I have used my manual reel mower on 1/2 acre lawn in KY. If I let the grass get too tall I need to do 2-3 passes usually one way then the other to get a decent job. They are alot of work too with this size yard. Takes at least twice as long as my Snapper. I would also say not quite as nice of job as the Snapper but that is my opinion & maybe it's because it is too tall. For small yards you will likely be fine be keep it cut regularly and keep the blades sharp. Learn to do it yourself as the cost of having someone else do it will add up usually between $5-10 a pop 2-3 times a season is helpful. If you are not used to these type you will get sore in areas that you did not know muscles existed on a larger lawn as well. My yard take 1.5-2 hrs with the Snapper but plan on 4 with the reel mower. So it depends on size and time you can dedicate.

Stick with El Toro as Empire has no resistance to any of the common diseases. Here is the reference material for support

Thanks TW. Doesn't matter if bermuda is greatly under fertilized? Hmm... In Houston at my mother's house, I *think* it's El Toro zoysia that is slowly winning the battle between st augustine and bermuda. Sure it's surrounded by some large mature trees but her lawn is rarely ever fertilized or even watered. Anyway, it is way more noticeable after this terrible drought that zoysia is much more widespread than I had thought. I guess that's why it got me thinking maybe zoysia can do fine in that type of situation considering that bermuda needs a lot of fertilizers to look good and zoysia doesn't. David - I'm sure you're aware of the drought covering the entire Texas and yes, I'm helping someone out. It's a big yard with Raleigh st augustine which I personally think stinks. Their backyard is too big (bigger than my entire lot) to water and there is massive die off so I am just thinking of ways to reduce cost of maintaining Raleigh st aug lawn. I had thought about a mixture of blue grama and buffalo for the backyard. Just exploring some ideas for next year...

I'm in Pensacola, Fl (though I'm not really new anymore!!). We had 36 pallets (yep! ..a lot!) of El Toro installed in the Spring of 2010, and it is/was INCREDIBlY beautiful. But I've had my ups & downs. The ups are that I treated it organically only, so far, by not using any chemicals, but I did fertilize it 3 times over the spring and summer with rabbit food pellets (alfalfa pellets). The alfalfa pellets helped the roots take exceptionally fast, except along the house where there's shade, and under 2 large oak trees, where there's only about 4 hours of sun/day. So, where I had a lot of sun, and had put down alfalfa, it grew TOO well!! I was mowing twice per week, and (are you sitting down?) I was doing all this all summer long with a Fiskars Reel mower, the new orange one that came out that throws the grass forward, with NO catcher!!) Let's just say I was always mowing!! Every day, I would mow for about 1-2 hours, and use that as my exercise. After the large $$$ investment in the grass, I didn't see fit to buy a riding mower....just yet anyway. Actually, I LOVE the Fiskars mower, but I have almost an acre, and if the grass would grow more slowly, I think I'd be ok with it. So, although it greened up and took root, and was LUSH and THICK and quite possibly the prettiest grass in all of Pensacola, the down-side is that I don't think I can possibly repeat all that work again this coming summer. And the 1 other main problem I had was my own fault. On July 1st, with family/friends coming over for the July 4th weekend, I decided to cut the grass short so I wouldn't have to mow for the whole upcoming week. MAJOR MISTAKE!! I cut the 3" grass down to about 1". It looked FANTASTIC for the next week...and then, boom! It all turned brown! It took about 3 weeks for all of it to come back green again, but meanwhile, the weeds crept in, especially in the shaded areas under my 2 oak trees in the front yard. The side yards and back are in full sun, and though some weeds did get in, there aren't too many that I probably couldn't go in and hand-pull. But the weeds in the shaded area in the front yard (for all my inquisitive neighbors to gawk at) are getting worse throughout the winter and have pretty much taken over the zoysia. My question would be, when and what should I do, for either/or a pre-emergent, and/or post-emergent, even though I hate using chemicals. The alfalfa pellets were so amazing and even my roses and flowers on side beds were phenomenal, once I used alfalfa. I do have very sandy soil, and have been warned that if I ever go to using chemicals, I will kill off the GOOD nematodes, and will end up helping the BAD nematodes, and once I have the bad nematodes, this grass is pretty much a permanent bye-bye!! (Another neighbor about 10 yrs ago lost all his zoysia to bad nematodes) The only other problem I've had over the last 6 months or so, are mole hills and tunnels, and I've heard that I can use dishwashing soap in the water-sprayer to get rid of the bugs that attract the moles in the first place. I still have a bunch of mole hills/tunnels in the front yard, where there's shade and weeds. I've not really had any mole tunnels in the super sunny areas. So my questions are: 1. should I use chemicals for the weeds, and if so, what and when? 2. When should I scalp the grass this spring? And how short should I scalp it? 3. Should I keep using alfalfa, and when, and what else would help as far as fertilizer? 4. Any other thoughts?