re: The biggest lie ever told about lawns is that Centipede is good and easy

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Checkout the board as of late. Everyone is letting their common Bermuda take over because nothing else is as sturdy.

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Spring of 2023 my centipede yard, and my neighbors, all looked terrible when everything was turning green. My centipede had maybe .01% hybrid Bermuda in it. Noticed there was a tiny bit 7 years ago when we moved in and it came that way from the sod farm. I left it alone. Well, when the centipede struggled last year I’m glad I let that Bermuda be because it took off and has aggressively taken over the entire back yard and by the end of this summer it will have taken over the rest of the front. My experience with Bermuda has been a good one in the past because that’s the kind of grass everyone has in Little Rock. 9.5 out of 10 yards in that Little Rock area had some strain of hybrid or common Bermuda. It takes more fertilizer and needs to be cut more often, but at least it doesn’t die like my yard did in 2023. Bermuda is one of the fastest growing and most aggressive turf grasses out there. It grew well in Little Rock and it’s doing well here in the Mobile area.

I do have Palisades zoysia on one side of the house. This is probably one of the best cultivars I’ve ever seen if you want a grass blade that looks similar to centipede. Last summer was unusually hot for this area. Nor did it rain that much. The Palisades zoysia required less water and no matter how hot it got the stuff stayed healthy looking. It also stayed predominantly green all winter except for when it froze over around here. But that stuff still came out of dormancy within a few weeks after the frost. A decade ago I sodded my parents yard with Empire zoysia. That’s a little like Palisades zoysia, but the blade looks a little smaller than the blade of centipede. Those two zoysia cultivars I just named I have firsthand experience with and will endorse. Far as I’m concerned a well taken care of Bermuda or zoysia yard is far superior and more aesthetically pleasing to the eye.