# 1/2 acre lawn overhaul. Temporary PRG to Bermuda or Zoysia?



## olddog (Nov 27, 2021)

Sorry, this post is turning out longer than I thought... First post here. Been reading a ton, watching a ton of videos, and trying to come up with game plans. My personality is to research so hard that I miss my opportunity to complete any of my original options. This year I decided to go for it. Started making plans and tested my soil to find out I have literally zero nutrients. That led me to split the yard up into sections and tackle them over time. Last month I tried two methods on about 10,000 sqft. I'm in northern Florida zone 8b btw.

I scalped and covered up about 4,000sqft of bahia/every Florida weed known to man with about an inch to 1.5" of 50/50 mix compost and topsoil with (from what I'm told) mycorrhizal fungi. I tilled up the rest of the bahia/weeds and attempted to clear as much of the organic matter as I could, then covered that with about 0.5" of the mix.

For the not tilled area, I spread about 40 pounds of Linn perennial ryegrass seed and covered it with a thin layer of peat moss. Watered 4 times a day for 10-12 minutes, just enough to keep it from drying out before the next watering. Germinated in a handful of days and I think my first mow was about 10 days after spreading. Did some hand spreading to fill in a few thin spots and it's lookin pretty good.

The tilled up side, not so much. I neglected the peat moss on this section and left a bit of the dead/dying grass that was tilled up. What an absolute pain that was. I ended up spreading about 17 yards of that 50/50 mix with a shovel and a gorilla cart. The end was a sweet release. I didn't want to see a shovel for a while. The day after spreading, I had mole tracks all through the tilled area, which seems to have prevented a decent amount of germination. It's not terrible, but I'm chalking it up to the learning process of an experiment. I found where my irrigation system is falling short and moved a couple sprinkler heads.

So, now...I'm trying to decide my late Spring course of action. I had already purchased 50lbs of Blackjack bermuda seed, but I'm wondering if the lower maintenance of Zoysia would be the way to go. I just don't know if I want to spend $1000 on Zoysia seed. On the other hand, if I grow the Blackjack first and change my mind, will I be able to get rid of it and start fresh with Zoysia the next year? Sounds like bermuda is a nightmare, if not impossible, to get rid of. I still have plenty of leeway with my soil height, I'd say at least 2-3" more to bring it up around the height of all my walk paths.

Anyway, I'll try to add a pic of the better section of PRG. This grass is fantastic, but I will definitely appreciate the denser turf of a Zoysia or bermuda. Also, the weirdest thing...the PRG smells like candy or something when I cut it. haha. weird.


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## Herring (Sep 19, 2020)

Fantastic looking PRG!

What is the desired maintenance and height of cut for the new grass? Blackjack looks to be more of a high end common bermuda. For lower height of cut and higher turf quality I would absolutely consider sprigging a hybrid bermuda, or sod to sprig. It looks like there's plenty of sun in the area and having irrigation is good.


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## olddog (Nov 27, 2021)

Thank you. It has been a pretty satisfying project so far.

I read that Blackjack is a higher quality fine blade turf that is a darker green than other hybrids and has slightly better cold tolerance, but I don't know for certain.

As for desired maintenance, I don't mind the frequent mowing, but I had decided to seed my front yard which is about 10,000 sq ft in total. My total yard is an acre, so frequent mowing with a walk behind reel might get frustrating if I end up doing the whole thing. I was assuming that I would attempt to keep it around 0.75-1", which I think would help until I can get it completely leveled. I also think that the fertilizer/aerating/chemical applications would be much more frequent with bermuda, but the flip side would be better wear tolerance and quicker self repair.

I have some Emerald Zoysia from seed in the back yard that has been pretty easy to take care of and I enjoy the density of it. I actually spread some seed a few years ago and forgot about it. I think I would also appreciate the lower N requirement and higher disease resistance of the Zoysia. I believe it is also a bit softer than bermuda for those times I like to walk around barefoot.

I haven't done any research on sprigging yet, but it sounds like taking stolons and spacing them out. Do people plug bermuda like Zoysia?


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