Does anyone know what grass type is seeding right now?

Forums › Home Workshop DIY › Does anyone know what grass type is seeding right now?

JayADee

2148 posts

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#293448 22-Jan-2022 13:57

As above. Any idea what the long grass I see seeding right now (dry stems, large seed heads, not huge or tiny seeds) is?

I'm collecting some to throw on the side of my fence the neighbour keeps killing with roundup (my land) even though I asked him not to. I'm tired of buying seed as it's money thrown away. Figure I'll use whatever I can collect free instead so I grabbed a small freezer bag full from the stop bank the other day. He's just being a dick. I'm waiting for him to get tired of doing it.

edge

423 posts

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#2854849 22-Jan-2022 14:10

A picture of the seedhead arrangement would be handy :-) Most grass species are seeding around now so no way of knowing otherwise.

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k1w1k1d

1519 posts

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#2854863 22-Jan-2022 15:00

Why is he spraying your grass?

Have you offered to return the favour and spray his grass?

neb

11294 posts

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#2854872 22-Jan-2022 15:39

k1w1k1d:
Why is he spraying your grass?

It'll be overspray or the fact that since grass has a dense mat of connecting roots, spraying a bit in one location will also kill off grass in the surrounding area.

To answer the OP, unless you can water it every few days I don't think I'd bother sowing any seed at the moment, it's way too hot and dry to germinate much.

JayADee

2148 posts

Uber Geek

#2854963 22-Jan-2022 18:08

neb:
k1w1k1d:

Why is he spraying your grass?

It'll be overspray or the fact that since grass has a dense mat of connecting roots, spraying a bit in one location will also kill off grass in the surrounding area. To answer the OP, unless you can water it every few days I don't think I'd bother sowing any seed at the moment, it's way too hot and dry to germinate much.

That's also why I'm collecting seed that is ready now. Figure if it's seeding now then it must be the kind that's ok to seed now hah! Even if it germinates later. I can't afford to keep buying grass seed either.

And no, he's spraying it only on my land. He's being a dick. We're in town and his empty section is next to ours.

We've owned the house 20 years and it's always been empty except when there are horses grazing in it.

Ostensibly he's killing weeds. I told him back a few months ago when he was over there (he leases to graze horses and mows 4 times a year and his lot is incidentally chock full of weeds) that we were killing the weeds on the strip we own and I told him he had killed all my newly sewn grass last time he sprayed and that I had since re-sewn it and killing everything with roundup including the grass would allow the weeds to flourish and new weeds to establish and we were spraying the weeds and would take care of it. He pointed out the still existing weed patches. I told him we were spraying them. He also argued about where the land boundary was until I said who cares where it is, both of us want to get rid of the weeds.

He left it alone that time and my grass was looking fantastic and it was doing a great job of stopping any new weeds. Then this last time when he mowed a few weeks ago he once again sprayed it. I didn't know he was spraying it as you can't see over our fence. I only saw it when I went to check what weeds still needed sprayed and looked for any shrub regrowth.

My grass is now dead as a door nail and bare earth is beginning to show. Which is pretty heart breaking. It's worse than what's in the photos, the roundup hadn’t fully kicked in yet when I took those. I was hoping there'd be some grass left, maybe enough to repopulate but no way. I went over yesterday to throw on the seed I collected (and pull out a spouting shrub I spotted) and it's super dead.

In actual fact almost all the area he sprayed was straight grass with no weeds. The two weed patches he DID spray are round up resistant and still perfectly fine as you'll see in the photos. Which is why we were using a targeted spray there!

Backstory: in 2019 we cleared out all the saplings and wild trees and a s**t load of very hard to kill weeds, wild ginger and all sorts along there and we had it to 98% weed free this summer. We also pulled off all the old wire and barbed wire from the concrete posts as it was all over the ground and through the trees we removed. It was a hell of a lot of work. The trees/shrubs kept resprouting and it took a lot of effort to kill them. One final spray of weed killer on the 2 patches of weeds left would have finished the job off this summer and it would have been 100% lush grass. Until he started killing everything again.

Photos start south end and progress northward. The white fence is ours. Our backyard is on the other side of it. It isn't on the boundary because the fence wasn’t when we moved in and we just put it in the same place when we replaced it. Also because there's a metre drop slope there starting at the base of the white fence. We had our lot surveyed before putting the fence up. Our land is on the east side of the concrete posts, by a fair margin at the south corner because the fence isn’t in a straight line. The concrete posts would have been put in a long time ago by someone who owned our house. We have them in other places too.

And incidentally I went over there not long ago to saw down and kill with special paste two huge wooly nightshade trees growing out of the flax that is slowly spreading on his land near our southern corner mainly because I don't want it spreading to my place.

