Watchin' The Grass Grow

One of my yard/garden projects this spring has been to make grass grow in my front yard! I have 2 really big trees and grass just does NOT want to grow under all that shade. One would think that it would grow nicely with the shade from the scorching hot Texas sun, but alas, no it doesn't.

Anyway, last year I tried grass seed that is meant for dense shade and it indeed started growing.....but it grew in with a totally different texture and color that didn't match my St. Augustine grass. It looked weird, so I let it all die out and figured I would do more research and try again with something different this spring.

I went to Lowe's to get some St. Augustine grass seed this spring and found out that they don't sell it in seed form - only sod. UGH. But OK, I will try that.

So I bought some soil made for grass/lawns and churned up the ground and spread the soil. Then I bought 25 pieces of 16"x24" sod and cut them up into 3 pieces each. Apparently, St. Augustine grass spreads like wildfire, so I was told to do a checkerboard pattern with it and over the course of a few months, they will all connect and become one big green lawn. I'm skeptical, but I am following the experts' instructions.

So here is my checkerboard!

I am trying to be diligent and watering it regularly (but I'm horrible about remembering to water!). I would really love it if Mother Nature would rain down on us more so I won't have to pay my huge water bill during this process!

I had a huge area under one of the trees that I covered (see above pics) and then I had a few open spots on the rest of the yard that I put smaller pieces of sod over. The sod was green, but super vibrant and alive green. I hope it's not crappy sod!

This is the separator between my neighbor's driveway and mine. He said that the whole strip was once those bushes that you see at the top of this next picture, but that they just didn't survive with all of our tree cover, but I thought I would try a little sod on an especially barren part. We'll see!