What type of grass in Austin?

[Roadking2003]

Berumda grows well, but is very difficult to get really nice looking and is very high maintenance. If you drive around and look at Bermuda lawns, most of them are scraggly. Most people mow them way too high and don't mow often enough so they show dead tops after mowing. You should mow at least twice per week. Bermuda was developed to be cut very low....like on a golf course. If you mow twice per week at a low level (1 inch or so) it won't look dead half the time.

St. Augustine is very easy to grow if you have lots of water. And you can cut it high... 2 or 3 inches ... and it still looks good after mowing.

[eileenkeeney]

I don't want to use lots of water, otherwise I would just keep the St.Augustine grass.

I am not going to plant a lawn I have to mow more than once every few weeks in peak growing season.
As for the lawn that is now there, it is not going to get mowed more than once every few weeks as well.

Maybe I will just wait and see what happens with the current lawn, with minimal maintenance.
It already seemed dead under the trees.
Maybe I will put some sort of rocks down there, to prevent it from becoming muddy there.

[hoffdano]

Originally Posted by eileenkeeney

I am not going to plant a lawn I have to mow more than once every few weeks in peak growing season.
As for the lawn that is now there, it is not going to get mowed more than once every few weeks as well.

I am not aware of a grass other than prairie buffalo that can go a few weeks without mowing in peak growing season and remain healthy and reasonably attractive looking.

[atxcio]

Originally Posted by eileenkeeney

Maybe I will just wait and see what happens with the current lawn, with minimal maintenance.
It already seemed dead under the trees.
Maybe I will put some sort of rocks down there, to prevent it from becoming muddy there.

You can coax the existing lawn into bare areas by laying down some compost over those areas... also aerating helps; when those bare areas get dried out, they become rock-hard and the grass has a tough time ever repopulating. But again, with this rainy weather and some compost, you stand a good chance of lawn recovery with minimal work.

For under the tree, if you want some rock you might also consider crushed/decomposed granite. It's cheap in bulk at the natural gardener, and makes a nice zeriscaped look. You can eventually add native/no maintenance species (like yucca, agave, lantana) and it will look really good against the granite. Whatever you put down, however, be sure to think about the leaves falling off the tree. They will be difficult to clean them up from certain surfaces. Decomposed granite will eventually become pretty hard, so you can blow the leaves off if necessary. Of course, if you leave it grass, you can just mow over the leaves.