I don't want the expense or hassle of arbitration or a lawyer.

I see no point in trying to talk to him again. It's always hard as he gets agro pretty much immediately no matter how calm and friendly I am.

My plan right now is to wait until he gets tired of spraying it. I think we'll quit spraying the weeds over there too. He might think what he's done is killing them. But I will keep taking out any trees or shrubs that sprout rather than have them grow into a real nuisance to deal with later.

It's aggravating for three reasons though.

1. any weeds that grow there come under our fence an we have a nice lawn and we have a dog I don't want exposed to spray

2. I am a bit concerned about erosion of the bank when it has no vegetation. Our white fence is posts only, no concrete. I'm hoping it will hold up.

3. I put a lot of work into fixing up the mess that was there and he's wrecking it

Given that most of what he killed was straight grass I am putting it down to sheer bloody mindedness.

Plus my hubby told him about my concerns about erosion when I wasn’t there (I wasn’t telling him that part on purpose) and I can’t help but feel the guy is having go at me by spraying my grass.

My sister says just stop doing any work at all over there and let it go.

Thanks for letting me vent anyway.

mudguard

2113 posts

Uber Geek

#2854983 22-Jan-2022 21:41

I'd move the fence and probably stop going over there to tidy it up. As much as it must be frustrating for you.

ratsun81

508 posts

Ultimate Geek

#2855139 23-Jan-2022 12:50

Until you resolve the boundary dispute you are going to battle the neighbor.

If you really want to fix the issue you need to get the surveyor's in get proper boundary pegs put in, serve an official letter to the neighbor and be done with it.

JayADee

2148 posts

Uber Geek

#2855140 23-Jan-2022 12:51

Too expensive to move the fence by far. And not super practical because then it would sit at the bottom of a metre drop unless we had a retaining wall put on the boundary for that roughly 40 metres. Hubby just retired and I've been medically retired over 8 years working a couple hours a week doing IT in a school so cost wise it isn’t the time of life for that. Be ok if we were young. Plus there would be a huge ruckus with the neighbour over placement of it, guaranteed. Two of the survey posts are long gone as well.

I asked hubby (if his sore knee allows) to spray the weed patch. In autumn I'll have one last go at reseeding because we happen to have a pack of grass seed in the garage. After that I think I’ll call it quits and other than removing any trees that try to sprout leave it to the weeds and the neighbour. The dirt is hopefully compact enough to survive it all. If the fence falls over because of his actions then I'll consider a lawyer for costs to fix.

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JayADee

2148 posts

Uber Geek

#2855145 23-Jan-2022 12:58

ratsun81:

Until you resolve the boundary dispute you are going to battle the neighbor.

If you really want to fix the issue you need to get the surveyor's in get proper boundary pegs put in, serve an official letter to the neighbor and be done with it.

I had boundary pegs in. There's still one there at the north side where our strip is smallest and their paddock gate is. The two at both ends of the white section of fence in the photos are long gone.

What would the letter say and how much do you reckon it would cost to re-survey it? It's an acre. The last survey guys said the front and back and non neighbour sides have the fences in the correct locations.

I have a feeling the survey guys back then didn't use gps co-ordinates or else I think I would just be able to get a letter from the company who did it, if they are still around. It would have been 15 years ago.

Bung

6477 posts

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#2855150 23-Jan-2022 13:08

Did he poison the blue hydrangea? If he left that alone you could plant that in front of each post if you were worried about them.

As it's an empty section I can't see why he is so persistent but I've had neighbours with a similar fence located where it suited them and the forgotten strip was never touched by them except to dump weeds "on their land". I mowed it occasionally but didn't have to deal with a row of old posts in the way.

JayADee

2148 posts

Uber Geek

#2855168 23-Jan-2022 13:44

Lol. I considered planting them all along there next to that one at the base of the slope (those ones have been there since before me) because he seems to leave that alone for some reason and also they look to be round up resistant but in fact the little monsters can spread and then I might be stuck cutting them down. But I'm still thinking about it! They are easy to get cuttings from and root easily. I'd prefer grass.

just FYI it's my white fence I'm worried about weakening if the bank erodes, not the concrete posts. My white fence is posts in holes with no concrete on the posts.

I have NO idea why this guy took a sudden interest in killing off everything there last year. It's crazy really since it looks so much nicer as grass than dead grass. I think it's just sheer bloody mindedness. He's the only neighbour we have a problem with and it's an empty section! It's owned by a trust but he's the trust member that mows it.

Anyhow, I dug out the survey receipt from February 2003 and have just emailed the company to see if they still hold records, quoting my file number.

If possible I'll see if we can get an official letter outlining the boundary on that side.

