St. Aug over Bermuda

Nicole – posted 30 April 2006 20:16

Here is the situation. We recently purchased a home with Bermuda grass in front and St Aug in back. Why, we have no idea?

We are only ones with Bermuda on the block with this type of grass and the previous owners did a horrible job keeping up the lawn. Needless to say, it needs some help.

My question is this, how much work needs to be done to replace the Bermuda with St. Aug? Do we need to remove all of the Bermuda before putting down the sod?

As an alternative, would anyone have any suggestions to save the Bermuda? It just does not seem to be as thick as it should and there are still some brown spots that have not turned since warming up. I have seen other sites that suggest mixing in rye grass. Would anyone else suggest this?

Thanks in advance for you help.

tommy – posted 30 April 2006 22:32

You can seed more bermuda on top of what you already have, and this will thicken up the lawn. Ryegrass would not be used at this time, but rather in the fall when cold temps cause bermuda to brown. Bermuda will somtimes stay green year around in extreme southern regions, but most other areas use ryegrass for good winter color. If you decide to seed more bermuda , find out what type you have in your yard, and try to match the new seed to what you have already. If you have common bermuda, choose somthing like ‘La Prima’, Sydney, Sultan, Savanah,Panama etc. If you have hybrid bermuda- choose , ‘Princess’, Riviera, or Yukon to fill in bare spots.

tommy – posted 01 May 2006 11:40

Also, you may want to try heavily fertilizing and watering the bermuda to see how much of it will come back. Somtimes there are a lot of dormant rhizome’s in the soil that will come back given the right conditions. Mow the yard short and remove the clippings, fertilize and water the heck out of it, and see what happens. You may not have to re-seed.

Nicole – posted 09 May 2006 19:21

Thanks Tommy. We tried combining your two suggestions. I cut the lawn very low and removed all the clippings. I then spread new seed over the existing lawn. It has only been a couple of days, but it is coming in a little bit thicker.

I was worried at first because cutting it so low seemed to burn the grass and really brown it. I watered like you said and it rained as well. I will let you know how it comes out in a couple of weeks.

Would you suggest that I try this again in a couple of weeks to make sure that the seeds take? I really want this lawn thick and green.

Thanks again for your help.

wadevl – posted 17 June 2006 22:48

cut as often and a s short as you can if you have a rotary mower

fert as wellif you hae a balnced soil compHi levels of N are ok