TestDIYOrganic

As you can see the Jonathan Green Black Beauty Grass I'm growing indoors in a container had gotten over 3" tall and was starting to look a bit ragged so I thought today would be a good time to trim my indoor lawn.



Obviously I can't use my lawn mower so I needed to come up with another way to get a nice, even, level cut for my indoor lawn.



I created a cutting guide and I'm using a pair of scissors to mow my indoor grass. I'll describe how I made the mowing guide and how I used it below.

Indoor Grass Cutting Guide

I wanted to cut my indoor grass at about 2.5". This would keep it at a height where it should be able to stand up on it's own, even when it starts getting thicker, and it would also be tall enough to give visual interest.



I cut 2.5" wide strips out of a hanging file folder. You could use other similar thin cardboard material. I then folded the cardboard at 90 degrees at the corners and sized it so it would rest along the rim of my container. I used staples to connect the pieces.






This gave me a guide all the way around the grass container that I could use to get a nice even cut and I could rest the scissors gently on the edge to establish my height.

Fiskars Cuts+More Scissors

Having a long pair of scissors makes it easy to get an even cut but I couldn't find an old pair of scissors I had that were long enough. Okay, maybe I just needed an excuse to by a new toy and the Fiskars Cuts+More Titanium Shear looked like a great pair of scissors that would not only be work well at cutting my indoor lawn but also be useful in the garden in many other ways.



The total length of the scissors is 9" but the cutting blades are only about 3.75" long. The titanium blades are sharp right out of the package and to help keep the blades sharp so they don't damage the grass tips there's an easy to use ceramic sharpening rod built into the plastic sheath that's included with the scissors. The scissors are backed by Fiskars Lifetime Warranty.



As the name implies, this is more than just a pair of scissors. The sheath also includes a tape cutting tool which can be used to open boxes. The back end of the scissors can be used to cut thin wire.



There is a sharp notch on the outside edge of one of the blades that is used to cut thin twine and larger rope can be cut with the scissors by placing it all the way down into the curved area near the joint.



When the scissors are closed the protruding tip is rounded over to keep you from poking things that don't want to be poked with sharp things but the other blade contains a sharp awl tip. By opening the scissors all the way you can separate the blades and use the black blade, with the awl tip, as a knife. It even has a small set of teeth (like one of those Rambo survival knives without the compass, matches, fishing line and hooks) that could be used for some very light duty sawing.



The plastic handles appear to be durable and firmly attached to the titanium blades anre are very comfortable. The scissors are designed for a right-handed person. They're usable if you're a lefty but the way the curves in the handles don't feel as comfortable. When using the scissors with my left hand my knuckles were hitting the top of the finger hole in a way that they weren't when using my right hand.



When you're done working on your landscape there's even a bottle opener to crack open a nice cold one while you relax.

Mowing The Indoor Lawn

Using my Fiskars Cuts+More scissors lightly resting on the cardboard cutting guide I worked my way around the grass to even out the height. Since the cardboard is thin I was careful to not distort it too much or push it so that it falls off the rim.






After the majority of the grass was cut I removed the guide and inspected the grass from a lawn from a low angle to see if there were any blades that were missed and I cut them freehand.



The Fiskars scissors gave a nice clean cut like a reel mower would give. Reel mowers are great for young grass and they seem to be recommended especially for tall fescue because the wider blades and stiffer plant appear to be damaged by rotary mower blades more easily. Jonathan Green claims their Black Beauty grass isn't ass susceptible as other tall fescues.



After I was done cutting I brushed the blades of the grass back and forth with my fingers to work the clipping down to the soil where it will eventually break down and return nitrogen to the grass. Fresh, new, healthy grass feels great. It almost feels like rubber.



The end result was a more uniform looking desk lawn :)

It's been 25 days since I planted the Jonathan Green Dense Shade and 9 days since I planted the Jonathan Green Black Beauty grass seeds in containers indoors. The Black Beauty is doing much better than the Dense Shade as can be seen from the photo on the left. Black Beauty is on top.



The Black Beauty stand almost reminds me of the decorative wheatgrass that is more commonly grown indoors.



