Lots of people call and ask us what’s the best St. Augustine grass for Houston and SE Texas. Houston Grass Owner Michael Romine talks about our two varieties of St. Augustine in this video. Call us at 281-431-7441 if you have questions about the best grass variety for your project. We can give you a quote over the phone.
Summary of What’s the Best St. Augustine Grass for Houston
What’s the best St. Augustine grass for Houston? It probably depends on how much shade you have. There are a handful of types of St. Augustine grass. We carry two of them — Raleigh St. Augustine and Palmetto St. Augustine.
Raleigh St. Augustine is 99% of what you see in everybody’s yard if it’s identified as St. Augustine in the greater Houston area and along the Gulf Coast. As long as you get at least six or seven hours of direct sunlight per day, the Raleigh St. Augustine is absolutely the way to go.
The Palmetto St. Augustine is a great alternative if you have a fair amount of shade. In my mind, it’s the only alternative St. Augustine grass if shade is an issue with your lawn.
There are some other grasses out there touted as shade tolerant. I’m no expert on other people’s grasses. I just know the ones that we carry. However from what we understand, the Palmetto St. Augustine is one of the more shade tolerant grasses. It needs four to five hours of direct sunlight.
If you don’t know how much sun your lawn gets, you can get a rough measurement by using your cell phone. On a sunny day, take a picture of the shady areas of your lawn every hour or two through the day. At the end of the day, scroll through the pictures and you’ll have a rough idea of how much direct sunlight your lawn gets.
Michael Romine
Is Palmetto St. Augustine a miracle grass? Absolutely not. If you place it underneath two or three 50 year old oak trees that are all grown over the top of one another, it won’t last three months.
But, if you can trim your trees to create four or five hours of direct sunlight in your shady areas, the Palmetto St. Augustine is a great grass, and looking at them side by side, you would probably not be able to tell the difference. If you do get that seven hours of direct sunlight per day at least, six or seven hours, the Raleigh St. Augustine is cheaper.
You can save some money by using Raleigh St. Augustine on the sunnier areas of your lawn and Palmetto St. Augustine on the shadier areas.
Michael Romine
Another advantage to the Raleigh St. Augustine is that all the grass places around, us included, keep Raleigh St. Augustine in stock. You can come to our office and you can buy a whole pallet or you can buy a truckload or you can buy five pieces of it to do patchwork or repair damage.
With all of the rest of our grasses, Palmetto included, we only sell them by the full 450 square foot pallet.
So, the Raleigh St. Augustine has definitely got its place. It’s the majority of our business and it’s the right price point. It’s the right amount of care. People are used to it and generally can do a fair job at taking care of it.
So, in my mind, the Raleigh St. Augustine, as long as you don’t have a lot of shade, is the way to go.
Get the Best St. Augustine Grass in Houston from Houston Grass
All of our grass is grown on our family farm in Bay City, where we’ve been in the grass business since 1981. You can pick up your grass at our office in Arcola or we can deliver it to your project site. We also offer professional installation services. Call us at 281-431-7441 with your questions. We can give you a quote right over the phone.