Replace St Augustine With Zoysia Grass ...
I have had an attraction to Zoysia grass for a long time. The funny thing is, I did not know what type of grass it was until a few years ago. Because Zoysia is frequently used on better golf courses (not common on a public golf course), it can be seen often on television during major golf tournaments. Oddly enough, when shopping for St. Augustine grass for a new home, I came across Zoysia Emerald grass.
Because I have had a long standing desire to plant Zoysia grass for my home lawn, I became so xciited that the more the sod grass salesman talked about St. Augustine the less I heard.Although I was only there to save money and I was sure Zoysia would cost a little more than St. Augustine, the possibility of having a home lawn looking like a small piece of a golf course was to exciting to overcome. I was going to save money on my new home by installing grass sod myself because my home builder was going to charge extra for a completely sodded yard at move in.
I had seen Zoysia on television many times over the years, but had never walked on it. Because this was totally unexpected, I had many questions about the type of grass Zoysia was and its related maintenance. My original intent was to buy St. Augustine when the sod grass farm manager suggested Bermuda grass. For my personal liking, Bermuda was out of the question. However, upon being pointed towards pallets of Bermuda grass, I saw another small pallet of grass that just happened to be Zoysia.
I was immediately drawn to the Zoysia, although I did not know at the time what type of grass it was. Needless to say, all questions turned to Zoysia grass except for price comparison to St. Augustine. The questions were relatively basic- price, growth rate and durability. He explained that St.Augustine is almost half the price of Zoysia. He also said Zoysia's rate of growth is muchslower than that of St. Augustine, but Zoysia's recovery rate is quite slow. Additionally, he stated that rotary mowers are not as efficient as reel mowers for Zoysia lawn mowing care. Because that short list of basic questions turned out more cons than pros, I had to stop and reconsider which type of grass to choose.
After a brief conversation with myself, the vote was positive for Zoysia Emerald. The thought of realizing my home lawn looking so nice was too much to resist. Considering how elegant it would look and how much it would be enjoyed while entertaining fmaily and friends was enough to convince me to overlook the cons of future lawn care and maintenance.
The next move was to place the order for the more expensive and possibly higher maintenance Zoysia grass. Shortly after receiving the delivery of pallets of grass, it was installed and looking beautiful. The compliments on my home lawn are never ending. To this day, almost four years later, when I am working on the yard strangers stop and ask about the lawn. The most common question is what type of grass is it? Other frequent questions include where can it be purchased, is it expensive and how do you care for the lawn. Absolutely, the best home lawn project I ever tackled was when I replced St. Augustine gras with Zoysia Emerald grasss.