The Dense Shade had a lot going against it. First I used seed that was a few years old but I did manage to get pretty good germination by putting a lot more seed down than recommended. There were some thin spots and I added more seed as well as more potting mix to raise the level of the soil because it had compressed a bit after watering. Over the past few days the new seeds have begun sprouting.



Next, I noticed an infestation of bugs in the Dense Shade container. After doing some research I determined they were likely fungus gnats. You can see a cool video of neem oil killing the fungus gnats and their larvae. The bugs appear to have stunted the growth of the grass. The new seeds are doing well but if the old grass doesn't recover it's just not going to look good.



The Black Beauty grass has been doing much better although when the Dense Shade was 10 days old it was looking pretty good too. I used fresh seed for the Black Beauty and it germinated a lot better and I have good coverage with no bare spots unlike Dense Shade. There are still Black Beauty seeds germinating.



The grass is also standing upright while the Dense Shade has slumped over. The Black Beauty is about 3" tall. In a couple of days I'm going to have to give it it's first mowing.



Both containers are getting some indirect light from north facing windows plus some additional light from the room lights. That seems to be enough. So far Black Beauty appears to be more shade tolerant than I thought.



Jonathan Green Claims Black Beauty contains endophytes which help make it more insect resistant. When I noticed the fungus gnats infesting the Dense Shade container I didn't see any in the Black Beauty container but I don't know for sure if the endophytes were the reason why.



The main reason I started the Black Beauty was to see how thick the blades get. Right now the blades still have a very fine texture but I can see they're begging to get a little wider. So far it's looking like it might be a good choice for my lawn renovation.



Here's a top view of both grass containers. Black Beauty is on the right, Dense Shade is on the left.

A quick update on the two grasses I'm growing indoors in containers. One's doing well, ran into a problem with bugs in the other used neem oil to kill them. Happened to catch it all on video which is included further down.



The picture on the left is the Jonathan Green Black Beauty at Day 6. It has germinated very well and some shoots are still popping up. Average blade length seems to be about an inch with some about 1/4" and half a dozen or so that have grown about 2" long.



Black Beauty displays significantly more phototropism compared to the Jonathan Green Dense Shade I have growing next to it. During the day the Black Beauty blades are pointing towards the window. After the sun starts to go down I turn on the room light so it can get a little more light and the blades start to stand upright fairly quickly. I'll be able to demonstrate this a little better in a few days.



So far it's looking pretty healthy. Germination was a lot better and more even than the Dense Shade and that's most likely due to the age of the Dense Shade. It was an old bag that was 3 years old. I should have taken the time to buy a new bag.



These are pretty ideal conditions for the lawn other than sunlight. Temperature controlled environment, good pH, growing medium rich in organic material, ability to keep the seeds moist throughout the day.  The grass is getting some indirect sun from a couple of North facing windows and I supplement that with some artificial light from time to time.



From the top it doesn't look as impressive yet but you can see how even the germination was.






In a week or so I think it will fill in much better. From the side it's already looking pretty good.



The Dense Shade on the other hand hasn't been fairing so well on Day 22. On Day 17 it was looking decent except for some areas with poor germination which as I mentioned was likely due to the age of the seed. I had topdressed with some additional organic potting mix, added more seed and another small layer of potting mix. I also switched to filtered water at that time.



As you can see it's filling in a bit but the grass has gone a bit limp and lost some of it's color.








The growth seems to have stunted although some of the new seed is germinating and filling in the bare areas. Some of the older grass tips have browned. It looks like insect damage and I did see a couple of small critters on the grass which I squished. Not sure what they are or how they would have come inside. They were tiny flying bugs. I haven't seen any on the Black Beauty which claims to be naturally resistant to some insects.



Uhm... since I wrote that last paragraph I found out it's definitely bugs! I'm doing a time lapse recording of the growth and what I thought was some sort of video artifact is actually little tiny things crawling around. I sprayed some Organica K+Neem on them which seemed to work pretty well. K+Neem is no longer made but other products like Green Light Organic Neem Concentrate are still available.  Neem oil is a contact killer and doesn't have any residual effects. In a couple of days if I still see any I'll spray again.



