Question
Pinellas county florida

I have a yard which previously had St Augustine sod The house was vacant before i moved in. most
of the old st augustine died .Can any type of grass seed be laid down which will prosper and not look crappy? It seems like lots of work and money to resod? Realistic or am i dreaming?
            Thanks! paul.

Answer
Hi Paul,


>"...Can any type of grass seed ...old st augustine died...?"

Only Use plants and grasses rated for your plant hardiness horticulture climate-zone.
 HORT ZONES from ZIP CODES:
 http://www.arborday.org/trees/whatzone.html

You live in a warm-climate hort-zone and there are several types of turf grass you could consider.  However, by far the most common types are St. Augustine and Bermuda grass.
Both can be started from seed or sod, and Bermuda is more cold-hardy.  St.Aug will die with a hard freeze which can sometimes happen in your area. Some Bermuda cultivars give 'putting green' quality extra-fine turf.

Perhaps if you find a lawn that looks great to you and would like to emulate, you can just ask about to see what the grass-type is and go from there.

Note that both of the above common types for Florida will have many 'cultivars' or hybrids since the grass geneticists are always producing finer hybrids that are more care-free.  You can log-on to the University of Florida's horticultural web-pages and link to their lawn and garden pages to learn more.  Some of the world's best cultivars are produced by the Florida Ag universities.

Old cultivars of St. Aug were subject to a specific disease which caused lawn appearance problems, and the new hybrids have had this bred out of them.  Perhaps your old lawn was an example of the old  stock.  At any rate, you need to find-out why you had problems before investing too much in a new lawn.  The old lawn may have had problems due to neglect, hard-freezes,...etc.  For a few bucks you can do a top-soil chemistry test or pay to have it done and this should discern any soil chemistry problems that may have caused problems.  

All turf grasses are easy to grow.  Add some extra water and an occasional fertilizing event and they should be very easy to grow.  So if your lawn appearance problems persist, especially with one of the new high-tech genetically engineered hybrids being used,...then you need to do some more detective work.  If the neighbor's lawns are doing ok, then perhaps there is some action or practice the home owner can change to make things better. If too much fertilizer was used with the last feeding, for example,..this could have caused the dead areas.

In summary, decide on what type of warm climate grass you want to try and shop around for the latest drought and disease resistant hybrids.  Again, the local agricultural universities will usually have lots of information as well as the web-suppliers.  Use named-patented certified seed, and keep a record of the seed used.  Take time to work to prepare the lawn areas for seeding, so all will grow and go well.  If problems persist, have the soil lab-tested.
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With a good fertile-loamy well draining top-soil, best quality hybrid grass type(s), 1-3 inches of water per week, plenty of sun-light, ...almost anyone can have an excellent lawn with a minimum maintenance effort.
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I Hope this has answered your question(s)!

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___ Jim Gibbs,
    Microbiologist/Botanist