I am planning to sod zoysia in my yard in Round Rock.

When is the best time of year to do so?

I could do it as early as 2 weeks from now or wait until next year if needed.

Also what are the best zoysia varieties. We have a good amount of shade.

Thanks

I would say you can either do it now or wait until around March. I had Palisades zoysia at my last house and it was awesome.

Zoysia is fairly slow growing, especially compared to St Augustine or Bermuda, so I would think springtime might be better as you should have more time for it to establish itself as long as you are taking care of it. I realize its not getting cold in Texas anytime soon but you will have a lot more growing time if you plant in March or so.

Emerald, Empire, and Toro are the ones I've heard the most good stuff about. Whatever you pick, it feels really good to walk across bare-feet in. I definitely want to use zoysia for my yard some day.

I sodded my back yard in early April and the spring rains this year pretty much destroyed it.
Rain water is good for the grass, but constant flooding not so much.
If I could have predicted the weather, I would have waited until after Memorial Day and then just made sure I watered enough.

Do it now, the lawn will establish roots over the winter and be ready to rock next spring.
Zeon and zorro and the most shade tolerant, but are thin blade. Palisade is my favorite wide blade.... Jamur is great as well.

I second what Apache said. Plant it now. You will have 8 months to get the roots established. The grass will be in good shape going into next summer.

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Do it now, the lawn will establish roots over the winter and be ready to rock next spring.

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+1 Root growth first of all for healthy turf.

I waited until the first week in May this year. Planted Cavalier Zoysia. Love it so far. Thick, soft, and emerald green. Against my better judgement I did not cull the top pieces which were dried out. Most of those died. I might have 25% coverage into those spaces from the surrounding sod. It does grow slow laterally. Doing OK in really shady areas(4hours sun/day) but is thinner and I can tell will never be as healthy as the sunny areas.

Palisades is generally thought to be good in shade, is readily available, and a little cheaper than some of the other zoysias. Diamond is supposed to be the thing in DFW, I couldnt find a local dealer who could find it. I went Cavalier because of the thin blades. We take our shoes off when lounging in backyard to enjoy it.

As slow as zoysia grows I was wanting a full season of root growth, especially as we have dogs and moderate traffic on the sod. I'd do it the same again.

Apparently i have a fairly major infestation of "torpedo grass" in my St Augustine grass. From what iven been told, the only way to fix it is by spraying round up and removing the grass. I am now contemplating removing all my grass (9000 sf or so) and replacing with Zorro Zoysia. It might be early november before i do that. Should i wait till april instead?

I'm sodding this week. The contractors says as long as I get it down at least a week before the snow it will be fine.