ZOYSIA vs ST AUGUSTINE
 

I , like many others , am having massive problems with my St Aug grass the last two years. I am going to have to have 2000 to 3000 sq ft replaced this year. Last year i replaced on my own about 800 sq ft. Almost all of what I replaced last year is dead, plus alot more this year.

Has anyone replaced their St Aug with another type of grass like Zoysia? And if you did, did you do an entire yard or part. I am thinking of having my entire back and one side done with Zoysia. I hate having problems every year. My in laws are in Bonita and have the Zoysia and it seems to look much better, requires less water, and less mowing.

thanks, jeffy

Thinking of doing the same thing. What I replaced last year died also. Let me know what you do and who you get to do it.

I would be interested also, especially the cost.

We have both in our yard. The original was the Zoysia but everyone around us has St. Aug. The St. Aug. has taken over the yard, the only place it hasn't is where it can't get to the front so we have the Zoysia there. I strongly dislike St. Aug. To me it is like crab grass from up north only it takes a heck of a lot more water. I wish I could replace it but since it is all around me it would do no good. Good luck with your endeavor. I think maybe it died because of the extra harsh winter as I have seen a lot of newly sodded yards that died, I just don't think they could recover from the hard freezes we had.

Zoysia
 

I'm not an expert but the yards with zoysia after frost, are having a hard time returning to green again, st. Augustine also but not as much

Zoysia not greening up after frost?
 

Interesting. I live in a neighborhood with all zoysia lawns and most are green now. A few that don't appear to have regular lawn service look a little sad, but are improving daily. Maybe it is a function of how long the lawn has been in. Mine is four years old and seems to do better (staying green longer in the winter and recovering faster in the spring) each year I have been here. Also, I do note on my travels that the farther north you go in TV, the greater the damage from the winter appears to be so that may be a factor.

To the point of the original post, my son lives in St. Augustine and his St. Augustine lawn (is that redundant??) has suffered greatly so we are looking at replacing a significant area late this month. Unfortunately, his neighborhood is all St. Augustine grass, so replacing with zoysia won't work.

Strange,I have friends in chicago that have it,looks bad for a few weeks in spring then great after that

We too have St. Augustine. Winter 2009, we had considerable problems caused by winter freeze and chinch bugs. Winter 2010, my husband took a different approach. On the months that the landscaping company does not fertilize, he fertilzes and the same for the lawn pests. In other words, we are fertilizing and doing lawn pest control 12 months out of the year rather than 6. Yes, this may cost more, but we aren't replacing our lawn this year and it is absolutely beautiful. His theory is that if the lawn is not healthy, it can't recover from the problems we are encountering, and keeping it healthy requires more service than we are getting from the landscaping companies.

I'm in Duval. The Zoisia grass has recovered beautifully from the winter freeze. Most of the grass is a lush green, especially the lawns that are cared for with fertilizer on a routine schedule.

As long as you're already doing it 6 moths why not just do it all 12 and save some money? All let them do it all 12?

Zoysia vs St. Augustine
 

St. Augustine is subject to several problems in Florida....chinch bugs, mole crickets and thatch. When you see a patch of brown spot materialize in St. Augustine, use insect spray designed to kill chinch bugs and the same will kill the mole crickets. St. Augustine has a tendence to grow over the tatch so that the roots are subject to any type of disease and critters and you must either "sand the lawn"....cover the roots with a slight layer of sand that is raked or broomed down to cover the roots and de-thatch...best done with a verticle mover and them removed by raking. Needless to say...St. Augustine is a lot of work. The upside to St. Augustine is that it puts out runners and will fill in a lawn in a short time.

Zoysia on the other hand does not spread like St. Augustine, but is nor pervious to the other maladies. An contrary to one of the other responses, is not necissarily killed off by frost. The zoysia will go dormant in the winter but comes back very nicely in the Spring.

For my money, I will go with zoysia over St. Augustine any time.

Can anyone refer us to a company to replace our St Aug with Zoysia at a reasonable price?:ho:

I've had Zoysia in suburbs of Chicago... loved it. Turns wheat colored in winter and greens up fast in spring. Chokes out all weeds here, and requires half the water.(Suburbs are restricted in watering from May to end of Sept.) Of course, our soil is different, pretty much solid clay.
Here we can only get it in plugs though, not sod.

I would get an estimate from these folks, they are the growers down near Webster.
http://circlecfarmsinc.com/index.shtml