Jim,
Atwoods is my first choice for buying most things. I thing Tractor Supply has a better bolt and nut section, but it's not so much better that I'll drive past Atwoods to get there. Walmart is another store that you only buy certain things from them. I'm very disappointed in all their garden department. The selection and choices for fertilizer were very limited. Have you gone to any farm supply stores in your area? The one that I like is always very consistent in their prices and I really like how I can buy seed by the pound with them. The other places that I've been to will only sell it by the sack. Pure Bermuda by the 50 pound sack is in the $300 range, which is more then I need or want to spend.
Jimmy,
While shopping around at the stores, I was seeing prices from .40 cents a pound for 13-13-13 on up to almost a buck a pound. Home Depot and Lowes were very expensive, as was Walmart. They had the big name brands, which might be part of the reason, but it could also be that I'm not comparing apples to apples. I don't really know what ingredients are in the sacks to get their ratings. I'm taking a chance with the cheap stuff, and hoping for the best. Since it's just a pasture that is just to catch water that will run into my big pond, I'm not too worried about the protein content of that grass. It will never be cut for hay, or anything along those lines.
The soil is pretty acidic. I got lucky in this are and didn't require very much lime. Since it was such a low requirement on my soil analysis, I'm holding off on the lime until fall. I might not do it then either, it just depends on how the grass comes out and if I feel the need to try to improve on it. Bermuda likes acid soil, as does my native Bahia.
I don't see allot of farming going on around here. There is allot of hay grown here and plenty of cattle. We're the Rose Capital of the nation with half of all roses in the nation grown in the area. Roses like our soil!!!! I don't have top soil, it's just clay and more clay. To build, you just sort of scrape off the grass and level it off. No digging down and hauling off topsoil is needed. Some places are all sand, which really sucks for growing grass. The moisture doesn't stay in the sand and there is very little nutrients in the sand. I have clay, I know a guy down the road from me, about two miles away that has all sand on his place.
At first, I didn't like clay. Now that I've got a feel for it and worked with it, I really like it. While low areas will hold water and stay muddy, high areas dry out real quickly and shed water when it rains. I hate walking or driving through it when it's muddy, but that's mostly because it packs to your boots or tires. The native plants love it and I'm in a permanent battle to stop the trees from taking over. Trees are one of the most aggressive weeds that I have to deal with. In some areas, it's the pines, others areas it's the oaks, and almost everywhere, the sweetgums are trying to take over.
Texas is about as varied a state as you will ever find. Being as large as it is, we have some pretty extreme changes all over the state. In my area, it's thick jungle with allot of pines. From March till December, it's green and lush. Mowing grass is big business here!!!! If you drive an hour West, it changes to more open land, scrub oaks and the pines stop growing. It's almost a line that you cross. One minute it's kind of ugly out, then it gets green and heavily forested. When I tell people about what it looks like here, I tell them to think of Louisiana or the other Southern States for an idea of what East Texas is like.
Saying all that, my favorite part of the state is the Hill Country that's sort of West of Austin and North-West of San Antonio. Totally different area, but just amazing in how beautiful it is.
Eddie
