Rye and St. Aug seeding vs. St Aug sodding? (rent, live)

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by Rakin

If you are on a budget you can buy St Augistine sod and cut the sections into 1/4 or 1/6 sections. You can plug these smaller sections through out your yard and if watered and cared for well these will grow and crowd out the burmuda.

It's sodding SA on a budget. Takes longer to get established but works.

LOL! Or in our case with the front yard.......... just stop pulling up the St. Augustine runners from the neighbors yard and just let it come on over Which is just what we did in the front yard.

[billybeer]

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Rakin
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If you are on a budget you can buy St Augistine sod and cut the sections into 1/4 or 1/6 sections. You can plug these smaller sections through out your yard and if watered and cared for well these will grow and crowd out the burmuda.

It's sodding SA on a budget. Takes longer to get established but works.

St Aug. is the best around here...grows well in shade and sun and keep it healthy it can strangle the weeds out by itself. I have successfully put St. Aug in by buying plugs of it at calloways. They sell a plat that has I think 18 plugs in it. Then just keep watering the area.

[lh_newbie]

I have read about Palmetto St. Augustine - it is supposed to be a bit finer than, and have better drought, cold and heat tolerance compared to common St Augustine. Has anyone use Palmetto St Augustine? I'm considering getting some plugs and putting them in our lawn, as we do have a fair amount of shade. The common St Augustine does pretty well, but if we could get a slightly finer blade and have better cold tolerance - that would be really nice.

Brian

[Kootr]

Originally Posted by bernie01

I have some newbie questions about seeding this Sept. I live in Dallas, TX and the majority of lawns are St. Augustine. Yards throughout the neighborhood have st. aug that is thick and green year round. One person told me they plant rye seed mixed in the st. aug. Every landscaping service I talk to recommends St. Aug sod.

I’m not sold on sodding, my finances are tight but I do have a completely open schedule and I can work on this 24/7 for weeks. I’m not so convinced that st. aug sod is the way to go and I don’t think I can afford it. I was thinking of planting rye and st aug seeds come mid-Sept.

And I might be moving out-of-state before the spring.

Background Info….

Back yard
A year ago, the backyard was all st. aug sod but I starved it, it burnt and decomposed (all the dead, yellow grass is gone, it’s just all dirt….please don’t ask). Now the backyard consists of the compact soil, the same soil that’s on the bottom of the sod and there is some sandy soil. I would say half of the back yard is shaded from my neighbor’s trees.

Front yard
Most of the front yard is st. aug that is alive. Around mid-May, a landscaper put down some pieces of sod to fill some gaps. I watered the sod everyday, sometimes twice a day and I did not mow the new sod. About 4-5weeks later, the new sod was really green and really thick and needed to be cut but since I do not have a lawn mower, I had to pay someone to cut the grass. This person cut the grass too short, which I understand shocks the grass. I figured it would recover after 2-3weeks but it hasn’t. The sod square is completely yellow and brittle. Now out of the fifteen new pieces of St. Aug sod, less than half is still green and growing. A quarter of the front yard is shaded by my neighbor’s trees.

I now have good diligence and a strategy on positioning the sprinkler’s so watering shouldn’t be an issue. There are no pets, kids to worry about trampling the new grass.
I’m pretty sure I would need to till the backyard. Do I need to use top soil? Would the new seeds survive the winter?

Any thoughts? Any recommendations?

Sod is the ONLY way to go. I suggest NOT putting rye or fescue out in the fall because you'll have a lawn that looks like it has weeds in it late into the spring, plus you'll be mowing during the winter.

If you cannot afford sod for a small yard in the M Street area you have no business living there... Also, if you are unable to educate yourself on when, and how much, to water your grass to keep it alive you have no business owning property with a lawn.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by Kootr

Sod is the ONLY way to go. I suggest NOT putting rye or fescue out in the fall because you'll have a lawn that looks like it has weeds in it late into the spring, plus you'll be mowing during the winter.

If you cannot afford sod for a small yard in the M Street area you have no business living there... Also, if you are unable to educate yourself on when, and how much, to water your grass to keep it alive you have no business owning property with a lawn.

I am now having visions of that story last week on the news about the guy in East Dallas with the fake turf in his yard. His yard actually looked great and unless you got right on the lawn one would not know it was artificial. The neighbor was a TRIP! She was going on about, "yahs, I knows my yards needs to be moweds some ands gots weeds but at leasts its real grass". Then they showed HER yard. GRASS! There wasn't a blade of REAL grass to be had in that entire yard. It was nothing but dirt and weeds about 2'-3' high. And she was putting down the guy for having a kept, tidy lawn even though it was fake.

