Friday's are a Lose Format Day in Zoysia Land USA

At least one day a week I am going to let the rise and fall of the Zoysia manifesto take a break, the Zoysia will not actually take a break obviously.
Officially Spring begins in about 20 days, what a thrill the daily snow fall turns into semi-daily then a few weeks later it is a weekly ice event. And then finally, just like it started back at the end of growing season the Zoysia Resting season will covert to the Zoysia Growing Season. I am working on a new calendar and looking for suggestions so make sure you either make suggestions now or watch for the surveys

Zoysia Manifesto

Zoysia Lovers Creed

Promise Yourself to Be So Strong That No weeds can Grow Amongst Your Zoysia Yard

To Talk Health, Happiness, and the Blessings of Zoysia to Everyone You Meet

To Wear a Cheerful Continence at All Times and Give Every Living Person You Meet
a Plug of Your Emerald Zoysia Grass

To Cheerfully Mix Zoysia seed into any non-Zoysia seed you may come across

My Favorite 1 of 5 Plug Tricks

When you live in a plug only part of the country, like Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Pennsylvania, Maryland ... you live in the plug only, due to limited sunlight we have a limited growing season. Distributing plugs around your yard can become expensive and given the size of you yard those plug can easily get lost or loss a battle with your lawn mower.
1. Here is what I have done, take a large plug, shovel circle size of your current Zoysia, move this large plug to it's new home then roto-till the current spot where you don't have Zoysia growing, then plant winter wheat where you just removed the large plug from, winter wheat will grow during the down season for Zoysia and into the next growing season, summer then it will die off with mowing. It will also keep the weeds away,and more importantly wouldn't compete with next years Zoysia growth. This works in OH

History and Varieties of ZOYSIA Grasses Part 1

History and Varieties of Zoysia Grasses

History

Zoysia is a genus of eight species of creeping grasses native to southeastern and eastern Asia (north to China and Japan) and Australasia. These species, commonly called Zoysia or Zoysiagrass or even Zoysialovers.com , are found in coastal areas or grasslands. The genus is named after the Austrian botanist Karl von Zois. Here is the biological breakdown from Kingdom to Genus

Kingdom:	Plantae
Division:	Magnoliophyta
Class:	Liliopsida
Order:	Poales
Family:	Poaceae
Genus:	Zoysia Wild.

This genus was first introduced to the United Sates in the early 1900's .

Those eight species were:

1. Zoysia japonica

2. Zoysia macrantha

3. Zoysia macrostachya

4. Zoysia Natrella (syn. Z. tenuifolia)

5. Zoysia minima

6. Zoysia pauciflora

7. Zoysia pungens

8. Zoysia seslerioides

9. Zoysia sinica

The 2002 National Zoysiagrass test has 20 entries that they are evaluating and I have seen reports of at least one that has been in use for at least 10 years and is not included in this testing. (That being BK-7) Having 20 entries does not mean that you can choose amongst the 20 for your yard or greens, just currently 8 of these listed are available for commercial use. The really great news for Zoysialovers.com is that these fine growers and suppliers are working diligently to bring all of us the very best and most profitable Zoysia to market.

Those 8 varieties, that are commercially available are: Meyer, Emerald, Himeno, Zenith, Compadre (Companion), GN-Z, Zorro, and Chinese.

I regret to inform you that this "National Test" lacks the Great State of Ohio and Indiana that would make the people in some states like Ohio and Indiana benefit from the fullness of all their massive research.

Dealing With Mixture of Zoysia and other stuff

If you are like me you have a yard mixed with Zoysia and other non-Zoysia stuff. It occurred to me while reflecting on the "lawn care" sales folks that when I put down plant food that I only want to put it down on the Zoysia, otherwise it is like providing aid and comfort to the enemy. I certainly don't want to do that. I want the non-Zoysia stuff to struggle off and get crowded out even if it does take sometime to do that, feeding it would certainly make it stronger and more of a challenge for the Zoysia to win the battle of the lawn. One of my neighbor feed the her entire yard and the Zoysia in one area has actually gotten smaller over the years, the other Zoysia areas are denser than mine, but I cannot determine any growth or spreading. I really have a challenge with the entire lawn-care industry, they feed so it grows more and you spend more time either cutting or more money paying someone else to cut your grass. What a nice form of planned obsolescence perpetual income for them and there lawn mowing compodres. Similar to the Plumbers Association supplying silver maples trees (which are sewage tile invasive trees) to the home builders as they are beginning to landscape the suburbs of the 50's, 60's and 70's. They planned ahead for the day when the building boom might slow down and they would need work cleaning out sewage drains and it was very successful.
As Zoysia Lovers we too can plan ahead and look forward to the day when all our grass grows out and not up and driving the lawn mowing industry to it's knees and thus keeping more of our money in our pockets where it belongs or at the very least spending less of our time cutting the grass or both saving money and spending less time cutting. Really sounds and is a win win situation for the Zoysia Lover in all of us.

Celebrate If the Zoysia's Not Growing You Are Not Mowing

If Zoysia's not growing- Then You're not mowing.

Have you ever considered all the advantages of Zoysia grass Lite brown that dormant color that lets you know that the Zoysia growing season is over. What a mixed blessing, at that time it tells you just how much the Z has taken over the area then you start to realize that the Z has gone dormant and that is sad. One year I knew a frost was coming so I spread sheets out over the area to keep it warmer, the weather man had predicted that the frost was going to be heavy the weather was going to turn to Indian summer almost immediately. Which it did and I got a whole 3 days of extra growing season. Best laid plans of mice and men so they say. I had considered using smokers like they do for the fruit trees in FL and CA, I just could not justify the cost for an extra three days besides I may have had to mow an extra time.
Then when Zoysia is tan I am not mowing, lots of leaves to deal with but growing grass is not a concern. If it's not growing you're not mowing! When it is growing you're not mowing as much. One of my life's passion is to have my entire yard covered with Zoysia by the time I turn 55. Thereby, reducing the number of times the grass needs mowing down to once a month, in Ohio that would be once in late May late June late July early Sept late Oct that looks like five (5) mows to me so the going rate to cut half an acre in this area is about $35 a cut or $175 for 5 cuts now the guy next door with out Zoysia cuts twice in April, August, November and then four times in May, June, July, September, October, for 22 times at $35 or $770. Looks like I have an extra 595 greenbacks in my pocket.

10 Ways for Zoysia to take over the Planet

10 Ways for Zoysia to take over the Planet---
HERE ARE THE FIRST 5

1. Act like you are part of a road crew and plant plugs or spread Zoysia seed along the side of your local highways
2. Plant plugs or seed around permanent structures like fire hydrants or street signs
3. Plant some in you neighbors yard while they are away on vacation or sleeping
4. In the late summer cut the non-Zoysia grass very short giving the Zoysia a greater advantage in the lawn war
5. Look for places where they have recently seeded and covered with straw and add Zoysia seed into the straw