What kind of grass?

L L CG

Does anyone have knowledge of grass?  We are about to have sod laid and want it to actually last.

We have two big dogs and moderate shade in our back yard.  I think the bigger problem is the dogs.

Does anyone have any grass recs?

katattack

I'm not sure if it's just our yard or not, but our St. Augustine seems to rip up very easily with the dog running around, etc.  From what DH tells me, St. Augustine is basically a weed, as it creates a root system, so when one 'root' pulls up, it's a chain reaction.

I want to change out the grass when we move, as I think the new house has St. Augustine as well. I think bermuda and zoysia are supposed to be good.

bobcatsteph

St Augustine is not native to this area and requires a lot of watering. It doesn't always do well in shade either. We have Bermuda and it has held up well with a 105lb dog. It does turn brown in the winter but always comes back nice. The City of Kyle actually only allows Bermuda because it doesn't require much water.

L L CG

Steph-- do you have a shady yard?  Thats the only thing I worry about with bermuda.

AustinBride06

I like St. Augustine... it's not doing very well this year and has been slow to come back (hence all the weeds we keep getting) but I think it looks great, and is very tolerant to our hot summers.  You can only start it from sod unlike others where you can start from seed.  This is great for us because we use corn gluten meal as our organic weed preventative/fertilizer and it discourages all growth from seed, not just weeds, so it doesn't negatively affect the St. Augustine.  As the grass starts to come in and get lusher, it suffocates the weeds very well... it's just these earlier months before the grass gets going when we have all weeds taking advantage of the dormant grass.

clynn58

Bermuda is a great grass to have in Texas it can take the heat and does not require much watering. St aug is a weed type grass, so is bufflo. I would not recommend those for anyone in Texas

Also if your neignbors have St Aug it will take over your yard. It is a bit*h to kill too.

We have bermuda and 3 dogs and the yard holds up well.

ssinca

clynn58:

St aug is a weed grass so it bufflo. I would not recommend those but if your neigbors have St Aug it will take over your yard.

I was going to say something like this as well - all of our neighbors have st. aug and other types of grasses will over take st. aug (I've heard it this way, not the other way around) so you might want to take into consideration what's around you.  unless you don't care about your neighbors. 

A&Jmom

We have three dogs and a huge (and I do mean huge) live oak tree, so lots of shade,  in our backyard.  The only thing I have been successful with getting to stay and mostly come back every year, I just do overseeding in spots where it does not come back, is Bermuda.  I like the look of St Augustine much better than Bermuda, and that is what is in the front, but it just does not hold up in our backyard.

OrangeFelt

We have Zoisa (sp?). It does well over the summer, but seemed to die over this winter really quickly.

katattack

MrsRosie:

It's chunky, rough, and we had another name for it in Minnesota growing up: crab grass.

This! I told DH that I wanted DD to be able to lay in the grass like I did as a kid and St. Aug is too rough and gross to do that.  Ick.

AustinBride06

MrsRosie:

I hate St. Augustine.  If we ever have the cash I want to get rid of it and get something else.  It's chunky, rough, and we had another name for it in Minnesota growing up: crab grass.

Maybe it was something different?  This is what we call crab grass here:

 

https://healthyhomegardening.com/Plant.php?t=Crab_Grass__Weed&pid=661

And that stuff certainly sucks.  Though if you catch it young enough, it's pretty easy to pull up out of your "good" grass since it's easy to distinguish from the St. Augustine or whatever and the root system is usually pretty simple.  But when it's mature... ugh... hate that stuff.

katattack

MrsRosie:

AustinBride06:

MrsRosie:

I hate St. Augustine.  If we ever have the cash I want to get rid of it and get something else.  It's chunky, rough, and we had another name for it in Minnesota growing up: crab grass.

Maybe it was something different?  This is what we call crab grass here:

 

https://healthyhomegardening.com/Plant.php?t=Crab_Grass__Weed&pid=661

And that stuff certainly sucks.  Though if you catch it young enough, it's pretty easy to pull up out of your "good" grass since it's easy to distinguish from the St. Augustine or whatever and the root system is usually pretty simple.  But when it's mature... ugh... hate that stuff.

Maybe they're different, but they seem to grow the same.  Isn't St. Augustine the stuff that grows in a long, I dunno what to call it, like a long vine kind of?

Yes, which is what bugs me about it.  You pull one piece up, it all comes up.

bobcatsteph

L*L*CG:

Steph-- do you have a shady yard?  Thats the only thing I worry about with bermuda.

Haha..nope, I live in a new construction neighborhood with little stick trees. I've heard that Bermuda does well with shade but that could be wrong.
I love the look of the St Augustine in the Houston area but it does so well there because of the rain and humidity.

AustinBride06

Yeah that's it.  Actually that's one of the reasons I like it... seems to get better coverage that way?  I don't know... but then if there are bad patches it's hard to get rid of them since you can't just over-seed.  I think the crab grass doesn't do that (grow from a vine)... seems to come from seed and be in pockets instead of spreading from one spot.  Looks similar though because of the wider dark green blades.

 

fjaril

if you are planting something other than augustine, you need to set deep barriers. Our old neighbors had bermuda and had these deep metal borders to keep the other grass out.

It never looked 'nice' in the summer, it was always burning up. 

we water once or twice a week for about half an hour total through all 7 or 8 zones and have green grass.

I hate the feel of the augustine, but it's really easy for us to have. 

 

Nessia

I guess I'm just weird because I would prefer st. augistine. To me it's softer and not as rough as bermuda. I love the way it feels cool in the morning.

s-a-r-a-h

It's sad that even after Googling pictures of grass, I still can't figure out what kind we have. Whatever it is, I don't like it.

jgb2000

Ditto other posters. I just had Bermuda sod laid in Nov. and it looks awesome. My grass guy told me all about how much TLC each type needs and since we don't do much to our lawn, we went with Bermuda. Our front lawn also gets almost zero shade. email me if you want my grass guy's info: bonitajennita@hotmail.com

 

Jen

PMBridetobe

Nessia:

I guess I'm just weird because I would prefer st. augistine. To me it's softer and not as rough as bermuda. I love the way it feels cool in the morning.

I love our St. Augustine!! We have had it in every house and once it is settled in, it requires little watering.  My grass is consistently green all year and I love walking on it AND that the dogs can poop on it and it stays right on top.  This makes it easy for the kids to do their chores as well.

ndluvsrk

If you have the $$, I'd go for Zoysia.

I like Bermuda better than St. Augustine for the look and feel, but it's not as weed-resistant or drought-tolerant. It does fine in the shade and you can seed it if you have any bald spots come up.

St. Augustine is easier to maintain than Bermuda, but not as soft or pretty, imo but you can't seed it and would need new sod to replace/patch it.