In our service area, centipede grass makes up about 90% of the lawns we treat, bermuda is the next most common by a wide margin, and St. Augustine and zoysia each show up in only about 1-2% of yards. Knowing which one you actually have matters, because the right watering schedule, mowing height, and fertility program are different for each.
Centipede grass
Apple-green color, slow-growing, spreads by stolons, low fertility needs, mowed low (around 1.5-2 inches). By far the most common lawn in our market.
Bermuda grass
Darker green, aggressive and fast-growing, spreads by both stolons and rhizomes (underground runners), tolerates heavy traffic and low mowing extremely well, but needs more frequent mowing and more fertility than centipede to look its best.
St. Augustine grass
Broad, flat blades, shade-tolerant compared to bermuda and centipede, but less cold-hardy and less common here — it shows up occasionally in shadier yards where centipede struggles.
Zoysia grass
Dense, fine-to-medium texture, slow-growing like centipede but with better shade and wear tolerance; it’s a premium option but rare in our area, mostly because it’s slower to establish and more expensive to install than centipede.
Not sure which one is in your yard?
That’s exactly what we check during a lawn assessment — misidentifying your grass type is the root cause of a lot of the mowing, watering, and fertilizer mistakes we see, since a program built for bermuda can actually hurt a centipede lawn and vice versa.
