What about you doing all the prep mentioned above but look at 5 pallets of Palisades Zoysia this year and another 5 pallets when your funds get back up.

I just don't' see that bermuda doing well under the tree. Especially the north side.

Dear David, I thought I'd chime in here because TifGrand is one of our most popular grasses and even though you mentioned you'll be plugging it (we sell sod), we want to get the facts to you so you make the best decision for your lawn.

The key to growing TifGrand is to ensure that it will receive at least 4 to 5 hours of direct sunlight (another way to think about this is that TifGrand will withstand 60% shade - not full shade). Also, make sure that soil compaction is minimized (soils must drain well for the success of TifGrand), tree root competition is minimized (sounds like you are considering that issue already), and that in the shade you keep it mowed at a 3/4 to 1" height (this is the opposite of other turfgrasses that are typically kept longer in the shade.)

Provided you can meet the criteria above, you'll have success with TifGrand and you'll love it! We sure to over here in Georgia.

@apundt - I haven't seen Palisades in person but from what I've read its a wider blade Zoysia that resembles St. Augustine. Do you have any experience with it that indicates it's better than St. Augustine? I know the sellers tout that it is more drought tolerant but I've also read that it's fall color retention is poor and starts to turn yellow once temps get into the mid 50's.

@Super-Sod - The soil is fairly compacted now but with the core aeration and additional organic material, I'm hopeful that it will loosen up once it comes time to plant.

Thanks!

David

There are some people who talked about getting TIF-Grand but I have not read about their successes.

I'm not a fan of zoysia. I have a spot of it as an experiment. At first I thought it was great, but it did not compete well with bermuda. Disappointed, but at least it's not my main lawn. I was also disappointed that we let it go dormant one summer and it never greened up again that season. It greened up fine the next April, but that was a long time. And that's when the bermuda got in. I see that in the full zoysia lawns in my neighborhood. It is definitely not all it's cracked up to be.

I have another suggestion for the lawn. If you are patient, do the power rake only on the grass in the shade. Then put down only enough St Aug for the shady area. Make sure that takes well and sit back. The St Aug will spread and spread to take over the bermuda. All you have to do is pamper the St Aug and don't pamper the bermuda. That means mow all the grass at your mower's highest setting, fertilize infrequently, and water deeply and infrequently. St Aug spreads when the temps are between 60 degrees and 80, so you'll have two windows of opportunity. It will spread in the spring and again in the fall. It should spread about 5 feet each time. I let that happen at my house in George West, TX and now have an additional 3,000 square feet of lawn (acre lot started mostly in weeds).

SuperSod mentioned compaction. Unless you've been parking the car on the lawn, playing football in the rain, or grazing livestock in the rain, then your soil is not compacted. It is very likely hard, but hard and compacted are different things. Compacted comes from driving all the air out of soggy soil. That's how adobe bricks are made. Hard soil comes from reduced population of beneficial microbes - chiefly fungi. You can get those back very easily. Apply 3 ounces of any clear shampoo per 1,000 square feet with a hose end sprayer. Follow that up with at least 1/2 inch of water. Repeat every few weeks as necessary. I did mine in San Antonio twice in 2011 and it's still soft today (checked after the rain yesterday). You'll know it worked when your soil becomes very soft after deep watering and then becomes very firm again a day or two later. That's normal. Give that a try. In my opinion burying compost is way over rated. Shampoo, deep watering, and routine use of alfalfa pellets should be plenty enough to boost your organic matter.

@dchall_san_antonio - I've learned allot reading your other posts and appreciate the feedback! I actually did the shampoo treatment (3oz / 1,000 sqft) this past Sunday (3/7). I'll do it again in 2 weeks.

In addition to the shampoo, do you think core aeration combined with the alfalfa pellets would help? Or is the core aeration not necessary based on the fact that this is just hard soil and not compacted?

I like your suggestion of buying enough St. Augustine to fill in the really bare spots, then let it's aggressive growing habits take over. Is it worth planting some squares on 5' centers in the other areas to help it fill in the rest of the yard faster?

Thanks!

David

I've made some progress on the yard and thought I would post an update with pictures. I decided to go with Palmetto St. Augustine so I rented a yard rake to help remove the little vegetation on the yard; consequently, the yard rake is fine for small amounts of grass but I wouldn't advise it for a clearing any substantial amount of vegetation, rent a sod cutter instead.

Pics of the yard prepared with the lawn rake:

Install day (April 3, 2015). The SOD arrived 6 hours late and although I was told it would be cut the night before, allot of squares were bone dry and had clearly been cut earlier in the week. If I had it to do over again, I would have ordered from King Ranch and paid their markup.

Pictures the morning after installation (April 4):

We've had a bunch of rain in DFW these past two weeks and I probably ran the sprinklers more than I should have so I managed to get a little brown patch a week after installation. I applied corn meal (20 lbs / 1,000 sqft) and that seems to have helped. I think I lost about 50% of the SOD but the remainder seems to be growing well and will likely fill in.

Pictures from April 10, 7 days after installation.

Additional pictures from April 10 (7 days after installation)

Sorry I missed your reply on March 9. I think core aeration is completely unneeded at any time. Shampoo actually works. I've never seen core aeration work to soften soil...at least not for me.

Yes, planting on 5-foot centers will be good. I'm about to do that to my new house. I finally sold my old house, so I'm feeling like I have some money to redo things at the new house.

Give the corn meal 3 weeks to show significant improvement. My lawn in San Antonio looked pretty bad from disease. We'd had a rain event every week for several months now and it was not looking good. But now that the grass is growing, and it's been a month or more since I put down the corn meal, it looks good.