lberman – posted 23 March 2003 15:27
We live in South Central Texas. Our 3-year old house was originally sodded with Bermuda grass (I believe it is called Tifway). The front yard (full sun) has done very well, but the back yard (partial shade) has never grown in. Very patchy & thin with tons of weeds. My husband tried everything but finally got fed up and put Round Up on the entire back yard a couple of weeks ago. The yard is now completely dead and he would like to put down St. Augustine sod (the only thing that seems to flourish in our extremely hot, humid climate). The dead stuff is thin and patchy and he thinks he can just put the sod right over it. I feel that the sod will have a hard time taking root this way, but I don’t really know what we need to do to prepare the yard for the St. Augustine. Neither of us is very handy in the yard, nor do we like to do much hard labor! Any advice would be most appreciated. Thanks!Lynn
AusHorn – posted 23 March 2004 13:19
I would like to know the answer to this as well. Last year I had my yard hydromulched with Zenith Zoysia. It did not take very well, and now I have a yard of a little bit of Zoysia, a medium amount of Bermuda, and a lot of weeds. I’m tempted to kill everything with RoundUp, scalping it, and try St. Augustine sod. Would I be able to lay the St. Augustine sod over all of the dead stuff or would I need to bring in some topsoil? I’m really looking for the cheapest alternative to a fairly nice back lawn as I spent a lot of money on dirt and the Zoysia hydromulch last year. Also, if it makes any difference my back yard is quite unlevel.
[This message has been edited by AusHorn (edited 23 March 2004).]
wdrake – posted 23 March 2004 13:36
I am probably the last person reading this item that should offer advice on warm season turfgrasses. I have (I think) a unique fungus problem that keeps killing whatever I put down.
Having given Fair Warning; here are my thoughts. It is best to remove the organic material; ie., grass-which may be diseased. Level the area and, based on a soil sample, augment soil with fertilizers, organic material, etc. Check out the “how to ” instructions from the University of Florida.
http://edis.ifas.ufl.edu/LH012
Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 29 March 2004 08:39
If you have mostly dirt, the sod will probably work for you. I would scalp or hoe out the grasses as best I could first. Be sure you roll the sod down.