Hello everyone,
I moved to South Carolina a few years ago from San Diego. We built a house on Hilton Head Island 2 years ago. HHI is on the border with Georgia, so it is far south in the state as you could be.
I am looking for some advice. The builder put in centipede sod when they built and we closed in October, so the grass went dormant about a month later. That next spring, it came back pretty well. We have a ton of dollar weeds down here, so I was constantly spraying for that. Then last winter, I found out about Rye Seed for overgrowth in this area. I LOVE this stuff. My entire lawn was bright green in two weeks and it last all winter long. In the spring however, when the Rye burned off, the centipede below was very "thin" and patchy. So, I did the best I could throughout the summer and fall to keep it going, but now, another winter is coming to an end and over the next month, I need to start rejuvenating the centipede underneath.

So my question is this: I am looking for advice on how to transition this grass, in the climate into a healthy spring time. Like, should I start spreading centipede seeds on top of the Rye Grass over the next few weeks, and sprinkle top soil in any patchy areas? I have a sprinkler/irrigation system, so it can be watered as much as necessary. I also want to know what you suggest to treat the grass underneath (Centipede) so that the dollar weeds and other imperfections aren't glaring a month from now....

Basically, I don't want to have to re-sod now, or even every couple years. I am not the best green thumb, so I am just looking for some basic advice and even suggestions on timing.

Also, the centipede in my front yard gets mostly sun and it is always full and lush (albeit with some weeds/dollar weeds in it) but my back yard goes up against the woods, so there is only a couple hours of direct sunlight on the grass as it passes over the forest line and then over the house... So the back yard is always thinner, lighter and not as lush. I have kids, dogs etc. so this is the high traffic area.

I am questioning if centipede is even the right call for out there. So, my final question is this: From what I understand, centipede and St. Augustine are similar in looks. I put St. Augustine down at our old house in this same neighborhood and it held up a lot better in the wooded/shaded areas?

Would it completely mess up the yard or kill the existing grass if I tried to spread St. Augustine seeds on top of the centipede? Would one strangle the other out, or could they blend together in harmony.

Any advice or suggestions would be awesome. Thanks.

By "dollar weed" What specific plant do you mean?
Dichondra?
Hydrocotyle?
Glechoma?

Something else?

Reason this is important... Dichondra grows where it's dry... hydrocotyle grows where its wet... Very important information when deciding on a solution.

Also... you haven't told us what soil type you have... clay? sand?

And... if you are trying to grow turf where it's shaded... it isn't going to happen.

Try lilyturf or carex... and get rid of the sprayer.

stone said:By "dollar weed" What specific plant do you mean?
Dichondra?
Hydrocotyle?
Glechoma?

Something else?

Reason this is important... Dichondra grows where it's dry... hydrocotyle grows where its wet... Very important information when deciding on a solution.

Also... you haven't told us what soil type you have... clay? sand?


And... if you are trying to grow turf where it's shaded... it isn't going to happen.

Try lilyturf or carex... and get rid of the sprayer.

Thanks for the reply.
First off, it is all referred to around here as "dollarweed", but upon further review, it is Hydrocotyle.

The soil is Sand. Lots of sand.

And for the yard, it isn't totally shaded. The pun passes right over it about mid morning for most of the year and it gets about 3-4 hours of sunlight on it. The plants back there all do fine, the ryegrass I over seed with in the winter is good.

Some of my neighbors told me that this particular area off of our back yards was "dead", so it took some work to extend their yards closer to the woods.

Since you are in Macon, your climate is similar, which is why I am asking about it now. I hear that you want to give a good 3 weeks of time between a heavy weed treatment on the lawn, before I try and lay down more seed.

So, I have some "Kills the weeds, not the grass" stuff. The "Kills over 300 weeds". It actually has dollarweed as the picture on the front and mentions it by name....

So the plan is this (for now): Maybe this weekend, I hook that stuff to my hose and spray over all the rye/centipede, front and back. Do it again about mid week, then give a few weeks for the soil to recover etc....

After those 3 weeks are up, I put down a light spreading of fertilizer.

Then a few days later, I guess I just go get a large back of centipede grass and some top soil.
Then spread that out on top of everything, hit the bare spots with some top soil, then cross my fingers and hope for the best.

My front yard just gets more sunlight throughout the day, especially in the spring and summer obviously, so it's just easier to keep things going up there. In the back, the patchy spots are basically exposed sand with not much else on it.....

Not sure exactly what the builders did, but I assume they just tilled it, put down some top soil and then the SOD. There is not a whole lot else under it, other than sand.

