Just Say No to St. Augustine grass

For those of you who live in the warm-season areas of the country as it relates to lawn grasses, you’ll want to take note of what’s happening in Tampa, Fla. A local lawmaker, Karl Nurse, was able to push through an ordinance limiting the amount of St. Augustine grass in any new landscape to 10 percent.

St. Augustine has been the lawn grass of choice for much of Florida for the last several decades. Landscapers love it because it requires an abundance of fertilizer and pesticides and needs to be mowed frequently, but that makes St. Augustine a bad environmental choice.

“We have used all of the cheap water. As we move toward more expensive water, which is water in our reservoir or desal, we will double the price of water,” Nurse told the local newspaper.

The ordinance doesn’t impact any lawns that are already in existence.

Alternative southern grasses include: Bahia, Bermuda, Centipede, Paspalum, Zoysia and Carpetgrass.