Just how smart is St Augustine?

Dang, I was just about ready to move this to Philosophy.

Anyway -- never heard of that kinda grass before. But, er, you can have our rain. We've had lotsa it.

Oh -- yeah -- the decomposing leaves -- it might be a pH thing that kept the runners from, er, running there.

We had a bit of rain last night, so today I raked about an inch into the dirt around the runners. I really should be taking photographs of this .. darn this darn laziness..

"Boingy boingy boingy bing ... " Sorry, the kids are watching Dora.

I'm a landscape person, but I've avoided knowing about grass for, oh, twenty five years now, as the first firm I was allied with did lots of lawns in deserts - not all our fault, as planning departments liked it. I'll admit lawns have their place in other regions, but I've had another 150,000 matters to learn and skipped that.

If anything, I'm into native short grasses. Oh, see John Greenlee on grasses.

But, from my memory, St. Augustine wasn't used much in the LA region lately. What was there from before - as it WAS used in the old days, was tough as nails. I wouldn't be worrying about dead leaves ruining it. (snicker)

On the other hand, I'm not from Texas, and don't know from nothin there.

This man knows a lot -

http://www.greenleenursery.com/

Hey timberbranch, I hadn't seen this but just updated a thread I started a while ago called Grass for a shady area, I learned a ton about growing grass there.

Good luck!

Thank you both ... I appreciate the info.

Re: Just how smart is St Augustine?


Grass doesn't "think". It sends out it's runners and if they find someplace to root they do so. If there isn't any place to root the runner either keeps extending itself until it does find someplace to root or it dies off.

I don't have much experience with St. Augistine but I had a Bermuda lawn (which also grows via runners) when I lived in OK and the ground there was like cement. The biggest thing to getting the lawn going was NOT mowing. Every time I mowed it sucked up the loose runners and clipped them off. Once I let it go for a few months the runners had a chance to grow and find other places to root. You might be able to get the same effect by mowing at a higher height, I dunno... It also helps to water the areas you want the grass tio grow into. Once the runners find water they'll root and send off more runners like crazy. Water is more important than other nutrients.

The other thing you can do is let the grass grow tall enough that it goes to seed and then bag when you mow. Then spread the clippings in the bare spots and shake them up every few days. After a month or so you can just pick them up and discard them. The seeds will have fallen out to the ground and will start sprouting.

We live in different areas. I'd never plant other than native grasses here in ABQ (now that I've been through what I have, design wise). I gather your area is more humid. Still, I'd suggest you look into natives over time. There are short grasses.

I saw Greenlee's test gardens, with him talking the this and thats. He had me convinced.

You might have to let go of the lambent lawn, depending on where you are, to follow the native thing.

Well, nobody has to do anything. Rambl'ing here.

Is live oak an actual oak?

If that's the case, there may be something to the runners "avoiding" where the piles of live oak leaves were, as a lot of grasses up here don't grow well where oak leaves have been. They're one of the only leaves you can't use in your mulch if you're going to use it for your lawn.

I believe it is.

The leaf piles sat for maybe two weeks tops, and that was two years ago. I thought after two years the grass would come back. This is how we learn. I'm still in my 30's so I'm not as particular about my yard as my 50+ year old neighbors, who are out there every day, really wrecking the curve.

Thanks again everyone.

T