Brand new Zoysia plugs are like any other new plant. They need water and nutrients to become established. After harvesting, processing and shipping, they can dry out. They need water.

Once the plugs are in the ground, they will need 15 minutes of water per day for 3 weeks. Every day. Really. If it rains, don’t drag your hose out, but if it doesn’t rain… water your lawn.

Zoysia is drought tolerant, but that is AFTER it becomes established. It needs that solid root base to get started.

Us.

Zoysia is:
     - drought tolerant
     - heat tolerant
     - green all summer
     - dormant all winter
     - low maintenance
     - soft underfoot year round
     - disease resistant
     - weed resistant

Zoysia is not:
     - instant: it takes 3 years to fill in the plugs
     - water tolerant: Zoysia can drown
     - maintenance free: it does need some mowing and fertilizing.
     - a weed: it’s a type of Asian grass
     - grown from seed easily, plugs are the best way to go
     - a desert grass: You still have to water it, especially to start it out.

I learned from Wikipedia, Zoysia was named after Austrian botanist Karl von Zois.  Since Wikipedia is by no means infallible, I wanted 3rd party verification. Every source I found seems to agree that the man’s name was Karl von Zois. Some sources add a ‘zu Laubach’ after his name. I have no idea what the significance of that is. If von in German means ‘of’, and ‘zu’ means ‘to’, then perhaps Herr Zois was ancestrally from a place called Zois and immigrated to Laubach? Bach means ‘stream’, which leads me to believe that Laubach is a place.  Herr von Zois died about 1800.

What his nationality was is a bit unclear. Some say German, some say Austrian.  Though I suppose during von Zois’ lifetime, it was the same thing.

This my blog. It is also the blog of Zoysia Farm Nurseries, based in Taneytown, MD.  I just got here. At this company, that is. And I am totally new to the lawn grass world. (Yes, there is such a place) So, I am posting here to chronicle the journey. I work on a farm of 300 acres of 2 inch high turfgrass in Northern Maryland. Of the Meyer Zoysia variety. More on that later. But mostly I wanted to introduce myself and say hi. I don’t intend to focus entirely on growing and selling Zoysia. There will be everything from Walt Whitman to botany to history to ok, the growing and selling of Zoysia. I have to have some focus, after all.

*ok, not really.