Here's a portion of the video. You can clearly see the white bugs (larvae?) crawling around on the potting mix on the bottom right. In the middle of the video I sprayed the neem oil which put an end to them. The bugs are really tiny so you might need to watch the video in HD and fullscreen to notice them.





Black Beauty is supposed to be naturally insect resistant. I'm not sure if that's why nothing is crawling on that side or not?



After some research and having a closer look at one of the adult ones, it seems they were fungus gnats. Some more Googling and it seems other people have complained about gnats in Jungle Growth Organic potting mix. Don't know if they came in the mix, found they're way through a slightly damaged screen came in the door or hitched a ride on a pet. I'm going to keep a close eye on it. Have noticed a couple of gnats since I posted this but don't see the gnat larvae crawling around on the soil like before.



I'm hoping that the Dense Shade perks back up soon. The topdressing might have stressed it, the bugs surely did and while the neem oil shouldn't harm the grass too much could cause it problems.



Here's a top view.






It doesn't look as good compared to the Black Beauty on the bottom but when the Dense Shade was young it looked much better too. We'll see what happens in the next few days.

I'm growing Jonathan Green Black Beauty grass seed in a container as a little experiment to get a better feel for it to see if it's a grass I'd like to plant when I do a lawn renovation.



It's been 4 days since I planted the Black Beauty grass seed in an organic potting mix.  I'm planting it in a container so I can better monitor and maintain it.



Yesterday I started to see signs that germination had started but today is the first I'm seeing little green shoots of grass emerging from the soil.



So far it looks like I'm getting pretty even coverage. 4 days is pretty quick for this type of grass to germinate but since it's sitting on my desk I'm able to closely monitor the soil moisture and add water when necessary.



One major difference I see compared to the germination of Dense Shade mix is that the blades of Black Beauty that are emerging are already leaning towards the sunlight coming through the windows. The Dense Shade on the other hand came straight up.

Black Beauty (left) Dense Shade (right)

One small section of the container is shaded by an obstruction and in that area the grass is coming straight up. I'm not sure if there's any significance to this observation but I wonder if the leaning grass shoots means Black Beauty wants more sunlight than Dense Shade?

It's day 17 of my project to grow grass indoors and it's been coming along nicely but not great. There were two main issues that were bugging me.



First, the level of the potting mix had fallen quite a bit after watering it a few days and I had wished that I added more potting mix to start out with. When I started my Jonathan Green Black Beauty experiment I made sure I had enough potting mix.



Second, while about 70% of the area had filled in nicely the other sections were very thin. This is most likely due my use of grass seed that about 3 years old. I tried using more grass seed to compensate but still got spotty results. Grass was still germinating, not all the varieties germinate at the same time, and those areas did have some new grass sprouting but I decided to ramp things up.



First I started by topdressing with about 1/4" of additional organic potting mix. I used my fingers to rake the potting mix down.



Then I added some more grass seed, concentrating mostly on the thin areas and topped it with about another 1/4" of organic potting mix.



Finally I watered it in but I've made some changes to my watering.



Instead of using water straight out of the tap and letting it warm up to room temperature I filled my spray bottle with filtered water from a Brita pitcher to cut down on the chlorine. Instead of using plain water I mixed in some Organica Plant Growth Activator Plus which contains a number of different beneficial soil bacteria and fungi as well as humic acid, seaweed extract, and some hydrolized soy meal.



The application of PGA+ was the reason I chose filtered water since the chlorine in my tap water kills the bacteria and fungi but I'm going to continue to use filtered water from now. Can't imagine the chlorine is good for the plants either.



The grass doesn't look as full as it did this morning because as careful as I tried to be, the top dressing did bury some of the blades of grass.



It's hard to tell in the photo because the color doesn't come through great in the photo but the color of the grass is starting to darken as well.

All the lawn geeks seem to use a blend of Kentucky Bluegrass to get a great looking, dark green lawn. At least that's what it seems like when reading different lawn sites and forums. I decided to check out Jonathan Green's Black Beauty Turf-Type Tall Fescue grass seed mix because I've heard some good things about it.



