My variegated St. Augustine lawn

16 years ago

Here's some photos of my variegated St. Augustine lawn here in southern CA. I planted plugs last fall and its just now filling in.What do you think?

Here's a close up:

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Comments (10)

auteck
16 years ago
That's hilarious, how did you do that?
quirkyquercus
16 years ago
Now there's something you don't see every day. Pretty cool.
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How hard could your freeze have been? Was it worse than 19 degrees for several nights in a row? Year after year we get many nights of "hard freeze" and I've never seen a lawn that did not recover. I do see many people renovating their lawns this spring. After not watering for two full years, a lot of lawns were lost and became weed patches. Even the guy down the street who never waters ever renovated his lawn. Now he's diligently watering every day. It will be interesting to see what happens when he reverts to not watering. I suspect you have other problems. How often do you normally water? How low do you mow? How often do you fertilize? What is carpet grass? Around here St Augustine is called carpet grass. Bermuda will not be a problem unless you mow the St Aug low. If you let it get high, the bermuda will disappear. As long as St Aug gets water regularly, it will predominate. And how do you have 350 neighbors? Let's see, 350 neighbors at 1 acre each is 350 acres or 30 acres more than half a section. I suppose that is possible.
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I think you have your answer already....too much, too little. St. Augustine grass tolerates moderate shade, being as good or better than other warm season grasses for shaded sites. However, under densely shaded conditions, St. Augustine grass develops thin, spindly turf. Cant tell just how much shade that fence is giving the grass. So long as fertility and drainage are adequate, St. Augustine grass tolerates a wide range of soil types. St. Augustine grass grows satisfactorily at a pH range from 5.0 to 8.5 It does not tolerate compacted or waterlogged soil conditions. I think you have to watch how much watering you give with a view to how much the weatherman is promising. Florida cloudbursts can put as much 4" - 5" on a lawn in a short time and hopefully, drainage takes it away. I think too at fencelines, its not always easy to arrange for good drainage when you don't want to put it onto your neighbor. With that in mind, I suggest you work with your neighbor about how to best drain the area so that neither lawn gets too much.
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Auteck - Thanks. 'Sapphire' is probably too agressive spreader for my own taste but they seem to hold up better against hot weather in the front yard facing south/west than what I have in the backyard. It's like walking on soft sand beach. Oh well. Can't complain that it looks nice anyway. I would like to have 'Floratam' but it isn't very cold hardy (not sold here anymore) and one very severe cold snap would basically wipe them out although there were reports that they survived 0*F in 1983/1989 but they were probably properly cared for. I think earthworms like this grass better because of extra organic matter to eat. :)
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Yes I'd like to see the pictures. You were watering far too long at first and then switched to far too frequently. Here's more on watering. For most lawns you cannot go cold turkey from new grass to mature watering, but St Aug and bermuda are much more tolerant of the switch. Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.
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texas_weed
16 years ago
Well if you are happy with the light color, then OK. Not something I would choose.
User
16 years ago
Nice truck.

Oh, yeah, the lawn's OK too. ;-)

Seriously, that is some cool looking grass! I like the variegated stem--it reminds me of my zebra grass, a bit. Except vertical, of course. I don't generally like St. Aug (fortunately I live in the northeast so I have KBG), but that I could live with.
Billl
16 years ago
I like it. It seems to go well with some of the more tropical landscaping plants. Does it spread as aggressively as regular St Aug? How about shade tolerance?
lou_spicewood_tx
16 years ago
Interesting look. Didn't know there's a variegated st augustine after living with it for 31 years...
ltruett
16 years ago
Where did you get the variegated St Augustine from?
siegel2
Original Author
16 years ago
Thanks to everyone for their replies.

The grass certainly isn't everybody's cup of tea. (My wife is not a big fan.) I really like it. Every one has green grass. I just want my lawn to be different. I also like variegated plants (you can see my variegated dwarf bamboo in the second photo), so when I found out there was a variegated form of St. Augustine, I went searching for it. I finally found a small nursery in San Diego that had about 100 plugs for sale. It spreads agressively like regular St. Augustine.
lou_spicewood_tx
16 years ago
It can handle full sun? I wonder how it'd do in full sun and hot weather here. I found someone that grow them for a living in North Texas. I emailed him to find out where exactly I could get them but so far no reply.
quirkyquercus
16 years ago
Varigated mondo grass is extremely easy to get a hold of in the southeast region. Maybe that will suit you all's fancy.

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My variegated St. Augustine lawn

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auteck

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My variegated St. Augustine lawn

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