Zoysia grass - yes or no?

Every time I mow my lawn I think about zoysia grass. According to the people who peddle it, it is thick to choke out weeds, it is hardy and can grow most places (full sun and under trees, as well as many climates), and it doesn't grow vertically very fast so you need to mow less often.

Sounds perfect to me. BUT:

that is all from the advertisers. Anyone have real experience with this stuff? I know one of my friends in maryland says his neighbor has it and it is brown (but alive) 80% of the year. I'm not sure I'd want brown, but I'm also not sure how this neighbor treats the lawn.

Also important, I live in Chicago.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zoysia

Its water requirement is high. ... For best appearance, turf experts recommend reel blade mowers

Looks like Chicagoland is Right on the border between "ok" and "not recommended" for zoysia grass. I probably wouldn't spend very much time, money, or effort to make a switch when successful results are questionable.

I have fescue, its the grass of satan.  I have been considering zoysia as well, after I remove all of satan's seed.  At least in north Alabama, I think it will do OK.  There isn't enough water in the world to make fescue live through August.

racerdave600 said:

I have fescue, its the grass of satan.  I have been considering zoysia as well, after I remove all of satan's seed.  At least in north Alabama, I think it will do OK.  There isn't enough water in the world to make fescue live through August.

Does it actually die, or just go brown for a while? 

Got a zoysia grass front lawn myself. And... um.... it stays green most of the year in Georgia but does go dormant and brown (not dead) in winter. Grows OK both in full sun and under a large maple tree in the front yard. Not totally weed proof, but not high maintenance either - although I don't have high standards for a lawn, so I wasn't exactly going for a golf course fairway here.

My front yard is half moss and half grass.  My back yard is 2/3 moss and weeds, and 1/3 grass.  We're just about to embark on a complete backyard renovation, so this seemed a timely thread.  As I read about it, I started to get excited about the properties being listed about this stuff too...Then I saw the grow zones, and we're firmly in the no-grow zone. 

Thanks for getting my hopes up. 

spitfirebill said:

racerdave600 said:

I have fescue, its the grass of satan.  I have been considering zoysia as well, after I remove all of satan's seed.  At least in north Alabama, I think it will do OK.  There isn't enough water in the world to make fescue live through August.

Does it actually die, or just go brown for a while? 

A lot of it actually dies, yes.  You have to reseed every fall.  It is nice and green in the winter, but I can live without that.  Our normal watering routine is the entire yard for 1 to 2 hours every morning during the peak summer months, a bit less when it is cooler.  Sometimes that is not even enough.  You have to water in the morning or otherwise it burns and turns brown also.  I let the landscape guy that did my yard talk me into it without doing my research.    

In reply to racerdave600 :

Have you plug aerated your lawn?  

It's been a long time since I looked into it, so my memory may be false, but I don't think Zoysia is very hardy (meaning it is intolerant of wear/traffic from kids, dogs, adult humans, cars, bikes etc.).

We have zoyshia in the front yard, which is a very low traffic area. It seems to be pretty heat tolerant (North Cakalacky), but does go dormant in the winter. And when I say dormant, I mean it looks completely dead/brown. It does an ok job of choking out the weeds, but they do pop up, not that I care. 

The rest of our yard is a mix of weeds, clover, fescue, and weeds. And more weeds. It does stay green all year though, so there's that. 

We have never reseeded the zoyshia, lived here for 20 years (holy crap we have lived here 20 years). It's ok, but it wouldn't be my first choice, and cost is a major part of that decision. I have heard that the best way to get zoyshia established is sod. 

I live in central MD.  Neighbor across the street has zoysia grass in the front yard.  It is just now starting to green up (I have already cut my yard 4 times).  Once it greens up it looks great and seems to be easy to care for.  But it will also go dormant (turn brown) a month before mine does.  And it will stay brown all winter where my fescue lawn will still be green.

Seems like a good choice if you don't want to do a lot of maintenance and don't mind the brown for a good part of the year.

IT TAKES FOREVER TO GROW & SPREAD!!

True it doesn't grow very tall, but you'd have to totally sod the yard (super expensive) and the seed (for the bare spots that will develop doesn't sprout very well.

In 11 years my neighbors yard has spread only 5' into a bare area near my front pond.