There are some people out there posting great lawn photos using other grass varieties besides KBG such as turf-type tall fescue (TTTF) and perennial ryegrass. I'm a bit weary of TTTF because there is some mixed into my lawn and it's thick bladed compared to my other grasses, grows faster and generally looks like a weed compared to my other grass.



From what I'm hearing though the new varieties of TTTF aren't as coarse and wide bladed as the old varieties of tall fescue and they're hard to distinguish from KBG. The tall fescue I have in my lawn is an older variety and possibly the K-31 I see so many complaining about.



Nothing I've tried so far has really reduced the tall fescue in my lawn. I haven't applied a broad spectrum herbicide to it but overseeding with more KBG and pulling out a few clumps here and there hasn't done anything. When I get heavy rains and forget or don't have time to apply corn meal other parts of my lawn turn a little reddish brown except for the tall fescue.



During the heat of summer when my finer bladed grass goes dormant if I don't water it enough, the tall fescue remains green and sticks out like a sore thumb being all green. That's when it dawned on me. Why fight it? The tall fescue wasn't always sticking out because it was bad, it was sticking out because it was good. It's also grows very dense and crowds out weeds.



That's when I decided to give Black Beauty a try. I've started it in a container indoors just like I did with my Jonathan Green Dense Shade Mix which I'm hoping will make a nice desk lawn :)



I don't know how well Black Beauty will do indoors so I'll likely move it outside at some point. What I'm really interested in with this little experiment is to see what the grass will finally look like. Hopefully it will grow enough that I can get a good feel for it before fall when I might do a lawn renovation. I literally mean feel. I want a grass that's nice to walk on barefoot. I don't imagine it will be as soft as shade type fine fescues but I'm hoping it will be good enough. The low maintenance and low water claims are really what appeal to me.



Where I live we get sufficient rainfall and most people in my town don't have lawn sprinkler systems except for some commercial properties and a small percentage of new construction. A lawn probably only needs about 16 or so inches of supplemental water around here. If the Black Beauty can do better without supplemental water compared to KBG and I can reduce some watering that could be a decent savings.



One often repeated rule of thumb is that lawns need 1" of water per week (not exactly but let's just use 1" for now). Based on that 1" of water turns out to be about 620 gallons of water per 1,000 sq ft of lawn. Multiplied by 12 is 9,920  gallons per 1,000 sq ft per year. That's about $80 per year per 1,000 sq ft and that's provided it's a year that I get at least average rainfall distributed fairly regularly, which doesn't always happen. That $80 is just for the water. My utility company charges me sewer fees based on water usage even if that water never goes down the drain. If you have a large lawn and don't get a lot of evenly spaced out rain watering your lawn would be hundreds of dollars a year.



The dollar savings isn't huge but soil microbes are very important to an organic lawn and applying chlorinated city water will kill some of those beneficial bacteria and especially the beneficial fungi you've worked so hard to build up or in some cases payed good money to apply! Rainwater is much better for a lawn and if I can get a lawn that needs almost no supplemental irrigation I'd be very happy.



This year I've basically let my lawn go dormant. Unfortunately weeds don't go dormant at the same time grass does which is why I'm seriously considering a renovation this year and trying to select the best grass seed.

About Black Beauty Grass Seed

Anyway, back to Black Beauty... I picked up a 5lb bag at my local garden center so I can test it out. It was $21.99 regular price but it was on sale for $13.20. When it's not on sale it seems a little cheaper to buy a 15 lb bag of Jonathan Green Black Beauty Grass Seed Mix online.



A 5lb bag will cover 1,500 sq ft when overseeding or 750 sq ft when seeding bare soil. A 15lb bag will cover 4,500 sq ft for overseeding 2,250 sq ft for seeding bare soil.



The bag had a zip closing top which was nice since I'm only using about a handful of grass seed and will use the rest this fall if I like it. If I don't do a full lawn renovation I might wind up just overseeding it.



Jonathan Green claims the following about Black Beauty:

• Waxy coating helps preserve moisture and increase drought tolerance.


• Contains endophytes for natural insect resistance.


