[bobfl]

My zoysia grass has pretty much stopped growing now. My question is how often does it need cutting in the Summer? One lawn service gave one price for twice a month cutting and another for once a week. Since we are snowbirds what do you think is correct?

[chuckinca]

Originally Posted by bobfl

My zoysia grass has pretty much stopped growing now. My question is how often does it need cutting in the Summer? One lawn service gave one price for twice a month cutting and another for once a week. Since we are snowbirds what do you think is correct?

Twice a month should be less money than once a week, and I don't think it would get too unsightly - save the bread.

[l2ridehd]

I have the St Augustine grass and I find that once a month from October to March works fine. So I do it myself for those 5 or 6 months. Than hire a lawn service for the other months. Now because I only use them for the busy months, I pay $10 a month more then the normal rate. But still save about $250 a year. And mowing the lawn once a month during the cooler months is pretty easy. Now I already had a lawn mower. If I had needed to go buy one I may not have done it this way.

[NJblue]

Twice a month should be less that once a week, and I don't think it would get too unsightly - save the bread.

Does zoysia really grow that much slower than northern grasses? With fescue/blugrass/rye in the north I have to cut at least once a week and during the spring twice a week.

Also, what's with the zoysia going dormant and brown for 3 or 4 months during the winter? I know it has other qualities, but who wants to live in Florida and have brown grass all winter long? Can someone remove their zoysia south of 466 and replace with a grass that stays green?

[Bogie Shooter]

Originally Posted by NJblue

Does zoysia really grow that much slower than northern grasses? With fescue/blugrass/rye in the north I have to cut at least once a week and during the spring twice a week.

Also, what's with the zoysia going dormant and brown for 3 or 4 months during the winter? I know it has other qualities, but who wants to live in Florida and have brown grass all winter long? Can someone remove their zoysia south of 466 and replace with a grass that stays green?

And what grass would that be? Even the St Augustine goes dormat. The golf courses overseed with rye grass in the winter and it stays green. Only problem with using in your lawn is the matting that can occur.

[NJblue]

Does it go brown as well as dormant? Maybe I'm just not familiar with the climate and grasses around TV, but I don't recall coming to other parts of Florida and seeing brown grass. Even my grass in NJ stays green most, if not all, of the winter.

[NJblue]

How dos this grass sound?
http://www.landscape-america.com/grasses/palmetto.html

Palmetto grass will remain green longer than any other variety of St. Augustine, and will stay green much longer than Bermuda grass and Centipede grass. Palmetto grass will slowly become dormant after several heavy frosts, and will remain evergreen in temperatures below freezing if there are no hard frosts. It will first go "off color" (e.g., the bottom layer of stolons will maintain green leaves while the top leaves develop the brown tinge characteristic of frost damage) before it lapses into total dormancy. In many parts of the South (Zones 7 — 9), Palmetto grass will be semi-evergreen.

Palmetto grass has demonstrated very good drought tolerance in field tests. Some turfgrass producers have been growing Palmetto grass in non-irrigated production fields since 1993, enduring droughts in excess of 2 months. Palmetto grass will wilt as any other St. Augustine grass, but will recover if water is applied. Palmetto St. Augustine grass has endured drought conditions as well as or better than any other variety of St. Augustine grass.

Seems like it has the drought tolerance of zoysia but retains its green color through most or all of the winter.

[Bogie Shooter]

You may find something here you like. The cost to replace your lawn will probably be significant.
http://www.sodsolutions.com/t_empire.shtml

[Aceskaters]

I think that it is Empire Zoysia that we have here in Hemingway. It will look duller in the winter, but will come back in the spring. I use a battery-powered Neutron mower set at about 1 1/2 inches (as you mow zoysia much lower than St. Augustine) and, although I moved in about mid August, only needed to mow about once every 3 to 4 weeks. I quit mowing in October as the grass quit growing.

[NJblue]

That's interesting about your mower. How much grass do you have? I assume the battery lasts long enough to do the whole lawn? Would you recommend this arrangement to others with zoysia? I would like to do my own grass, but I prefer not to deal with a gas engine.

[Aceskaters]

NJBlue, It is my brother's Neutron electric battery mower and I borrow it when needed. I have an interior lot Amarillo with the fenced in back yard. I have always been able to mow it with one battery's worth of charge. My lawn is not large and this zoysia grass is so slow-growing and short that I am able to push the mower easily. Supposedly, the company is coming out with a self-propelled mower this spring and then I hope to buy this one from my brother (he lives in Tierra del Sol and he uses it on his St. Augustine lawn).

tell us some more; this sounds very appealing; some people think that i should just get a non motorized reel-type mower; there have been major improvements in technology since the 1950's; still, seems like too much work really.
neutron mower.....website?
thanks.:

just got information on this mower; sounds great, the pricetag is not so great. had an idea..get 3 neighbors to buy it together and split the cost 3 ways.....if these lawns grow so slowly, we would not be wearing this one out so quickly...
will have to talk to some of my neighbors.....
or buy one and rent it out?
hmmmm?

[zcaveman]

I go with weekly in the summer and every other week betweeen November and April.

[Larryandlinda]

Originally Posted by zcaveman

I go with weekly in the summer and every other week betweeen November and April.

Wow, sounds like someone loves mowing!

I know someone that shaves a couple times a day, more power to y'all.

Though one of us grew up as a lawnmower and small engine mechanic and installed several of the motors on bicycles,
we repented and got a rechargeable knowing that mowers pollute far more than cars and can smell up the garage.

Frequency?
We keep the 6 acres up yonder at 4" but in TV 'they' want it shorter, but since bought the places in March, we've only mowed four times and had someone do it once, responding to a 'too high' warning, and that was just about 3"

more grass=more 02

If we can pull it off we would like to try the xeriscape and get rid of the lawn - too many a man spends too many a day as a slave to the 'carpet'

Back up north, we grow things we can eat in as many places as we can.
If we played croquet, football, or other lawn sports, we might appreciate a fine lawn.

For now, we appreciate the ones we see as we bike around - so all you lawnkeepers thanks for your efforts!!
L&L