need your suggestions for what to plant

Jay P – posted 03 September 2007 08:36

I live in Boerne, TX which is near San Antonio but has a bit colder winter than San Antonio.

I planted gardens in my front area so I don’t have a lawn so to speak but I do have a couple areas of say 15 ft by 100 ft around the house that I wanted to have some type of low or no maintence grass.

3 years ago I seeded with Top Gun a cousin to Buffalo grass. The Top Gun was to grow to say 4 inches and not need mowing. That is what I wanted – a low growing grass that didn’t need mowing….ever or maybe just once a month or once every couple months.

The Top Gun looked and did well until the Bermuda moved in and took over. The Top Gun being a slow grower and the Bermuda being a very fast grower. I don’t want bermuda. Now I have to mow the Bermuda every couple weeks. So I’m wondering about killing everything in these mini-lawn areas and starting over. I’m still looking for a low growing grass that doesn’t need mowing – which will also fight off the bermuda.

Zoysia seems to be a possibility but reading the posts in your website there seems to be a lot of problems with zoysia – which breed – sod – bad companies to buy from – taking 3 years to fill in, etc.

(In my garden areas I planted ground cover of Asiatic Jasmine and Fig Ivy. After 3 years it is doing very well in the gardens – the best news was recently when I found that Roundup doesn’t effect either of these ground covers while it will kill the weeds and bermuda trying to come into the ground cover area.)

Suggestions on what to plant in my mini-lawn areas that are constantly threatened by bermuda?

TexanOne – posted 03 September 2007 19:58

I am in San Angelo – northwest of you, which is even colder and drier. I am of the opinion there are significant differences among Zoysia Japonica varieties. I have had success with El Toro and Palisades Zoysia provided you sod completely. I have not had success with the seeded Zenith variety. The hot summers in Central and West Texas seem too much for Zenith, while El Toro and Palisades seem perfectly adapted.

I would not consider the seeded Zoysia varieties because they take too much effort to get established. By the time you get a seeded Zoysia lawn established, you will spend a great deal of effort, money, and time compared to a sodded turf area.

From my personal experience, it seems that El Toro probably has the edge in a full-sun, or near full-sun exposure, while Palisades seems to do a little better than El Toro in a part-shade exposure. By the way, I have had the El Toro / Palisades Zoysia mix in an area of my yard that has never been fertilized, but it does receive generous irrigation. Both El Toro and Palisades seem to do just fine without any feeding. The El Toro / Palisades Zoysia has also resisted Bermudagrass and St Augustine infestations from neighboring yards for 9 years now. Bermudagrass cannot thrive where it is not routinely fed with nitrogen fertilizers, but Zoysia can.

I know the soils in the Boerne area can be very thin and rocky. Make sure you have adequate topsoil for a successful Zoysia turf – a minimum of 4”. Also, keep the mowing height fairly high – a minimum of 3” unless you doing a late-winter or early spring scalping. Good luck and hope this helps…

saltcedar – posted 10 September 2007 08:49

JayI would not consider any Zoysia “No Mow” but having said that if you want to try it you must killall the Bermudagrass. Otherwise you’ll be spendinggreat sums on Fusilade II for the next two or three years trying to eradicate it from your Zoysia.

HTH