The Best Grass for a Boerne or San Antonio Yard

People ask us this all the time, usually right after a lawn they inherited from the builder starts to struggle. The honest answer is that there is no single best grass for this area. There is a best grass for your yard, and it comes down to how much sun you get and how you use the space.

Here is how we think about it for a typical Boerne or North San Antonio property.

St. Augustine, for the shade under the oaks

If your lot has mature live oaks, and a lot of them do out in Fair Oaks Ranch, Boerne, and Shavano Park, St. Augustine is usually the answer. It handles shade better than anything else that grows well here, and it makes a thick, carpet like lawn.

The trade off is water and height. St. Augustine drinks more than Bermuda, and it needs to be mowed tall. Cut it short to save a week and you scalp it into brown patch. We keep the deck high on St. Augustine lawns for exactly that reason.

Bermuda, for the hot open lots

If your yard is open and sunny, Bermuda is tough to beat. It loves the heat, it is drought tolerant once established, and it recovers fast from foot traffic. It will not tolerate deep shade, so it is a poor pick under a heavy canopy, but on a wide open Hill Country lot it thrives.

Bermuda wants to be mowed shorter and a little more often to stay dense. On a biweekly plan through the summer that is easy to stay ahead of.

Zoysia, for durability

Zoysia sits in the middle. It takes some shade, holds up to traffic, and forms a dense turf that crowds out weeds. It grows slowly, which means less frequent mowing, but that same slow growth makes it slower to repair if it gets damaged.

The soil is half the battle

Whatever you plant, the ground it goes into matters just as much as the variety. A lot of this corridor sits on thin, rocky caliche, and newer lots often have almost no topsoil. That is why we push aeration and top dressing so often. The grass can only be as good as the root zone under it.

Not sure what you have or what would do best? We are glad to walk your yard and give you a straight answer. Call us at (210) 816-3562.