2023 | 15 Fall Planting Season: e cooler weather of fall is when lawns are reseeded. We will also be planting the items identified in the spring area walks as needing replacement. Front yard mulch replenishment is continuing counterclockwise around e Colony, street by street. Front Lawns: In June, the Board requested the Landscape Department and the LAC investigate why some front lawns had such large bare spots. At the August HOA meeting, the LAC presented its recommendations. Believe me, we had an extensive discussion on front lawn turf ! Finally, we concluded that the grass seed sown last November was not faulty in either seed quality or soil preparation. e seedlings all sprouted, but not all of them survived. e spring rains came hard and fast which may have accounted for some seed runoff. e LAC toured the entire Colony in July, mapping all the front yards which had what we considered heavy turf damage. Some of our findings are shown below. • Could irrigation be the problem, and aren't we officially out of the drought? It would appear our two water districts don't think we're out of the drought, because they have not changed their tier structure of billing. Although each of them figures cost and allotment differently, the more water we use, the faster we trip over into their penalty tiers. erefore, we are trying to keep water usage to a minimum yet keep the turf going. It's very difficult. As of May, watering of front yards had already been increased to twice a night of four to six minutes, greenbelts once a night but for a longer duration. By and large, we determined the biggest problem with most front lawns and greenbelts has been the rabbits. is is not a new or temporary problem in e Colony. Reseeding or sodding of front yards was considered of limited value unless the rabbit problem was dealt with. • Was there a correlation between where the most damaged front lawns were and a nearby greenbelt, wildbelt or golf course? No. e rabbit damage was coming from all areas, even from just across the street. As long as the rabbit has a place to hide quickly, turf is most enticing. • Was there a correlation between turf grass type and rabbit damage? We matched the lawn-damage map with a previous map composed by our Landscape Department of which yards had Bermuda or kikuyu grass and which had fescue. It appears that those areas which have mostly Bermuda and/or kikuyu were showing very little rabbit damage by July (Via Marisa, Via Tonada, Corte Lorca and the south end of Via Francisco), at least this year. e bulk of e Colony is fescue grass turf, and these lawns have not rebounded from the rabbits' Spring turf feast. Why is that? Because the damage to these young seedlings by rabbits isn't just by seedlings being munched off at the soil line; the rabbit urine kills the roots of the fescue. Once burned, those seedlings won't come back. Fescue isn't a "spreader." On the other hand, Bermuda and/or kikuyu turf are "spreaders," sometimes considered "invasive." at we saw fewer bare patches in July was largely because of the way those grasses had spread horizontally to fill in — totally different from fescue seedling behavior. • Why not just change all front yard turf areas to Bermuda or kikuyu? ey are warm weather grasses, thriving in the heat, using less water. eir biggest drawback has been that they go dormant in the winter. ose residents coming from a northern climate where all the lawns go dormant in the winter know all about this. Every winter the Landscape Dept. can expect phone calls from residents who think their lawn is dying, and the patches should be removed. Some of the front lawns have mixtures of the different types of grasses, some we've planted and some have dried in from the golf course or were spread by the mowers; hence, the references to "dead patches." Fescue is a cool weather grass and stays green all winter. e Landscape Dept. and the LAC are investigating UC Riverside's new Bermuda-type grass called UC17-8. e LAC subcommittee on Turf examined the sample plots of this grass at UC Riverside's Turf Research Facility on Dec. 6 last year and was quite favorably impressed. is grass is a darker green, can be cut low, and is firm underfoot. It is expected to be commercially available as sod or stolons in 2024-25. ere would be a cost to change Colony front yards to all one type of grass, so this is a serious consideration. LAC recommendations to the Board: We recommended fall reseeding of fescue (an inexpensive "fix," already covered within the Environmental Concepts contract), paying extra attention to soil preparation. We will be watching for UC17- 8 to be available next year. We also recommended that the Board consider asking Animal Pest Control to give a Town Hall meeting on rabbit control methods, and prepare a bid as to cost for any recommendations. As of the first of September, the Board was waiting for the pest control company to reply with dates they could do a presentation. Please stay tuned. e LAC has an opening for a volunteer. Won't you consider joining us? LANDSCAPE ADVISORY By Jan Foster, 951-698-0170

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