My yard got some torpedo grass in it , so im in the process of killing about 3000 sf of it and about to remove it. Im planning to rent a sod cutter from home depot, cut it out, remove it and replace with sod. Any advice you can give me regarding the sod cutter? How hard is it to operate, any suggestions to make it easier, or faster? Thanks!

Don't have any advice on the sod cutter, but when I switched from St. Aug. to zoysia, I just sprayed roundup on the lawn, waited a few days, scalped the lawn as short as a could with the mower and weed eater, then rented a tiller at home depot and tilled everything else left. It worked fine and never had any issues.

Bassmaster said:

---

Don't have any advice on the sod cutter, but when I switched from St. Aug. to zoysia, I just sprayed roundup on the lawn, waited a few days, scalped the lawn as short as a could with the mower and weed eater, then rented a tiller at home depot and tilled everything else left. It worked fine and never had any issues.

---

Which Zoysia variety ? I'm planning on doing the same in the spring.


Any comments on how much better it is over St. Aug ?

Palisades. Loved it! There is no comparison between it and St. Aug. We have since sold the house and the lawn is the thing that I miss the most. When we were in the process of selling our house, I would guess that we had 20 or so showings, and I bet 18 of them commented about how they loved the lawn. We have over an acre now, so it is really not feasible to do the same so I'm stuck with St. Aug. for now.

I would kill to do this in our backyard. The StA is pathetic and I'm constantly dealing with drought, or fungus or God only knows what else. How does the palisades do with heavy traffic? I've got 3 dogs and 2 boys and we are constantly outside.

Palisades is great with traffic....and disease. I have a dog (boxer) and two boys who all run around a lot. The St. Aug. wouldn't hold up, but Palisades never had any issues. I had brown patch in the yard every single year with St. Aug. Once I put the zoysia down, never again. If it is feasible for you, I would do it in a heartbeat.

What about shade tolerance?

I would love Zoysia in my yard....however I'm learning that grass removal is insanely difficult! It's kicking my butt.

Can't speak to that personally. I only had trees on the perimeter of my property and the canopies were mulched, so all of my grass got plenty of sun.