nogreenthumb – posted 27 June 2003 21:39
I have lived in the city all of my life and just recently bought a home in Alpharetta, GA. Obviously I’ve never mowed a lawn in my entire life and now I just purchased a new home with Bermuda grass in the front and the back was apparently seeded with Fescue, but it really hasn’t grown in. My question is which grass is the best for me, being a person who probably will forget to water the grass occassionally and will also probably won’t be good about mowing. There isn’t much shade on my lot. Does it matter that there are two kinds of grass on my lot? Should I tear up the back and put in Bermuda? I’d like to have a lush, dark green, soft lawn, one where you can walk around with your shoes off. Is Zoysia the better bet? Should I just tear everything up and put in Zoysia?
Also, if I am thinking about putting up a retaining wall in my back yard, and there is construction going on next door, should I really invest the money into installing sod now or should I just wait until construction is finished and i’ve leveled the lot and all the work on the retaining wall is done? I’m just wondering if I decide to put in grass now and workers come later to work on my property, will it kill the grass?
I’d appreciate any/all input you could give me!
Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 28 June 2003 00:05
In my opinion, zoysia is never a good grass for a homeowner. At the zoo or a museum, maybe, but not at a home. I call it ‘hassle grass,’ because you are always worrying about it. The chief worry is…’I wonder when that spot will fill in.’ And you’re always worried someone will walk on it or a dog will pee on it.
If you’re thinking about any construction in the back yard, wait until that’s over to do anything back there. I suggest you hire a ‘finish grader’ to regrade and dig up the compacted area from the construction zone. They will make sure the lot drains away from the buildings and out somewhere else.
Unless your back yard is separated from the front by a nuclear waste dump, the bermuda will incroach and likely take over the back. There is one way you might prevent it from taking over, but it will still try to encroach. The way to keep it from taking over is to set your mower to the highest setting and mow it high in the back. Bermuda loves to be short and cannot stand any shade. When you mow high, the other grass, and indeed the bermuda itself, will shade out the bermuda enough that the other grass will dominate.
If you can grow St Augustine in your area, I highly recommend it. It will have a little bit of a tendency to grow over the edges of the concrete but nothing like the bermuda!! When you mow St Augustine at the highest setting, it will easily choke out most other grasses AND weeds. And tall St Aug is a nice grass to walk on. I play kick ball with my two girls at least once a week on ours. They love to run on it.
Depending on how fast you wanted to convert, you could establish St Aug with only one flat of sod. As it spreads out, it will take over in a few years. Or you could kill off the existing grass(es) and sod the entire place with St Aug. And St Aug is the only grass that will have any great success in shade.
The only thing about St Aug that it is intolerant of is water. When it needs water, it really needs it. Many other grasses will go dormant from lack of water, but St Aug will die and not return when the rains come. If you’re not likely to water once a week, then St Aug might not be for you. There is a way to train it to need less water but you don’t sound like you’re into this that much, so you’ll have to decide.