Hello Friends,
I've finally given up and must do something about the front yard. Raleigh St. Augustine was already here when we moved in. My wife is asking me to sod the empty spaces, but worried about the shade under the tree. The sidewalk portion is direct sunlight all year. Worried about water requirements with any option. Called a few places and they suggested starting over (duh) with Palmetto St. Augustine or Celebration Bermuda.
Notes: Put down a 65/35 leveling sand/topsoil layer this week to assist, and the dirt out by the sidewalk gets very dry and cracked every summer as you can imagine.
The only requirement is that it will survive in the sun and under this tree without using too much water. These patches already take up 1/3 of the yard and stay green all winter without watering (milder winter of course) so the preference is to water/fert this and put down sod, but it's very thirsty.
Taking any/all suggestions. Willing to spend a little bit if sod is the move, just want something in before the heat that doesn't drain our reservoirs. No HOA obviously, but we probably won't go the taller native grass/wildflower route as much as i'd love that 🙁
Love, Your Neighbor
by Atx04
4 Comments
Scrape with a shovel, rake the grass up. Install a 1/2 inch layer of mushroom compost and plug in some frog fruit. Will establish in the first season. It will grow in any conditions. Reflective heat, full shade, standing water and drought. Its also edible and host plant to many butterflies. You can also mow it(a little higher than grass) At some point you have to stop trying things over and over that don’t work.
The folks over at r/lawncare are better with these sorts of questions.
St Augustine does better in shade than a lot of other grasses. But to have a nice lawn you have to water it. I forget how much St Augustine needs but Bermuda is 1-1.5 inches per week. Everyone suggests putting a tuna can on the lawn to collect water while you run your water system and then see how long that takes and then you’ll know what to do.
You also have to fertilize it. I prefer to go the natural route so I just put out a thin layer of compost in the spring. If you want to be serious about it you can do soil testing.
Does anyone know where I can order frogfruit seeds online? I have a similar patch of soil.
In my experience, St Augustine (and most grass) loves two things: 1) lots of water and 2) being cut. It sounds easy, but during the growing season that means at least 1” of water a week and mowing 2-3x. It’s a lot of work, but it will grow out and thicken up. Ive done it on St Augustine, Bermuda and fescues. Happy to help if you have more questions. Just shoot me a DM.