• Shade tolerant and preforms better than fine fescues in fertile soil (maybe it'll be a better desk lawn than Dense Shade?)


• Used by sod farms (Seems to be true I found a number of sod farms that proudly sell it.)


• Dark green color


• Resists disease (due to invisible waxy coating)

Black Beauty Cultivars

All grass seed is required by the USDA to be tested for content and germination. The Black Beauty label lists the following cultivars:

• 49.25% Dakota Tall Fescue


• 24.65% Montana Tall Fescue


• 24.50% Dorado Tall Fescue


• 1.40% Inert Matter


• 0.08% Other crop seeds


• 0.02% weed seeds

If you haven't obsessed over grass seed for the past few years like I have here's something that might be useful. Grass comes in different grass varieties such as Kentucky Bluegrass, Fine Fescue, Tall Fescue, Turf-Type Tall Fescue, Perennial Ryegrass, Bermuda, St Augustine, Zoysia, etc. Within those varieties you have different grass cultivars which are different plants within that variety. Just like you have fruit, some of those are apple and a granny smith is a type of apple.



Previous descriptions have listed Black Beauty's cultivars as 50% Dakota Tall Fescue, 25% Taos Tall Fescue and 25% Tombstone Tall Fescue. I don't know if the mix has changed globally or just in my area. I do remember reading that Black Beauty might have had some issues with disease and the change in the two cultivars might be related to that.



I can't find any information on these varieties on NTEP.org which concerns me a bit. All I could find was this sheet about Black Beauty's drought ratings which contains NTEP data and says the tests were done on NTEP sites. According to that sheet Montana and Dorado perform significantly better than Taos and Tombstone and have a darker color.



Montana Tall Fescue and Dorado Tall Fescue also had a much higher texture rating. This experiment I'm doing is all about texture. Ideally I'd plant this outside in the same soil I'd be planting my grass to see how it performs there but my main concern right now is how the grass will look and feel.



Dorado Tall Fescue appears to have a pretty fine texture based on the ratings and photos on this tech sheet. It also has a very nice dark green color



The tech sheets are from Cascade International which is described as a sister company to Jonathan Green. Guessing here, but I think Cascade is the seed grower and possibly the supplier to sod farms while JG is more geared towards consumers when it comes to grass seed.



There is 0.08% other crop seed which area other types of grasses not listed as the main cultivars. These can be unwanted and even weed type grasses. The weed seed content is 0.02% which consists of non grass weeds. Ideally you'd want 0% of each but from what I read anything less than 1% is fine so 0.1% of unwanted seed might not be too bad.

Black Beauty Grass Photos

I've seen a number of different photos of Black Beauty grass and they look really good. This is a close up photo of a piece of Black Beauty sod.






The next photo was taken a year after laying the sod and the claim is that it hasn't been fertilized since. That's definitely a lawn I would be proud of!

KBG vs TTTF

I've been stressing out over this decision for a long time. It's why I haven't done my lawn renovation in prior years.



I spent a lot of time reviewing NTEP ratings for grass in my area, primarily for Kentucky Bluegrass but even though KBG lawns look so nice it seems they need a lot of care to look so good. When I'm lax in my lawn care it shows. Meanwhile I've seen lawns in my neighborhood that get very little attention and look decent. Those lawns appear to be tall fescue based on the blade length. I'm not great at identifying lawns.



When the tall fescue in my lawn doesn't get enough water it stays green but gets a little stiffer, almost crunchy when you walk on it compared to the finer bladed grasses that have turned brown.



In my heart I want to have a custom blended elite KBG mix but even though I care about lawns enough to blog about them it's just a lawn and I don't want to spend too much time doing things to it.



I've seen pictures of KBG lawns that stay green in drought while TTTF lawns have gone brown. I've also seen the opposite where TTTF lawns stayed green while KBG has gone brown.



Both can have a nice dark green color if properly managed.



TTTF is a clumping grass and KBG has rhizomes so it can fill in and repair itself while TTTF will need to be overseeded. Jonathan Green does make a Black Beauty Ultra which contains some KBG and some perennial rye so you can have a self repairing TTTF lawn. I went with the regular Black Beauty because I wanted to have one type of grass that would grow evenly. Right now I have some grasses that grow faster than others and it looks messy by the time I have to mow. They may have chosen cultivars that blend well together but right now I'm stressing out so much over KBG vs TTTF I don't even want to think about mixing the two.