I have it here in Massachusetts, and this is about as far north as you will see it.  I have to mow it from mid May to late September.  Requires almost no extra watering.  Spreads everywhere.  Constantly pulling long strings of it out of my flower beds.  I love it.  Wife hates it.  Its brown 7 months out of the year.  Still have large straw colored sections in my back yard now.  Extremely dense.  Kids love playing on it, and laying down on it.  My neighbor does zero yard maintenance.  About 4 years ago I started seeding pieces at the edge of her property.  She now has about 10 feet of beautiful lawn and 90 feet of dirt, weeds, dandelions, down tree branches, and unraked leaves from last fall.  Those long strings I pull out of the gardens transplant real well.

I'm pretty sure Chicagoland is too far north for zoysia. I just moved from Bloomington, IL 2.5 hours south and I wouldn't even consider it there.

Zoysia isn't cheap and you really want to start with sod... seed you have to water the crap out of, plugs are a pain to plant and you have to wait for it to spread.

You could experiment with some plugs to see how it does, but I'd bet it won't do well.

Yup.  Pain in the ass to establish.  The whole "it grows expands 6" a year" thing is BS.  Maybe after its been established for 5 years.  Put in a 1" diameter plug and it will be 2" in diameter after a year.  Maybe 3.5" after another year.  Spacing plugs 12" apart and hoping it fills in is a pipe dream.

Once established, its bombproof.  Like you can do donuts on it in a Miata and you won't hurt it.  No soggy muddy yard or bare spots.

Its brown through the winter, which kinda sucks.  Mine doesn't turn green here in NC until April.  You can't really plant it here in the south until mid may.  I would think the window for planting in Chicago would almost be so short you couldn't even establish it.

They do have it in seed form now ($$), I plan to try some in my back yard.  I'll probably pre-germinate it in a wheelbarrow or something to save on the crazy watering requirements.  I did this with Fescue recently and it works insanely well.

I really enjoy the look of a nicely manicured Fescue lawn in the winter, but I'd much rather have the low maintenance weed resistance of zoysia, even if it means 3 months a year of brown.

Here in PA you can spot the zoysia yards from November until May.  Big brown swatches of ugly.

My lawn is green.  It is mostly clover, ivy, and random weeds, but its green.  I mow it, it comes back, it stays green year round, and I find it really neat when I discover a new wildflower growing in it.

This spring it was almost all purple in the shade: violets, grape hyacinths.... always an adventure, and always green.

This looks like the stuff they use in the city parks here in chattanooga. Its the first to turn brown, last to turn green and it feels terrible.

Put about 40 bucks of plugs in 20 years ago, on a side yard that had bad weeds.  Now it is the thickest, most durable part of the lawn.  Has grown to most of the yard.  I love it, impossible to kill with foot traffic, never needs water and is a joy to walk on barefoot.  It grows so thick it does work the mower, you can hear the revs drop when in that portion of the yard.  After the first frost it goes brown and takes until june to go completely green.  

Bottom line, IMHO you can get a great lawn with lots of money on expensive seed and frequent fertilizer, or zoysia and time.  Both work it just depends on your preference.  

In reply to Curtis :

Green grass is a first world problem!

Lived in too many places where  trying to keep the grass green year round would be seen the same as trying to keep the leaves on your trees in winter. I like the dry season in that I don't have to mow the damn stuff and bear no ill-will towards the color brown. The stuff seems to come back year after year regardless of how brown it goes.

I have clover, wild onion and weeds. I cut them from time to time. The garden, which produces useful things, gets all the attention.

porschenut said:

Put about 40 bucks of plugs in 20 years ago, on a side yard that had bad weeds.  Now it is the thickest, most durable part of the lawn.  Has grown to most of the yard.  I love it, impossible to kill with foot traffic, never needs water and is a joy to walk on barefoot.  It grows so thick it does work the mower, you can hear the revs drop when in that portion of the yard.  After the first frost it goes brown and takes until june to go completely green.  

Bottom line, IMHO you can get a great lawn with lots of money on expensive seed and frequent fertilizer, or zoysia and time.  Both work it just depends on your preference.  

Interesting! Where do you live?

I live in Bucks county, north of Phila.  Picked zoysia because a childhood neighbor put it in.  My dad used expensive seed and lots of fertilizer, thatching and such.  In ten years their lawn was thicker but turned brown every fall,  And they went through lawn mowers every few seasons.  The motors just tired out.