The Grass Doctor

how to plant saint augustine grass?

I live in southeaster NM. We are having trouble getting our grass to grow due to a big pine tree. Last year we decided to remove the old grass and planted new seed but we had no luck! We have spots where no grass is growing and where we do have grass its not nice! We are thinking in putting Saint Augustine grass. Will we have a beautiful backyard with this type of grass? And also will it handle a 7 & 5 yr old boys traffic?

Public Comments

1. St Augustine is a premier shade grass in most of the Southern states. The problem is that is requires a lot of water, probably more than you want to use. It would hold up about as well as any other grass under foot traffic. St Augustine is usually planted from plugs or sod, it is difficult to start from seed. You might also check with the greens keepers at the local golf courses about grass, they are usually the local experts on lawns and lawn care.
2. I planted my entire one acre lot 10 years ago. I pulled runners from the plants and transplanted the sprigs about three feet apart. It will fill a three feet spot per year. I now have a solid yard covered with St. Augustine grass. It will hold up to foot traffic rather well, except running a bicycle on it in the same spot will eventually cause it to die there. Walking on it won't hurt it. It does grow under trees where some sunlight gets to it, except oak trees tend to take over and eventually gets bare under the tree. You can DIY or buy sod or plugs. All this is possible, but the cheapest is to do it yourself with sprigs if you can get them. Just water the sprigs until it takes hold, about two weeks, then only if you are not getting rain every week or ten days.