Lawn Alternatives?? (Jacksonville, St. Augustine, Live Oak: HOA, homes, established neighborhood)

[KerryB]

New Jax resident here. Has anyone had experience with any lawn alternatives here? It seems the grass the previous owner used on our home was that REALLY thick grass that everyone seems to like, but it requires CONSTANT attention, watering, etc or else it will just die & leave the yard looking horrible.

Me & my wife are sorta conservationists. Not in a crazy way, but we do think its an awful lotta resources being used to just have a green lawn. Water, pesticides, gas powered lawn mowers, maintenance fees, etc.

Anyways, we dont want any fake turf stuff or anything like that. Just something that looks good, is alive & doesn't require all the attention. Thanks!

[bugnbyke]

I recently installed Bahia and have had no issues. You can expect weeds but no bug issues. Another option is xeriscape.

[riveree]

Something I've been doing is slowly shrinking my lawn by expanding my planting areas.

I have an HOA, so I can't just remove the whole lawn, but I think I can bring it down by 50% or more eventually and still have the "look" of a lawn with some deep curvy planting beds being more dominant.

In the meantime, I've been training my lawn to be more drought resistant by withholding water until it wilts then giving it a deep watering. I also use an organic fertilizer, a mulching mower, and little to no pesticides (I spot-treat if I'm having a problem). I'm trying to have as environmentally-friendly lawn as I can and challenging myself to do better .

It sounds like you have St. Augustine grass, many of us do (that's what I have as well). The nice thing about it is that it does well in sun or shade, so as trees grown in, you can still keep some lawn.

If you have no HOA to worry about, you might want to try a ground cover such as a small-leaf jasmine. It's a dark green ground hugging dense vine that will form a "lawn" that you trim from time to time. You'll see it used a lot in some of the older, established neighborhoods where they have huge lawns. The jasmine is often around the base of a big tree (often a Live Oak) in a big, curving swath - it looks very elegant.

There are many kinds of jasmines, this would be the one you'd want:

http://www.floridata.com/ref/T/trac_asi.cfm

[BarbieWhe]

Originally Posted by KerryB

New Jax resident here. Has anyone had experience with any lawn alternatives here? It seems the grass the previous owner used on our home was that REALLY thick grass that everyone seems to like, but it requires CONSTANT attention, watering, etc or else it will just die & leave the yard looking horrible.

Me & my wife are sorta conservationists. Not in a crazy way, but we do think its an awful lotta resources being used to just have a green lawn. Water, pesticides, gas powered lawn mowers, maintenance fees, etc.

Anyways, we dont want any fake turf stuff or anything like that. Just something that looks good, is alive & doesn't require all the attention. Thanks!

In the spring we paid the neighbors $300 to dig up all of our front lawn. That was a mistake. Now, we are still fighting the bugs and weeds.

We were considering a Hybrid planting with seeds.

We have a lawn service to mow and in-ground sprinklers and no grass. I hired Scotts Lawn service last summer or the summer before that and even a professional service could not fight the bugs.

I have no idea what to do about the bugs. I am so ready so see a green lawn again.

I do think the best thing to do if you have St Augustine is be sure and seed it for the winter to keep the ground filled in so weeds can't take hold.

[KerryB]

I have been searching around, and the type that always comes up is something called "ecoturf" or Ornamental Perennial Peanut cover. There are quite a few places in FL that do it (including this one in Jax), so it must be popular. Its supposed to be VERY low matience & needs no water after its established. Maybe needs mowed only once a month, just for uniformity.

[riveree]

Originally Posted by KerryB

I have been searching around, and the type that always comes up is something called "ecoturf" or Ornamental Perennial Peanut cover. There are quite a few places in FL that do it (including this one in Jax), so it must be popular. Its supposed to be VERY low matience & needs no water after its established. Maybe needs mowed only once a month, just for uniformity.

It looks pretty. If it's a fast grower and dense, then you hopefully won't run into the problems barbie speaks up above. In Florida, it takes no time at all for weeds to move into any unoccupied space . Check out the "Garden" sub-forum for a recent discussion about Torpedo Grass - this seems to be a growing problem in Jacksonville.

I haven't personally seen the ornamental peanut cover in Jax (but I'll keep an eye out now), but I do see plenty of the jasmine I mentioned above. For a modern look, there are also fescues and carexes (short ornamental prairie grasses) that could work too (and no mowing involved....but it could be pricey to fill an entire lawn with these).

[joninclay]

Originally Posted by KerryB

New Jax resident here. Has anyone had experience with any lawn alternatives here? It seems the grass the previous owner used on our home was that REALLY thick grass that everyone seems to like, but it requires CONSTANT attention, watering, etc or else it will just die & leave the yard looking horrible.

Me & my wife are sorta conservationists. Not in a crazy way, but we do think its an awful lotta resources being used to just have a green lawn. Water, pesticides, gas powered lawn mowers, maintenance fees, etc.

Anyways, we dont want any fake turf stuff or anything like that. Just something that looks good, is alive & doesn't require all the attention. Thanks!

The thick stuff you're talking about is St. Augustine grass. I replaced my back yard with Empire Zoysia three years ago, and it's awesome.

It's fairly drought-resistant, it doesn't take as much watering as St. Augustine does (though it obviously still needs some watering, especially after it's first planted), it handles the winter well, and it handles foot traffic better.

[KerryB]

Originally Posted by joninclay

The thick stuff you're talking about is St. Augustine grass. I replaced my back yard with Empire Zoysia three years ago, and it's awesome.

It's fairly drought-resistant, it doesn't take as much watering as St. Augustine does (though it obviously still needs some watering, especially after it's first planted), it handles the winter well, and it handles foot traffic better.

Yeah, its DEF St Augustine grass. I think that grass looks good, but thats where it ends. Its odd that so many homes have it here because it doesn't seem like a good fit for the area at all. And since its so coarse, thick & cant be cut any lower than 3", then kids, small dogs, etc cant play in it very well. And forget about a game of football.

That alternative grass you mentioned looks great. Do you have any recommendations on who can install that for me?? Thanks.

[Karla with a K]

kerry a well established st aug lawn only needs 1/2 " to 3/4" of water twice a week. Also by leaving the cuttings when you mow equals 1 to 2 nitrogen treatments each year
I would make sure to check with your HOA to see if changing would be an issue
we had one guy in our neighborhood who put in bermuda and not only does it look odd with all the others being st aug but it is very weedy
Also with something like the Ornamental Perennial Peanut cover you would need to make sure it doesn't creep into your neighbors lawn
also keep in mind that st aug sends runners so keeping your neighbors st aug out of your new lawn might be an issue

[joninclay]

Kerry,

I got my empire zoysia from Johnston Brothers Farm in Bunnell (Flagler County). They can bring it out to you, and I think for an extra fee, they'll put it in for you.

Karla makes a great point about checking with your HOA, though. I had to get my HOA to sign off on getting a different grass.