Help with a big yard!

9 years ago

Just purchased a rural home it's a little over 1 acre 300x200 ft close to 60,000 sqft.. Absolutely no grass just weeds, was previously used as farm land. I'm located in South Georgia getting a soil test done asap but looking for some advice what grass would be the best to use? There are 6 grown pecan trees, so I do have shade. The movers who installed my home built a mobile home pad from clay and leveled with sand. Should I add top soil or just some compost when I seed? Any advice would be appreciated. Not looking for a show lawn just something that looks nice

Featured Answer

dchall_san_antonio

9 years ago

mseawrig, I grew St Aug just fine in 0 hours of direct sunlight. It was under a mature live oak tree up against a house, so 0 hours per day all year long.

At that house I ran an experiment to see if tall St Aug needed less watering. I have seen St Aug growing completely untended in the dunes near Port Aransas, TX. It got up to 32 inches tall and never got watered except for the occasional rain. So I tried that. I stopped mowing and stretched out the watering. The place where I had 0 direct sun grew up tallest fastest. After it got tall I stopped watering. That area went for the next 36 months without any supplemental irrigation. The only issue with that is acceptance of tall grass in the family and in the community. It doesn't look like you have much community out there, so it would have to be approved by the family. Mine was only approved by virtue of the fact that I lived alone. The city eventually coerced me to mow it by selective enforcement of a litter law that they did not enforce on anyone else. I did have a fear that the tall grass would harbor vermin and/or snakes, but I never saw one and that was rattlesnake and coral snake country. So all this is to say that tall St Augustine needs less water than short...if watering is an issue.

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Comments (7)

dchall_san_antonio
9 years ago
Are you doing any sports on the lawn? It matters as to what kind of grass to get.

No need for more topsoil unless they left you with low spots or poor drainage. Did they have a professional finish grader run over it with a tractor and box blade to get you good drainage? If so then rainwater should drain away from your home toward a gutter, storm drain, street, or ditch.

An acre is a lot of lawn. I'm St Augustine oriented for several reasons. For your situation it is good because it will spread to cover as much as you care to irrigate. You could start a few thousand feet just around the house and under the trees, then let it spread out as conditions allow. If you water, mow, and fertilize it right, it will spread out roughly 15 feet every year and eventually cover your acre...assuming you are willing to water that much grass. St Aug will keep out most of the grassy weeds all by itself. St Augustine is started by sod, not seed.

If you want a seeded grass that will also spread, then you're looking at one of the varieties of common bermuda. You could seed that now but it won't come up until the soil gets much (MUCH) warmer next June. You'd be better off just waiting until June to seed bermuda.

In the mean time you could seed rye grass. The grass will thrive all winter and either die or get killed before you seed the bermuda in the summer. It is late in the season to seed rye but it will probably come up.

Another thing you can do is get the $25 soil test from Logan Labs, post the results here, and get it read by the others here. Logan Labs has been tested and for now is the best soil test lab in the country. It's leading UMASS which is a close second. All the rest, including the Georgia university tests, are far distant down the line as far as accuracy and repeatibility. I'm not trying to be ugly. I'm trying to get you the best information for the least cost. A lot of people get a local test, find out it doesn't tell them anything, and end up with a LL test after all.
mseawrig
Original Author
9 years ago
Thanks a lot! I've sent in a sample for logans labs a few days ago, so I should be hearing back from the soon, as far as lawn use other than the daily driving across to get to the high way and an occasional BBQ that's about all the abuse the grass will get. I debating between Bermuda and St. Augustine. Will the Augustine grow in scattered shade? I don't believe I have 6 hrs of direct sunlight for either of these grasses
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mseawrig
Original Author
9 years ago
User
9 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
"Another thing you can do is get the $25 soil test from Logan Labs, post
the results here, and get it read by the others here. Logan Labs has
been tested and for now is the best soil test lab in the country. It's
leading UMASS which is a close second. All the rest, including the
Georgia university tests, are far distant down the line as far as
accuracy and repeatibility."

Hi dchall_san_antonio,

Could you post that list? I'd like to see where the soil test lab. that I used came out.

Thank you.
krnuttle
9 years ago
If that were my property I would start trying to get good grass growing in front of the trailer, For the rest I would just start mowing. Your best bet is some of the nice native grasses that come up naturally and take over an area. (Many of those beautiful yards you admire are native grasses.)

Second I would plan on a lot of flower/bush beds on the property to cut down the mowing. My rule of thumb for these beds is those places where you have repeatedly tried to grow grass. Of course you want to plant those beds with flowers and bushes to accent your house and property. or in other words, bushes and flowers with a lot of pretty colors.

Some of those bushes could be Crepe Myrtle, maybe some Colorful Japanese maples, etc. I definitely woun NOT put in any palm trees.
dchall_san_antonio
9 years ago
Ridgerunner I would love to post that list but I don't have it. The people I know who were closest to the testing are on another lawn care forum. Since it is a violation of the TOS for most forums, I cannot link you to that forum, but I can tell you it can be searched easily enough. The subforum is called soil management and compost forum and two of the active members are andy and morpheuspa.