He was going before the city in order to keep it. Does anyone know if he won or not?

[bernie01]

Thank you for the feedback and even the constructive criticism

I'm starting to think there's a sodding conspiracy going on and everyone of you are contractors wanting to sell me sod

I called around and found a pallet of st aug cost $157. + $60. delivery so it looks like I'm going that route. I still need to find someone to till the backyard. I could rent a tiller but I'm not sure it would fit in the SUV.

Doug1980 - Can I plant the sod now or do i need to wait until mid-Sept?

Grainraiser - I did keep it moist. I watered it everyday, sometimes twice a day and not ten min worth of watering, more like thirty min. I really really did water it that much.

I'm a total newb with sodding and will try to rapid get up to speed.

Q: Would using any type of fertilizer, water absorbing pellets, other products help?

[momof2dfw]

LOL!!! No, I'm not in the sod business. I WISH right now as I need a whole truck load to finish the OTHER side of our yard and the stuff ain't cheap. We got a pretty good price the other day from I think it was Anderton Grass in Garland. Hubby is going to go w/ that one over our yard guy that does everything else and even did our backyard.

Yes, you can put sod down right now. Just beware that soon it will start to turn yellow w/ the cooler weather and go dormant. Both of our previous houses had the yards put in during the Fall and they did just fine. Better than the heat of the summer. Which is why we have waited to do the other side of the yard till it cooled down.

Go pick up a book by Neil Sperry. He is THE guru on all things yard related for the North Texas area.

[momof2dfw]

Originally Posted by lh_newbie

I have read about Palmetto St. Augustine - it is supposed to be a bit finer than, and have better drought, cold and heat tolerance compared to common St Augustine. Has anyone use Palmetto St Augustine? I'm considering getting some plugs and putting them in our lawn, as we do have a fair amount of shade. The common St Augustine does pretty well, but if we could get a slightly finer blade and have better cold tolerance - that would be really nice.

Brian

Hmm, haven't checked on that. My husband prefers Bermuda over SA because of the finer blade. Might have to check it out for the other side of the yard. Wonder if this type of SA would overtake the common SA if we planted some on that side of the front? Then my front yard could be consistent. Which it is not even consistent right now. One side is half bermuda and half SA. The other side of the yard is DIRT! URGH! Glad the construction project is FINALLY done. The plumber tore up half our yard just putting in one line.

[loves2read]

the issue with many people regarding St Augustine is the water it takes to maintain a very green yard
if water restrictions become more stringent (and frankly they must because water is a finite resource) keeping St Augustine green is going to be painfully expensive
plus you need to take into account the amount of sun your lawn gets
Bermuda really does better in sun than St Augustine
there is grass from TAMU's lab that is supposed to be good choice for TX--pretty drought tolerant--think it is called Reville after the TAMU mascot--it can be seeded like Bermuda or sodded like St Augustine
or you could try buffalo grass--almost never needs cutting and totally acclimated to this eco zone -- but is not what anyone would call luxurious...

right now Plant Shed in Tarrant side is selling sod for less than $1 sq yd--not delivered--quality can be hit or miss but that is pretty cheap

we had our lawn guy clean out part of our front yard that had gotten uprunners from the oak tree--and they planted a pallet of sod about 3 weeks ago--right before the last good rain we had
we watered every day for two weeks and had the rain in addition and have moved watering back to about every third day now and it looks great...
looks really

[lh_newbie]

Loves2read -

Agreed. DFW folks use WAY more water than they should to maintain the lawn. We have SA, but we also have a lot that's 9800 sq ft total (minus the house, sidewalks, driveway, etc) and we have two 40' tall red oaks in the back yard and two 35' tall live oaks in the front. We thinned the trees some so the lawn would fill in a bit, but the last couple months, we've dropped about 11,000 gallons on the lawn per month. Once it's more established, we'll cut that back. The bare spots due to the complete lack of sun (trees were overgrown + there was a playground thing in the back yard we finally pulled out) are almost filled in now.

Momof2 -

From what I've read, Palmetto SA can indeed be installed as plugs in common SA lawn and will eventually take over because it is more aggressive, more heat tolerant and more drought tolerant. I think in the spring, I'm going to get a bunch of plugs and give it a try. Sure would be nice to have a less water demanding lawn with a finer blade.

Brian