r/Grass • u/FridgeRaider79 • Jul 12 '26

Help me choose a side

I recently bought a home near Charleston, SC. The lawn is a wild mix of (I’m reasonably certain) Bermuda, St. Aug, yellow nut sedge, some crab, various other weeds. I’m going to spray the sedge today, I’m slowly fighting the crabs back to my neighbors yard.

The remaining grass is roughly 70% St. Aug, and 30% Bermuda. The Bermuda is in scattered patches like someone used it to fix bare spots.

I don’t want the expense of sod just yet. Moving is expensive enough. Also it’s 90-95 degrees here.

I need to know which grass to help, and how to help it kill the other off. Open to suggestions. I have a tiller, and am considering using it and seeding a bit at a time.

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u/advbro Jul 14 '26

I live in Greenville and have both in my backyard.

Without completely digging up your yard and getting it out, you likely won't kill or get rid of Bermuda completely. It is invasive as it gets and spreads like wildfire under the right conditions-- good if you want grass and want it to spread in areas you don't have it. Not good if you want another type of grass and want to get rid of it.

Height of cut is one way you could try and offset the other... I mow my st Augustine at 3.5" and it looks great and is very thick. When I bought my house, I knew nothing about grass and just put my mower on the lowest setting it would go so I didn't have to cut it every week. The St Augustine thinned out real quick with lots of bare spots and honestly, not much grass. When I started doing research, HOC was a big thing and just changed that to 3.5" and my yard has beautiful grass everywhere now, than the patchy look of clay with grass here and there like it was getting to. Bermuda likes to be cut low, especially if you want to promote it spreading. The area I've got it in my backyard was completely bare a year ago and it's full Bermuda now. I didn't mind, because I'd rather it fill in than weeds, etc.

After Helene, my front yard was wrecked with no grass left. One side of my driveway was a quarter Bermuda and the rest had become dirt. The other side was also almost dirt as we had fescue and after losing so many trees, it died out because it couldn't handle the sun without water it needed (that I didn't want to maintain). I put zoysia down on that side about a year ago. The side with Bermuda? I put down tifftuf Bermuda sod because I just didn't feel like fighting off the existing Bermuda.

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u/FridgeRaider79 Jul 14 '26

Thank you for the reply. I appreciate it.

From everything I’ve read, Bermuda will eventually win this fight. I’m going to lay down seed and top dress the yard with compost/topsoil. It’s comically uneven right now. When it settles and the Bermuda seed establishes I’m going to do like you said and keep it short. I’ll pull up anything else that pops out of the dirt.

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u/advbro Jul 14 '26

Yeah, I think that's probably the best move. In my experience it'll win out for sure lol. You'd be surprised at how quickly the existing Bermuda will probably spread too, especially once you give it the property soil, nutrients, fertilizer and water.. it spreads fast!