Black Beauty germinates in 10-14 days compared to up to 21 days for KBG. That's a somewhat important factor as I don't want to babysit seedlings and have to hand water multiple times a day to keep the seed moist.



While the majority of lawn fanatics seem to favor Kentucky Bluegrass when planting cool season grasses, there are some TTTF and even PR diehards.



Even Paul Tukey of SafeLawns.org had good things to say about it in this Boston Globe article:

"I like the Jonathan Green Black Beauty Mix," said Tukey. "Blue grass was originally imported as cattle feed because it's so fast growing. So if you want to mow your lawn every four days, go ahead and plant blue grass and knock yourself out."

I'm still undecided and fall is fast approaching. I'm really hoping this experiment gives me some more perspective one way or the other. I think it's going to come down to less maintenance/water but slightly wider grass blades or more maintenance/water but finer blades. I think maintenance/water will win out.

Planting Black Beauty Test

I followed the same procedure as I did for my other container grass. Some of it can bee seen in the top of the photos. I think I had poor germination because I used an old bag of seed. This new bag was bought today.






Filled a well draining planter about 1/4" from the top with organic potting mix. I filled it up more this time because after watering a couple of days the mix compressed a bit and sank too far below the top than I would have liked.






Evenly spread a handful of Jonathan Green Black Beauty grass seed over the top. This was a much heavier application than necessary.






Mixed the seed by hand to spread it out and get good seed to soil contact. I'm going to check in a little bit and possibly cover with a little more potting mix if there's enough room. I didn't do that the last time and saw plenty of seeds germinate that were just sitting on top of the potting mix.






Covered with coffee filters and added about a cup of water. Will be watering with a spray bottle 2-3 times throughout the day until seeds germinate at which point I'll carefully remove the coffee filters (seeds sometimes stick to them). These planters are near a North facing window so they get some indirect sun throughout the day. I've occasionally moved the top planter to a south facing window so it can get some more direct sun.

After 10 days from planting my indoor grass experiment is coming along nicely. Grass seeds are continuing to germinate and some blades of grass have reached 3 inches. On average it looks like the stand of grass is about 2" tall.



Just to recap on Day 1 I planted Jonathan Green Dense Shade Grass Seed Mix in a container filled with organic potting mix and I've been keeping the mix moist by spraying it lightly 3 times a day with water I keep in a spray bottle. I think the room temperature water helps.



On Day 3 I started to see some germination. On Day 4 there was even more germination and some blades of grass were up to 3/4" tall. I continued to spray the container multiple times a day to keep the soil moist. Every 2 to 3 days I dump the water from the bottom tray.



The container gets some indirect sun from a couple of North facing windows but every few days when I remember I move the container to a South facing window so it can get a few hours of more direct sunlight. My experience with this grass is that it does very well in shade with minimal light. I use Jonathan Green Dense Shade Grass Seed in a spot in my yard that is shady most of the day due to trees and it grows very well there.








As you can see from the top view, the grass still looks a bit thin but that should fill in shortly as there are still grass seeds germinating. A section on the lower right hand corner is especially thin which I believe was due to not enough seeds in that area or because the seed mixture I used was so old. There is some new growth there so hopefully it will continue to fill in.



In about another week or two I think I'll have a nice looking patch of turf on my desk. At some point I want to top dress with additional potting mix because as I've been watering the soil has been settling and it's now about 1.5" bellow the top of the container.

It's day 4 of my indoor grass experiment and things are coming along nicely. More seeds have germinated and the blades of grass are anywhere from 1/4" to 3/4" long at this point.



I've removed the coffee filters that I was using to help retain moisture since the weight of the wet paper was causing the longer shoots to bend.



The potting mix is retaining moisture well but I will continue to mist the top of the soil a couple of times a day to make sure the roots have plenty of water to continue to grow and so seeds keep germinating. Jonathan Green Dense Shade comes with a few different varieties of grass seed. Not all of them germinate at the same time.




