No. Just do it right. Dig up the grass you don't want, topsoil and level.

You didn't say where you live. Do you have water restrictions that prevent you from keeping your lawn alive?

I'm in Birmingham, AL. No water restrictions, but no irrigation system either.

I'm going to encourage you to encourage the St Augustine.

My yard is about the same size as yours. I use an oscillating sprinkler in two different places to cover the entire yard. I water each position for 1-3 hours, once per week in the hottest part of the year and every other week for the rest of the year. The St Aug should be filled in by June.

Set your mower to the highest setting and weld it in place. There is never any reason to lower it for St Augustine. After your grass grows up tall enough to be mowed at this height, your weed problems will be history.

Fertilize on Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. If you want to fertilize now, you can. If I was normally going to use a synthetic fertilizer program, I would not fertilize now and then again on Memorial Day. I would make one of those an organic fertilizer. Alfalfa pellets (rabbit food) applied at 10-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet will surprise you in 3 weeks. If you want to use alfalfa pellets on the 4th of July, that would work, too but don't use synthetic fertilizer in the summer heat.

You're too far north for floratam. That is zone 9/10 material. You're limited in st. augustines due to hardiness. Mercedes comes to mind. Emerald probably very disease prone in alabama but I don't know.

I disagree about being zone 9/10 only. My brother grows some in the Dallas area with no problem. I think how you maintain it is the key issue and agree with what dchall has to say. I'm not saying that there won't be a freak cold spell that will damage the Floratam, it just wouldn't be my top concern.

The NTEP ratings for georgia show Floratam dead last.
Georgia isn't Alabama but alabama doesn't trial st. augustine.

Rather than just paying attention to whether it survives, one must pay attention to overall performance especially with spring greenup.

{{gwi:79085}}

What are you talking about? I live in Dallas area and this is Floratam lawn.

It really has more to do with proper maintenance. I mean it faced 14*F back in 2005 when it went from 90*F to 14*F in a few days. Also, it is one of more aggressive cultivar so it will fill in very fast when it warms up so honestly, I don't see the difference with Palmetto that tends up to green up earlier. Maybe 2 weeks difference? Right now, it's greening up very fast. I expect it to be fully greened up in a week or two. I can't say the same for bermuda lawns....

I an finding NTEP to be more useless and useless. What exactly was done, etc. Ive seen terrible method done on grass anyway so I don't take those tests seriously unless they give very detailed methods of what exactly was done.

Anyway, supposedly fertilizing floratam lawn in the fall with 15-5-10 will make them cold hardy according to Texas county extension. Who knows if that works? I only fertilize with organic fertilizer such as soybean meal and alfalfa pellets.

If I put Empire Zoysia sod in the bare spots, will the Empire gradually take over the St Aug or vice versa?

Empire Zoysia, or any Zoysia for that matter are very slow to spread. Also the cutlural practices for Zoysia are quite a bit different between the two. For example the cutting heights, Zoysia you would want to maintain around 1 to 1-1/2 inches, and the SA up around 4 inches.

The other thing is the two grasses look a whole lot different. The Zoysia is a fine texture, and the SA is very coarse in texture. It would look very odd IMO.

Even though Birmingham is a little far north for Flaratam, I donÂt see it as a big problem either. You might get some freeze damage every 2 or 3 years if you get a really cold winter.

I think your big challenge is water and wear resistance. Floaratam needs more water than Zoysia, but neither are known for their wear resistance.

So IMO you are going to have to pick one over the other. Since you already have Floratam established it just makes since to go with that. However unless you get your water issue straightened out, neither is going to serve you very well.

Well I stand corrected with respect to drought resistance. Floratam actually does pretty good, and is slightly better than Empire. Went looking at some research sites I trust and found a decent list of drought recovery of various warm season turf grasses, although Floratam does not perform as well as the Bermuda grass, it is respectable. Note here Floratam is the only SA that has good drought recovery.

Variety % Recovery Uniformity*

Celebration Bermuda 100.0% 9.00

Grimes EXP Bermuda 100.0 9.00

Common Bermuda 98.8 9.00

GN1 Bermuda 98.8 9.00

Tifway 419 Bermuda 98.8 9.00

Tex Turf Bermuda 97.5 9.00

TifSport Bermuda 97.5 9.00

Buffalo Grass 95.0 9.00

Floratam St. Augustine 88.8 8.50

Empire Zoysia 71.3 8.50

Palisades Zoysia 71.3 8.50

Jamur Zoysia 68.8 8.25

El Toro Zoysia 62.5 8.50

Premier Bermuda 57.5 7.25

Common St. Augustine 55.0 6.00

Palmetto St. Augustine 51.3 4.75

Amerishade St. Augustine 42.5 4.50

Delmar St. Augustine 37.5 4.75

Cavalier Zoysia 27.5 6.75

Raleigh St. Augustine 25.0 4.50

Emerald Zoysia 25.0 7.25

Sapphire St. Augustine 17.5 3.00

Zeon Zoysia 17.5 6.75

Zorro Zoysia 15.0 6.00

Thanks for the input everyone. Like water, I'll take the path of least resistance and stick with St Aug. At least in the sections where St Aug was once established.

The decline of the St Aug in my front yard is due to cultural practices (I killed it/let it die). My logic on when to water is based on wilting grass blades. When the St Aug starts to wilt at the end of the day, it's getting close to time to water. When the wilt does not go away over night, then it's definitely time to water ASAP.

Empire Zoysia has broad leaves for Zoysia, 5 - 7mm, while Floratam leaves are up to 9mm wide. That's why I was curious if they could blend together.

FYI, Floratam's spring greenup in Birmingham is early, very early. Earlier than Emerald & Z-52 Zoysia, which is the standard for my neighborhood. In sections with full sun, the SA will be fairly green in January.

I'll try to post some pics sometime soon, so folks can see how things progress.

One last question, what height of cut will help the SA fill in faster? I prefer to use my manual reel mower. It's range is 1.5" - 2.75". I have a rotary that maxes out at 3.5 or 3.75", but I really prefer the quiet serenity of the reel.

Thanks for the help!

jimmygiii I used to try to time my watering with the wilting of the blades. I was using a rotary impact type sprinkler like all the magazines told me I was supposed to use. Unfortunately those things leave a lot of lawn unwatered. I spend one day watering and the rest of the week trying to catch up with the wilty spots that didn't get watered. Last year I went back to the oscillating type sprinkler. I've had every sprinkler at least twice and the oscillator at least four times. Now I have two of them and love them for my yard. I don't get enough wind down under the tree canopy to blow the water around so it works great for me. But as to wilting, I don't wait that long anymore. Everyone should adjust their watering by something and I prefer to anticipate the wilting and water a little early. When I waited for the grass to wilt, it never developed the density I was looking for. Now it does.

2.75" is a little short for the best appearance and least overall maintenance in my opinion. I mow at my rotary's highest setting and I'm seeing a lot more lawns mowed up high. If the grass is not dense, mowing high allows it to fall over so there is that to consider. If your density is good then mowing higher allows deeper root development, longer water retention in the soil (less evaporation), and less chance of weeds. I get my quiet serenity, such as it is, from an electric mower. I can't quite have a comfortable conversation with it running, but I can at least know if someone wants to talk without shouting.

Empire does look like st. augustine. It is also lighter in color like st augustine.

My first reply where I said Emerald might be problematic there, I misread Empire for Emerald.