"Ev Dugan" wrote in message
...
On Tue, 03 Feb 2004 16:51:42 -0500, Chelsea Christenson
wrote:

Ablang wrote:
I saw an ad for Amazoy (Zoysia) grass in the last Parade magazine,
and was wondering if anyone can attest to its claims so far as not
requiring much watering of cutting, and its ability to stay green in
hot/cold extremes. I am considering this in the northern CA region.

I mentioned it to the landscaper once and he said it's essentially
crabgrass. Which doesn't tell you if it needs water or stays green, but
should give you an idea of its agressiveness...

Zoysia was in widespread use in the New Jersey suburbs (Zone 6) thirty
and forty years ago. It was planted as plugs and spread from the plugs
into older lawn grasses, eventually replacing most of the old lawn. It
was stiffer than fescues, definitely not comfortable for bare feet or
as a play surface. It did need watering, but even with that, it turned
brown in August and remained brown until the middle of May. I see only
rare patches of it these days; I believe most homeowners dug it up and
replaced it with more ordinary lawn grasses which do stay green all
year.

I remember zoysia being very trendy in the 1960s. My parents replaced their
lawn with it by inserting plugs. Eventually it spread into a very dense
lawn. They were in zone 6. The lawn was ugly about 6 months out of the
year because it went dormant. While weeds weren't a problem, it had insect
problems (grubs I believe) and patches of it died. As I recall, it was hard
to mow. Eventually they had it removed and replaced with a conventional
fescue mix. It might be OK in warm areas, but I don't think it makes sense
where it get cold enough for it to go dormant.