There are other alternatives for establishing turf from seed. I cleared an additional 6000 sq. feet in my back yard 3 years ago (tractor and box blade). The adjoing 4,000 sq. feet is Tif 419 sod. The first year I seeded seashore paspalum (it was fairly expensive). It came in nicely, looked close to bermuda, more shade tolerant. I planted way too late (labor day), so I lost all of it to cold temps. Last year I seeded with Triangle bermuda on memorial day, thinking it would handle shade and drought (some of the area only gets 4 hours full sun) better than 419. It came in beautifully. More coarse than 419 but nice none the less. Along comes Sept and we experience the 2nd most rain in 100 years (after 3 years of drought). The area flooded over 4 feet so I lost 80% of the triangle. Two weeks ago I decided to go a different route. I don't want to cut two heights (fescue would probably do ok) so I seeded with True Putt, creeping blue grass. So far I'm paniced because I see NO germination. I hope you will look at some of these options based on my experience. Seashore paspalum does very well in Florida (can survive salt water). Good luck! Zoysia is just too slow to establish and may look bad for the first year.

I cannot believe that two grasses that look so different could both possible be "Meyer Zoysia." That is entirely possible and expected if coming from two different sod farms. Meyers is the lowest grade of Zoysia on the market, the most available, first to be introduced in the USA, and is the east expensive of all the Zoysia varieties on the market. So it would be highly unlikely a supplier would substitute a higher cost higher grade grass at Meyers prices. My guess is the two are from different sod farms with different nutrient conditions. Once installed in your yard neither will look like they do now and look just alike once acclimated to your conditions.

Hi Sandhills, I went with Palisades Zoysia, and LOVE it. A little about my method first, for anyone curious. I used the "broadcast sprigging" method I described in an earlier post. This method allows a pallet of 450 sf of sod to plant 4500 sf. Unfortunately, sod does quite a number on chipper/shredder blades, so I only made it a bit over 1/2 way through the job before the blades were useless. I ripped up quite a bit by hand, before finally giving up and plugging the last 20%. I would recommend the broadcast sprigging method ONLY to anyone who can get sprigs from the farm though, or has a better way to produce sprigs from sod. It turned out to be one of the hardest projects of my life. If I could get sprigs, I'd do my front yard that way -- Since I can't, I'm going to lay sod this spring. Regarding the Palisades Zoysia itself - it is AWESOME. Everything I had read and been advised about it is true. It is medium-wide blade, darker green (compared to other zoysia), and blends in well with the neighbor's fescue. It can be mowed with a regular mower (many require reel mowing) -- I use the second lowest setting on my troy bilt self propelled mower. And oh what a pleasure it is to mow! I put the link to the sod supplier (Carolina Green Sod) in a previous post, but will include here (below) again. I dealt with their salesman, Andy, who could not have been more helpful. I plan to put up a video of my project on Youtube as soon as I can figure out how to get my video to render properly :) If you want to see the grass first hand, the farm where they grow Palisades is in Cheraw, SC. They also supply to a new community (Brier Chapel) in Chapel Hill, if you're ever up that way. Actually, if you call Andy, he may let you know of somewhere in your area (that's how I found out about Brier Chapel). By the way, if anyone near the Chapel Hill/Durham/Burlington area is interested, let me know. I will be ordering a delivery in late May or early June and would love to combine shipping. Here is a link that might be useful: Carolina Green Sod

I have Floratam up here in zone 8A. Seems to do fine this far up north (south of Dallas). It faced 14*F weather back in 2005 but that's the only time I've seen temperature under 20*F since I bought my house. Proper maintenance of Floratam will make a huge difference. Biggest drawback on Palmetto is its susceptible to SADV. It looks like I lost entire of backyard to SADV but Floratam and Sapphire filled in fast. From what I've read it's a really good one for shady area as long as it doesn't get SADV. There's no cure for it. Empire zoysia will work for sunny area but not for shady area. Did you make sure to water your grass deeply when needed? 1 inch of water per 1000 sqft is 600 gallons of water to thoroughly saturate ground 6 inches depth. That's the biggest problem for everybody. They don't seem to grasp the concept of deep watering. They don't realize it really takes that much water to make a difference FOR ANY grass. I use a sprinkler that puts out 240-300 gallon per hour for 20ft by 20ft coverage. You can see how long it takes to water my entire yard. Bermuda is very invasive. Avoid it. It will make your life miserable. It needs a lot of fertilizer, mowing and water to look good. Too much work. It takes over plant beds in a blink. Buffalo isn't very dense. Weeds will dominate when it rains enough. I prefer blue grama over buffalo. Maybe a mixture of both would work. Pretty drought hardy. It only needs deep watering once or twice a month. Need fertilizer every spring and fall to keep them dense.