Should I plug St. Augustine

misscarol – posted 29 May 2001 08:03

I live in central Mississippi. I had a local lawn service treat my lawn last year and all of the grass in my back yard has died except a small patch of Bermuda. Most of my back yard is shaded and I’ve been told that Bermuda doesn’t do well in the shade. My yard has a deep slope so every time it rains more of my topsoil ends up at the bottom of my yard. I have thought about plugging my yard with St. Augustine. I can’t afford to sod the whole yard and I am going to have to go to Memphis just to get St. Augustine. Any suggestions? Does anyone know how long it will take for it to spread? I also have two small dogs in the back yard.

seed – posted 31 May 2001 09:24

misscarol, plugging is very effective on level soils. Typically with water, sunlight, and fertilizer, St. Augustinegrass can cover fully in 5 months or less.

But your combination of slope and shade create a problem, so at the least you might want to strip the sod in horizontal bands to hopefully act as terraces to catch the runoff.

Phil