A new Saint Augustine lawn can be an expensive investment when grown from turf from the turf farm. When we begin to see the total costs involved for these sod farms in growing new crops of turf, the expense in deliveries and so forth, we can understand why these costs are as they are.
But for many homeowners who want to grow a new St Augustine lawn, these high establishment costs can be prohibitive. However, with a little ingenuity and elbow grease, we can all massively cut the costs of growing a new Saint Augustine lawn by utilising one of the following cheaper methods to grow a new lawn.
Before we proceed, we should stress that regardless of what method we choose to grow our new lawn, we should always aim to establish the new lawn in Spring. A Springtime planting allows cooler weather for the new sod, so that the new turf cannot become damaged from heat stress, and without requiring too much water or time and effort to fully establish. And as the weather of Spring continues to warm up leading into the Summer, so to will our new sod be more established and needing the extra warmth to grow faster and fully establish as a new home lawn. Springtime is the perfect time.
Buying A Cheap Brand Of Sod
One of the first considerations for many people facing the costs associated with buying new St Augustine sod, is to think about buying a budget brand of grass. We strongly recommend not to do this. There's a reason why some brands of turf are cheaper than others, and that main reason is the quality of the turf being sold. There are some brands of St Augustine grass available today which aren't very good. They may grow too fast - requiring high maintenance levels, they may have poor shade tolerance, poor color, poor wear and tear properties and so forth.
For these reasons, we strongly encourage everyone not to buy discount or budget types of St Augustine grass. Because while they may be cheap to buy and establish, they may just turn into a very bad idea not too far into the future. Best to look at other methods to grow our new turf, while using the best quality grass we can buy.
Sprigs
Our first method of growing our budget St Augustine grass is to use sprigs, which are sold in small containers. These are little containers of sod sprigs which are grown in a similar way to our favorite flowering plants we buy at the garden shop. These little containers of sod are easily and quickly planted out in our new lawn area, and left to grow and spread as they continue to mature over time.
Starting our new Saint Augustine lawn with sprigs is a cheap method to choose, the sprigs are easily planted in the soil, but this method does have one major drawback. And that drawback is the establishment time required for these little sprigs to spread out to cover an entire new lawn area. Sprigs are the slowest method to grow a new St Augustine lawn.
Runners
Planting a new lawn using St Augustine runners a far better method. Using this technique involves going out and buying only a percentage of the new sod which we require for our total lawn area.
Using a sharp serrated knife, we then carefully cut the rolls of sod into much smaller pieces, while also separating away some of the runners from these new sod rolls. These small pieces of sod and runners are then planted out into the turf area, and then left to grow and spread over a period of time.
The percentage of runners required, meaning the total amount of new sod we need to buy, can be as low as 10% of the total surface area of the new lawn area. However, by using so few runners, the establishment time for the new Saint Augustine lawn will be greatly increased. Although the 10% figure will be quicker than growing the new lawn from sprigs, we believe that by using 20% of the total turf area as runners is a far better figure, as this reduces establishment times, as well as guarantees a far more successful outcome from planting the new lawn.
Caring For The Establishing Lawn
Once we've planted the sprigs or runners to grow our new St Augustine lawn, we're going to need to take good care of our new turf area as its establishing. Immediately after planting will be the time needing the greatest attention and care for our new St Augustine turf.
Regular watering is all that's needed for these new sprigs or runners, being sure to never let the sod or soil dry out during establishment. It is as simple as that. If the sprigs or runners begin looking dried out or wilting at any stage, then this is a sign to us that we need to water more frequently. We could put a little fertilizer on the new sod, but this is generally unnecessary until after the sprigs or runners are fully established and spreading rapidly. And its at this same stage of having healthy runners establishing our new St Augustine lawns that we can begin slowing down the watering to the new turf to standard watering levels.
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