repair bare spots in st. augustine lawn with ryegrass?

suggestuse – posted 08 September 2006 17:20

i live in florida and my lawn is st. augustine.there are some bare spots in the lawn, which hasn’t been growing grass for 8 months now. i was thinking of patching the spots with perennial ryegrass. i know that st. augustine is mainly sold in plugs or sod. i just find my lawn a bit ugly looking and want to fix it with ryegrass.

would you recommend it?

jr – posted 08 September 2006 19:36

Sure, if you wait until november and you are ready for dirt agsin by march and you want to water it non stop during that time, because that’s all you’re going to get out of it. It also doesn’t look particularly good with St. Augustine. But if you insist on it, get some plugs started now and seed your rye, and that way when it dies, at least you’ll have the plugs already growing.

Turfguru – posted 12 September 2006 14:45

I would not put rye seed down. First of all it is not cold enough for rye, and second it will do more damage on your St. Augustine turf than do good when it comes time for transition. I would rake out the bare areas, remove any and all old soil in that area, and replace with new soil. Solid sod new St. Aug, in that area, water in and you will like the results a lot better.