Let me know if you think I am on the right track.... And again, I am a beginner, but I do want to put whatever effort forth I can. I am sure I could spend a few hundred bucks and have a professional come and get it started for me. I just feel like I can do it myself, and I want to learn more about the whole process so I can adjust accordingly through the year.

Check the label on the weedkiller. You shouldn't have to spray more than once a month.
Skip the topsoil and get an organic topper for the seed. St Augustine is more shade tolerant, but I don't think it's readily available by seed. You may have to plug it into the centipedegrass. It's probably a bit cool for plugging or reseeding right now. I'd wait until April.

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zachdrescher said:
it is Hydrocotyle.

The soil is Sand. Lots of sand.

And for the yard, it isn't totally shaded. it gets about 3-4 hours of sunlight on it.

Since you are in Macon, your climate is similar, which is why I am asking about it now. I hear that you want to give a good 3 weeks of time between a heavy weed treatment on the lawn, before I try and lay down more seed.

Ok... hydrocotyle tells me that it's very wet back there... too wet for turf.
3 or 4 hours of sun will not grow turf... even in the most ideal of conditions, and wet sand is not ideal.
I do not use poison of any kind and can not advise on your "weed and feed" stuff except to encourage you to take it back to the store. I doubt that it will help, suspect that it almost certainly will harm.

In wet sand and shade.... I would plant ferns...
Lots of native ferns around here...
Maybe you could grow blueberries...
Or... how about a nice patch of asarum... or mayapple?
There are varieties of asarum that fill the space as well as you expect turf to... and mayapples certainly fill a space...
How about a nice patch of confederate violets? They do a very nice job of filling in...
How about some nice toad lilies or solomon seal... or blood root...

Turf isn't going to do the job.... the sooner you give up on that, the sooner that you'll stumble onto something that will make you happy!

Few things.
1. Thanks to everyone for replying. I appreciate it.
2. I have a 10 year old daughter and a 4 year old son and two dogs. The heavily wooded area that is about 60 feet from the back of my house is home to many varieties of snakes. Some harmless, but many venomous. So using any kind of ground cover, even in my gardens makes me very nervous. I always clear out the areas between my lawn and the tree lines so we have proper visibility on the ground. Especially when taking the dogs out at night etc. So doing anything back there that is "non-turf" doesn't get me very excited.
3. I know that I mentioned only 4 hours of sunlight back there, but that was just a guess and based on the time right now, in the winter. My next door neighbor gutted his whole back yard 2 years ago, laid down new SOD and it has looked perfect back there for 2 seasons. So, I know it can be done. He has the exact same tree line and amount of light back there. He basically told me that the weeds/dollarweeds had thinned out his yard so badly that he just ripped it all up, tilled and started over with fresh SOD. And since then, with the proper care, he has been doing fine.
4. The general research that I have found is that St. Augustine is really just available as plugs and SOD, so overseeding Centipede with that is basically impossible anyway....
5. To that point, my limited research has pointed me to the fact that Bermuda grass mixes well with Centipede as long as they are both properly maintained, because the Bermuda will get aggressive if you let it.

So at this very moment, I think that would be the cheapest, low risk possibility for me. Would be to overseed the current centipede with Bermuda. I am in USDA zone 8, so that seems to be a solid combination in this region from what I read.

So, all that said, I still think I need to do something about these weeds before I proceed with any other step. Across the board, everyone on here has told me to "return the weed killer" and "Don't spray".... So, how exactly do I remove clovers, dollar weeds and other small weeds from the grass without using a weed lawn treatment? I am just not familiar with anything like that.

I was just going to spray the lawn a couple times in a week, then give a couple weeks in between, then put down some topsoil in bare spots (or other organic alternatives that you may be able to give me), then overseed everything, including bare spots. Lightly rake, then add more top soil where needed.

Then sit back, fingers crossed and hope for the best =)

Use the weedkiller, just read the label for amount and timing. If it says use once a month, use it once a month -- ONLY.

Maybe teach the children NOT to pick up snakes?

4 hours of sun in the winter does not mean 4 hours in the summer.
The reason that you have so much sun now is the trees dropped their leaves... expect much LESS sun in the summer!

Snakes are valuable critters... against the law to harass them in GA.

Still in favor of a ground cover... turf is a ground cover... I'm trying to suggest alternatives that will live.

Return the poison...

Maybe till the soil prior to planting the ground cover, and then pick out what pieces of hydrocotyle you can... or... grow hydrocotyle!

low growing alternatives include Chrysogonum virginianum, and liriope...

You are unlikely to successfully grow turf... but maybe carex?
Plenty of turf substitutes that will thrive in low light situations.

Not sure why people are stuck on turf and unwilling to try something that will grow with far less effort.

I've never thought about such little things as you in my life