2022 Growing Grass in Texas from Zoysia Plugs
(5/25/2022 - unknown outcome)
2022 Growing Grass in Texas from Zoysia Plugs(5/25/2022 - unknown outcome)
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Getting regular yard grass to grow in Texas is kicking my butt. So I bought these Zoysia Plugs from Amazon: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B079LV8JJ8 and used this tool to cut square plugs out of the yard: https://www.amazon.com/dp/B000CSXJR6 and I'm giving this a try.
Click the movie below to watch a 2 minute timelapse of me planting the Zoysia lawn grass plugs:
Here is the area of the yard before I planted any Zoysia lawn plugs. I had tried to roll out these long dissolvable paper rolls that contain seed inside of them: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B07DD1MHPP/?th=1 which grew in some places but left this bare patch:
In the picture below, I have used the plunger like tool to remove square plugs of dirt. You can see the "plugs" I removed on the far left of the picture.
In the picture below, I have planted the first 5 rows of Zoysia plugs Foot for scale, I planted them about 6 inches apart in a staggered pattern. The holes were larger than the plugs, so I used the potting soil seen below to fill in the area around the plugs. Hopefully this will provide a nice environment for the Zoysia to thrive. Here is a link to the potting soil: https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B08DBYF64J/
Ok, the picture below was taken on 5/25/2022 when I was all finished with planting the plugs in this area. The sprinkler is on a timer where it waters for 10 minutes every 6 hours.
Ok, here is a picture on 6/13/2022 after about 2 and a half weeks of growing and getting watered for 10 minutes every 6 hours. Now this is IDEAL growing time, and here in Austin it was a heat wave of 100 degree weather which I think is pretty ideal. Picture below:
Ok, so the picture below is on 6/24/2022. I have decided to remove the fence (after taking this photo) and let the grass dry then cut it for the first time. This is the "before cutting" picture.
Final picture on 7/25/2022 - here I have mowed it several times, and it is now 8 weeks since the plugs were planted. I would call this a "success". You can still see where the plugs were planted, but they have CLEARLY spread out and interlocked with each other and it is coming closer to "finished". Certainly in a year I expect it to full fill in. Explanation of the brown patch near the bottom of the photo: this is in Texas, and it was a record heat wave here for several weeks, and when the grass got long it kind of blocked the sprinkler so the grass past a certain point got a little brown. I really don't have worries about that, it comes right back when watered properly, and now that I'm mowing it I'll make sure that part gets properly watered.
All done!