Q: After reading about your success with St. Augustine grass in your own yard, I decided to gamble and sod my yard with Palmetto St. Augustine last June. By August, I had the most beautiful grass in the entire neighborhood and arguably the entire city. It’s now January and there is still unmelted snow all over the place. Should I expect an autopsy report this spring that says “the house always wins”? — Michael Kim, Atlanta
A: St. Augustine grass in Atlanta is always a gamble due to winter cold. My lawn was started from sprigs taken from a lawn in Candler Park that had been a St. Augustine lawn for 20 years. I figured the plants that were most cold-hardy had survived cold winters and thrived were therefore good candidates for my lawn. I took a 5-gallon plastic bucket and, with the owners’ permission, I pulled runners that were about 2 feet long that were on the sidewalk, under shrubbery and invading their parking area. I stuffed them in the bucket, covered the ends of the runners with water, and headed home for more work.
There, I cut each long sprig in half and used a short mattock to cut a divot in my existing lightly shaded lawn and shoved half of a 6-inch sprig into it. The butt end of the mattock firmed the soil around the sprig. I then moved 12 inches away and did the same thing again. I was exhausted that night. I watered the site heavily every other day for two weeks and lo and behold, most of the sprigs took root and started sprouting more greenery.
Your Palmetto St. Augustine is an excellent variety, very shade tolerant and deep green. Everybody who has Augustine grass should learn about chinch bugs. Eventually they will get to your St. Augustine as they eventually got to mine. In some areas my grass leaves turned yellow and appeared to be drought-stressed.
But close examination revealed tiny black and white insects chewing on my grass. I treated for them several years in a row, but eventually they, and deepening shade, caused the St. Augustine to thin, so I moved to mondo grass. This plant is not a grass, but a lily that looks like grass. It is thriving in deep shade. Mondo grass would not look right for large areas in front of a house in partial sun, but in the shadiest spots it sure looks nice.
So we’ll just have to see what survives this winter’s cold in your lawn. In May, parts may be dead and parts may be alive. Take sprigs from live areas and plant in the dead areas. This will give you the best chance of “beating the house.”
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