Every other day I've dumped out the water that collects in the bottom tray of the planter. The potting mix absorbs most of it but now that it's thoroughly soaked a little drips out when I moisten the top.



I wish I would have filled the planter up to the top. The level has dropped about 1/4" from where it was initially due to settling and compaction as I've watered. This shade type grass is fine bladed and I don't think it will be able to stand up much more than 3". That means only about 2" of grass will be poking out the top of my planter. In a few days I might topdress with some more potting mix to bring the level up further.



The germination rate I'm seeing is better than I usually get in my lawn. Probably because I don't have a sprinkler system and my watering isn't as consistent. The wind and sun cause the top of the soil to dry out quickly. I also added significantly more grass seed than the recommended application rate because the seed was old and I expected a lower germination rate than usual.

It's day 3 of my growing grass indoors project and I'm already seeing germination!



Every night since I planted the Jonathan Green Dense Shade Grass Seed I've been peeling back the coffee filters I use to retain moisture. This is the first time I've seen signs of germination and I was surprised to see it so soon.



I was a bit concerned that the grass wouldn't grow because this batch of seed was left over from a few years ago. It also grew in my yard where I needed to fill in some patches.



After initially preparing my planter I've been making sure I keep the soil moist. The seed has been lightly watered 2 or three times each day with a spray bottle. I keep the spray bottle filled so that the water is at room temperature.



How important the water temperature is, I'm not sure. But I know that grass seed won't germinate if it's too cold. Since this planter doesn't have the benefit of being warmed by direct sunlight, I decided to use warmer water than that which comes directly from the cold water tap.



Even though I have Dense Shade growing in very shady parts of my landscape, the grass does get a little bit of late afternoon sun. To help my indoor grass get established quicker I'm going to try and give it at least a little bit of sun each day and will continue to water on the same schedule until it comes in thick.



Here's a close up view of the Dense Shade as it first germinates.

I always wanted a little planter of grass on my desk so I decided to try a little indoor grass growing experiment to see how well it turns out.



I'm hoping it can survive year after year with proper care. Instead of growing it in soil I'm using an organic potting mix and I'm using a grass seed I've had good results with in shade. I'm hoping it does equally well indoors.



If you'd like to follow along with the progress of my indoor lawn I'll be posting it in the into the Grass Indoors section of my site.

Step 1: Prepare Planter

If any of you happen to know where I can find a planter that looks like the one on the right but smaller please let me know!





I filled the planter up to about 1" from the top with Jungle Growth Organic potting mix. There are many beneficial fungi in soil that help grass grow. I hope using a potting mix isn't going to cause any problems. I didn't really want to bring any dirt and bugs inside.

Step 2: Add Seed

I'm using Jonathan Green Dense Shade Grass Seed Mix. It's a seed mix I use in a shady part of my lawn and have had great success with it. The bag I had was a few years so I added more than the recommended rate in case some of it has gone bad. I know at least some of it is good because I had to seed a patch of lawn earlier this year and the grass came up.



The label on the bag lists the following cultivars:

• 29.45% Carmen Chewings Fescue


• 24.55% Hood Chewings Fescue


• 14.75% Eugene Creeping Red Fescue


• 9.83% Frontier Perennial Ryegrass


• 9.82% Darkstar II Perennial Rygrass


• 9.82% DeepBlue Kentucky Bluegrass


• 1.71% Inert Matter


• 0.04% Other Crop Seed


• 0.03% Weed Seed

Step 3: Mix the Seed

I used my hand to just gently work some of the seed into the soil and evenly distribute it along the top layer.

Step 4: Cover With Coffee Filters

I placed a layer of regular white coffee filters over the seed and soil to act as a sort of seeding mulch. It will help keep the seeds moist and provide a better indication of when the seeds might need more water.

Step 5: Water Grass Seeds

The final step was to water the seeds. I only added about a cup of water. I'll be adding more water 2-3 times a day using a spray bottle to keep the seeds moist.




The age of the seed gives me some concern but I'm hoping it works out. Add my RSS feed to your reader to keep up with the progress.