I should also say, the old posts (the concrete ones) are still Within and not on, our boundary. Also they are at the base of the 1 mitre high, steep slope to the base of the white fence. So you couldn't mow past them even if you wanted to, there's a slope upwards starting there. There's no good reason to take the old posts out and past the Gordonia tree you can see in a picture they are supporting a decrepit but still mainly functioning wire fence that fences our front lawn off from the paddock. That fence is also within the boundary and that peg is still there or was last time I checked.

Bung

6477 posts

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Subscriber

#2855177 23-Jan-2022 14:16

JayADee:
If possible I'll see if we can get an official letter outlining the boundary on that side.

There will be plenty on paper, your title will cover that but you need pegs in ground. If the peg has gone the surveyors will be happy to charge to renew it.

mudguard

2113 posts

Uber Geek

#2855199 23-Jan-2022 15:08

JayADee:

Backstory: in 2019 we cleared out all the saplings and wild trees and a s**t load of very hard to kill weeds, wild ginger and all sorts along there and we had it to 98% weed free this summer. We also pulled off all the old wire and barbed wire from the concrete posts as it was all over the ground and through the trees we removed. It was a hell of a lot of work. The trees/shrubs kept resprouting and it took a lot of effort to kill them. One final spray of weed killer on the 2 patches of weeds left would have finished the job off this summer and it would have been 100% lush grass. Until he started killing everything again.

The hard part with this is that it sounds like you've done a lot of tidying up of his section. The photos make it look there is a metre or two beyond your fence but the reality is the rest is. I get why you don't want weeds and trees coming in, but surely from a legal point of view you can only trim/remove what is on or over hanging your property? How do you get onto your strip? Do you have to walk around your property and down the fence line?

I don't want the expense or hassle of arbitration or a lawyer.

I see no point in trying to talk to him again. It's always hard as he gets agro pretty much immediately no matter how calm and friendly I am.

But I will keep taking out any trees or shrubs that sprout rather than have them grow into a real nuisance to deal with later.

I would think a survey at the very least is needed. Then either move the fence or offer to sell it?

It's aggravating for three reasons though.

1. any weeds that grow there come under our fence an we have a nice lawn and we have a dog I don't want exposed to spray

2. I am a bit concerned about erosion of the bank when it has no vegetation. Our white fence is posts only, no concrete. I'm hoping it will hold up.

3. I put a lot of work into fixing up the mess that was there and he's wrecking it

Again, it's hard to tell if you're fixing up mess on his land or yours or if you need to walk onto his land to tidy up.

I bought recently and whilst I can find the two boundary pegs I was curious about there was a website that was pretty bang on with a google maps overlay of the property.

https://lrs.linz.govt.nz/search/

Put your address and change the map overlay to satellite and zoom in.

JayADee

2148 posts

Uber Geek

#2855270 23-Jan-2022 21:45

Thanks.
Yeah I've done the LINZ web site map thing and I agree with where the primary parcel lines are and where the boundary marker dots are. Because the map image there is old (2017 I think) and pre cleanup of trees and lousy resolution it's hard to see exactly where the fence on that side is on it so isn’t the best form of proof if you're trying to convince someone.

I'm only cleaning up my strip. I can walk along there and not cross the boundary. I'd have to measure to the Wooly nightshade to be absolutely sure it's on his side but I think it's likely. So yeah, in that single case I might have been on his side.

His argument as I understand it is I'm not doing a good enough job. He's mad there's any weeds there. That is supposedly his reason for spraying. But if that were the case why spray the entire thing including pure grass?

I tried to explain last time after he sprayed it that killing everything without sewing anything was a sure way to get weeds. Which is why I re-sewed it heavily with grass seed again after he agreed not to spray it. Now he's killed it again!

The whole thing is just really silly and I don’t understand the motivation. Or rather, I can't see any point to his actions other than being destructive.

So now I have to decide what, if anything, I want to do about it.

Honestly I don't want any big hassle, I'm just not keen on the bank eroding because it has no vegetation or in having to clean up pittosporum etc that self seeds like mad around here all over again in the future if I just let it go. I also feel like we have a responsibility not to let it become a big mess again because we own it.

MikeAqua

7773 posts

Uber Geek

#2857079 27-Jan-2022 11:23

I would take your sisters advice.

Forget that bit of land is yours, let it be his problem.

He will probably get bored when you stop engaging.

Every dog has its day and one day this rooster will want something from you.

Mike

JayADee

2148 posts

Uber Geek

#2857218 27-Jan-2022 16:07

Mike, I've decided to chuck some wild grass seed on it, yank any saplings (so as not to have a problem to deal with later) and otherwise just leave it be.

I think you're right and if I appear to ignore it he'll eventually tire of it.