Bring on artificial grass lawns!

Friends did it to keep their pets from bringing the loose grass pieces into the house on their feet and fur.

I have been actively working to make the amount of grass in my yard as small as possible (per ARC). I'd rather spread mulch once a year and be done with it. I just wish I could find Cedar mulch around here. Love the smell of it when it gets wet.

One thing that annoys me about Saint Augustine is you can't buy grass seed for repairing the lawn. I have Bermuda grass invading my lawn and the only thing you can do is use round up to kill everything and plant sod or plugs. That means digging down the area to remove soil for the sod/plugs. So much easier to plant grass seed.

On that note, does anybody know of a sod farm for Saint Augustine? I know you can get plugs from Lowes or Home Depot but they are ridiculously expensive.

We bought a lawnmower that has mulching blades specifically so there is no bagging needed.

That is fine in limited areas. Perfer to help the Bees and enjoy natural landscape.

Greens and fairways
 

It would be most difficult to putt on greens with grass clippings left on them . Mulching is fine for your own yard .

Mr. Green Jeans
 

the recommendation is to always bag zoysia clippings.............leaving the clumps on the good grass will Forster disease, rot, and death of the good grass and create unwanted thatch............

that being said, contractors are not going to pick up clippings as they do so many lawns it would create a costly issue

When you see clumped dead spots on your zoysia it is most likely due to dead grass smothering and killing the good grass. The dead grass won't break down fast enough to do any good.

the answer to the quiz question is: Drum Roll..........BAG IT and remove, how you do that is the next quiz question. If you dont you are killing your own grass.


Capt. Kangaroo for all of you older folks:bowdown:

Endless debate on lawn care. Most of us hire people to mow our grass. Frankly first time in my life I did not mow my own lawn. The guide says you are not suppose to cut off more than 1/3 of. the grass blade. That requires mowing twice a week at times. The people we hire will not do that. To properly mulch cuttings the lawns need to be dry. The people we hire cannot and will not do that.. A sharp blade. The people we hire do not do that.
My lawn is better than your lawn attitude. As a public service mine is good enough and I allow others to SCREAM theirs is better than mine.

ALL should have a soil test done. It is inexpensive. Our soil is loaded with limestone and PH is like 7 to 8. It is in most places sandy clay. You can and many are growing bought sod on essentially cement. That is why it is so much WORK. Build the SOIL. Inject organic matter-manure-compost. Organics tend to lower the ph to the 6.5 that the grass prefers.
You can choose to fight nature but it is far less WORK to work with nature.

For what it is worth. People in the Villages mostly have either St Augustine or Empire Zoyzia. We have Empire Zoyzia. Saint Augustine also has different varieties I don't recall what variety they use-I would look it up. If, you lawn is bad there is a reason. Likely sun, fertilizer, insects, water, soil, etc. First you need to determine the problem and solve it. Ridiculously expensive? So is everything else. Far as plugs. Assuming areas of you lawn are good, same as you would plant plugs, AFTER YOU SOLVE THE PROBLEM and they will spread. You can remove plugs from your lawn and it will quickly fill in. A long handled bulb planter with a push out rod works great for that. It is a lot of work. You do not need to do it all at once.

Former Northerner. A different climate, different soil, different rain and not as hot.
This is the first time I've ever not mowed my own lawn. I used to collect the clippings and compost them along with the leaves. It was amazing stuff for my garden. We were loaded with earthworms. Zuccini I can't believe people buy it. I couldn't give it away fast enough. Aspargus grew faster than Florida weeds. Blueberies, Raspberries
Everything has a use. When I went fishing I used to put sea weed and fish guts into my garden.

“On that note, does anybody know of a sod farm for Saint Augustine? I know you can get plugs from Lowes or Home Depot but they are ridiculously expensive.”

Bethel Farms. You can order sod pods through Amazon directly from BF’s. Just make sure you know the SA cultivar that you have.

I bag in the summer when the rains hit because it grows so quickly during the rainy months that it’s just too long to leave it down.

Think Again!
 

There aren't many cows or horses in my part of the villages. I have bailed a lot of roadside ditches in my youth to feed horses.

I don't bag my grass clippings. I leave it on the grass for nature to take over. The worst grass situation around here is owners and commercial grass cutters that blow the clippings onto the street. Then, the clippings gets carried away to some other owners home and it can end up as dust blowing around a neighborhood. It should be an ILLEGAL practice.