Trying to Restore my Florida Lawn; Help!

7 years ago

Hey folks! I signed up because I'm getting desperate. I bought some property in north/central Florida between Gainesville and Jacksonville, have moved in, fenced in a portion of the backyard for my two miniature schnauzers, but it's mostly dust.

That's the state of my lawn. It was mostly sandspurs when I got it, and I used a garden weasel thingy to try digging some of them out, but digging them all out would leave even more mostly dirt.

Since I had weeds growing I mowed it - since I had to spend two hours last night torturing one of my miniature schnauzers with a comb to get beggarweed and other sticky things out of his paws...

And here's a couple of pictures of the mowing:

Yes...I'm literally mowing up dust. I can't even call it dirt or sand because things grow in dirt, and sand has grains instead of this awful powder.

So here's what I've done so far and what I was planning on doing next:

1. I dug up the worst of the sandspurs with a garden weasel.

2. I've been mowing it with a bag attachment so that the sandspurs don't get to mulch and germinate.

2. I mixed Atrazine and water and sprayed the backyard as a preparatory effort (this past weekend).

3. In six weeks, I plan on putting down Pensacola Bahiagrass seed mixed with GreenEdge lawn fertilizer (at the recommendation of my lawn and garden guy at my local garden store.

He recommended Bahiagrass because I don't have an irrigation / sprinkler system where I want to do this, so I'll be relying on hose and sprayer, or attaching a sprinkler nozzle to the end of my hose to lay on the lawn by portion.

My concerns:

1. My lawn is still dust. If not even weeds will grow in these big patches of dust, why would bahiagrass?

2. Mowing up dirt and dust is going to destroy my lawnmower blades pretty darn fast.

That's my situation. I have 5 acres, and there's not a whole lot of grass on any of it, but there's a lot of sandspurs. The rest of my property can wait for a template to follow from this experiment, but I need this patch of ground to be grass so that my dogs have a backyard. We moved from Texas where my lawn started life as sodded St. Augustine, and they've always had a plush carpet of grass to run around on. Now...they don't run much for fear of stepping on sandspurs, at which point they limp over for me to remove them, and stare at my mournfully.

Any advice welcome! Much, much welcome.

Respectfully,

Homeowner in Florida

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Comments (4)

dchall_san_antonio
7 years ago
If there is any good news it's that the sandspurs are the wimpiest weed in the garden. All you have to do to get rid of them is water the ground. They will only pop up in FULL sun and extremely sparse water. In other words, treat it like a lawn and they will go away. And that's sand, not dust.

As for bahia grass, why would you not install St Augustine again? You know you like it. St Aug covers probably 80% of Florida. Floratam loves sand, sun, and will tolerate quite a bit of shade. It loves to go unmowed and will out compete all the other grasses when left alone. I had some on 1 acres a couple years ago. Once gets up to 32 inches tall, you never need to water it. You can keep it watered and mowed around the house and let it go wild out away from the cultivated area. I had it in snake country but never saw any snakes or anything else moving around in it. I watered it all with hoses and oscillator sprinklers.

As you know St Augustine will spread to cover everything. Keep it mowed high, water once a week in the summer, and it will come through for you.

Before you do anything, get the sand as level as possible such that it drains away from the house. There are some other tips to help. It depends on what you want to do. Before putting in bahia, ask several other grass and sod suppliers. My first grass would be St Aug, second choice would be hybrid bermuda, third choice would be common bermuda. Bahia would not be on my radar.
Shelix Anakasian thanked dchall_san_antonio
Shelix Anakasian
Original Author
7 years ago
My lawnstore people (and internet research) said that St. Augustine would be a bad idea - I live in a rural area, there's a lot of pine trees -> pine needles -> high pH soil, which is very unfriendly to St. Augustine. Bermuda requires intensive watering, and I don't have a sprinkler or irrigation system so that's how I ended up on Bahia.

I do like St. Augustine, but no one in my community has been able to grow it. My nearest neighbor had a pretty nice and green lawn for a year or two (he said) via Bermuda, but something is killing it off, and the native centipede grass is taking over.

Counterpoint? I know nothing except what I read and hear, so I'm open. I'm just tired of mowing up dust and looking at dirt patches.
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Glenn Jones(9b)
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Welcome to Florida if you look in the filters you will find Florida gardening everyone on there is nice
dchall_san_antonio
7 years ago
My lawnstore people (and internet research) said that St. Augustine
would be a bad idea - I live in a rural area, there's a lot of pine
trees -> pine needles -> high pH soil, which is very unfriendly to
St. Augustine. Bermuda requires intensive watering,...

That lawnstore advice is hilarious. Clearly they just want to sell you stuff. With pine trees most people are concerned about low pH. That's mostly a myth, but you hear it a lot. St Augustine grows in the highest pH soils there is - pure limestone. Much of Texas is built on top of a limestone deposit 1,000 feet deep. Lots of us have St Aug. As for bermuda needing water, that is bassackwards. Bermuda doesn't ever need water. If you want it to look nice or protect your dog from sand spurs, you will have to water it exactly the same amount as any other grass. That works out to be about 1 inch per week, all at one time, in the hottest heat of summer. If a garden center told me what they told you, I would never go there again. I would drive right past them to the next garden center no matter how far.

St Augustine grows very well in pure calcium sand (from crushed seashells) at the high pH. I've seen it growing across the sand dunes and up to the edge of the ocean. So don't let anyone tell you the soil is too salty, either.

The only turf grass that can take more neglect than bermuda is centipede. If your neighbor is losing his bermuda to centipede, then he's completely stopped watering and fertilizing.

No matter what you do you're going to need to water it. Stop thinking you don't have a sprinkler system, go to Sears and get of their Craftsman hoses (unconditionally guaranteed for life), then get a turbo oscillator sprinkler. Now you have a sprinkler system. No grass will grow without it. If you want to keep your dog's paws clear, you need water.

Trying to Restore my Florida Lawn; Help!

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dchall_san_antonio

Shelix Anakasian
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Trying to Restore my Florida Lawn; Help!

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dchall_san_antonio

Shelix AnakasianOriginal Author

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Glenn Jones(9b)

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