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When & How to Plant & Grow St. Augustine Grass
How to Plant and Care for a St. Augustine Grass Lawn
A coastal favorite that shrugs off salty air, humidity, and a little shade — planted with plugs rather than by seed.
If you live along the Gulf Coast or the Southeast's warm, humid coastline, St. Augustine grass is probably already the lawn you know best. It's a warm-season grass built for heat and humidity, with better shade tolerance than most of its warm-season cousins and enough salt tolerance to handle coastal air.
Unlike the most other lawn grasses, St. Augustine isn't grown from seed. It's planted from plugs, sprigs, or sod. Here's how to get a plug-planted St. Augustine lawn established.
What Is St. Augustine Grass and Is It Right for Your Lawn?
St. Augustine grass is a warm-season grass with broad, coarse-textured blades that forms a thick, carpet-like lawn in hot, humid climates, including the salty air of coastal yards where many other grasses struggle.
- Best for: warm, humid coastal and Gulf Coast lawns that want better shade tolerance than bermuda without giving up warm-season toughness.
- What it looks like: broad, coarse, blue-green blades that form a thick, carpet-like turf.
- Good to know: St. Augustine spreads by above-ground stolons. New lawns are planted with plugs, sprigs or sod, not by seed. It tolerates partial shade better than Bermuda but still needs several hours of sun a day to thrive.
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Stolons: above-ground runners that grow outward from the base of the grass plant and root wherever they touch soil. St. Augustine spreads entirely through stolons, which is why individual plugs and sprigs are able to gradually knit together into a full lawn.
How and When Do You Plant St. Augustine Grass?
Plant St. Augustine plugs when the air temperature is in the 80–100°F range and at least 90 days before your area's first fall frost so the lawn has time to establish a good root system before cooler weather. Aim for a soil temperature consistently above 65°F, which is what St. Augustine grass roots need to take hold quickly.
Step 1: Measure Your Lawn
Calculate your lawn's square footage to know how many plugs you'll need. Eighteen plugs will typically cover about 32 square feet when spaced on a diagonal grid.
Step 2: Prep the Area
Remove existing vegetation with a sod cutter, and apply an herbicide, like GroundClear Super Weed & Grass Killer about two weeks before planting if needed to clear weeds.
Step 3: Prepare the Soil
Spread a thin layer of fresh soil or a specialty mulch plus fertilizer product, like EZ Patch, evenly over the area to help plugs establish faster.
Step 4: Water the Ground
Thoroughly water the planting area before you start digging. Moist soil is much easier to work and gives plugs immediate access to moisture after planting.
Step 5: Dig the Holes
Dig holes about 12 inches apart in a diagonal pattern; a plugging tool makes this faster and keeps hole depth consistent. The planting holes should be slightly wider than but no deeper than the size of your St. Augustinegrass plugs.
Step 6: Place Your Plugs
Press each plug in firmly so it sits level with the surrounding soil and backfill around it with soil. A plug set too high or too low will struggle to root.
Step 7: Keep Watering
Water daily for the first 7-14 days while roots establish, then taper to a weekly deep watering.
Step 8: Monitor for Pests & Disease
Watch new plugs for brown spots or mildew, and contact your local extension office if problems develop before the lawn has filled in.
How Do You Care for a St. Augustine Grass Lawn?
How Much Water Does St. Augustine Grass Need?
Once established, St. Augustine needs about an inch of water a week, including rainfall. Water deeply and less often rather than a little every day to encourage deep roots.
What Height Should You Mow St. Augustine Grass?
Mow your St. Augustine lawn at 3 to 4 inches. St. Augustine's broad blades scalp easily if cut too short, which opens the lawn up to weeds and stress.
How Often Should You Feed St. Augustine Grass?
Feed your new St. Augustine lawn 6 to 8 weeks after planting. Then continue on a 6-to-8-week schedule with a Southern lawn food through the growing season.
What Problems Should You Watch For With St. Augustine Grass?
What Pests and Diseases Affect St. Augustine Grass?
St. Augustine's most common disease is brown patch, which shows up as roughly circular patches of collapsed, discolored grass blades, often with a cobweb-like fungal growth visible in early morning. It's most active in hot, humid weather, especially daytime temperatures above 80°F with nights staying above 65°F. Watering in the morning instead of the evening and keeping up a regular feeding schedule helps prevent it. A fungicide labeled for brown patch, such as DiseaseEx, will bring an active outbreak under control. See How to Treat Brown Patch Disease in the Lawn for a full identification and treatment guide.
St. Augustine is also one of chinch bugs' favorite grasses. Look for yellow-brown patches in full sun that look like drought stress even when the lawn is getting enough water, since chinch bugs hide down in the thatch. A quick way to confirm you have chinch bugs is to push a cut-open can with both ends removed into the soil, fill it with water, and watch for bugs floating up after a few minutes. You can control a chinch bug infestation with a lawn insect control product labeled for chinch bugs, like Ortho BugClear Lawn Insect Killer. See How to Kill, Control, and Prevent Chinch Bugs for the full how-to.
How Do You Keep St. Augustine Grass Green in Winter?
St. Augustine goes dormant and browns in the cooler parts of its range once temperatures drop in winter, though it stays greener longer than bermuda in the mildest coastal climates. Where winter color matters, some homeowners overseed with perennial ryegrass in fall though many Gulf Coast lawns skip overseeding since St. Augustine's dormant season is short.
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