Add a variety of plants to your lawn to keep it healthy and pest-free | Sally Scalera
Regarding lawns, some people love them, and others want nothing to do with them.
The typical lawn consists of one type of turfgrass, usually a cultivar of St. Augustinegrass, but there are also Bahia, Bermuda, Zoysia and Centipede yards. The size can also range from hundreds of square feet to acres. In this article, let's reimagine the lawn and look at other options.
Dr. Adam Dale, assistant professor of turfgrass and ornamental entomology at the University of Florida, researched the effect of grass variety choices and armyworm infestations. The six St. Augustinegrass cultivars used were Bitterblue, Captiva, Classic, Floratam, Palmetto and Seville.
The control plots contained one cultivar (a monoculture,) another set of plots were a mixture of two cultivars, and the last set of plots were a mixture of four St. Augustinegrass cultivars. After assessing the damage caused by armyworms, it was determined the control plots experienced the most damage.
The plots with a mixture of two cultivars caused the moths to develop more slowly and suffered less damage than the single cultivar plots. The mixture of four cultivars had the least amount of damage from the armyworm caterpillars. Here is a link that contains information on this research: entomologytoday.org (search for "lawn grass varieties").
Here are other plant options for the lawn that can be grown as turfgrass alternatives or interplanted in your existing lawn.
The first option is frogfruit, Phyla nodiflora, which is a native groundcover that handles mowing very well. This spreading plant grows 2 to 4 inches (or more) and forms a dense mat. It is a perennial evergreen that can be planted in a mass planting, throughout an existing lawn, or with some of the plants listed below. Frogfruit produces small purple and white flowers that are attractive when planted in mass. This plant is also the host plant for the phaon crescent, white peacock and buckeye butterflies. These plants can’t handle heavy foot traffic, so plant in a location that is out of the way.
Another native option is twinflower, Dyschoriste oblongifolia, which grows 6-12 inches tall, so mow at the highest setting possible when needed. These evergreen wildflowers grow as a ground cover and are also the host plant of the buckeye butterfly. The flowers are produced throughout the year, but their peak bloom is typically in May, so that would be a great time to skip mowing the yard. If growing as a mass planting, plant them close together so they fill in the area thoroughly.
Perennial peanut, Arachis glabrata, is a non-native ground cover that can also be used to replace a lawn. Some of the cultivars to choose from are Ecoturf, Arblick and Florigraze. The plants handle mowing well, and they also produce attractive yellow flowers. The perennial peanut flowers are edible if you like to grow edible flowers. This ground cover is a legume, so the roots will fix atmospheric nitrogen and require less fertilizer.
Another option would be to seed white Dutch clover, Trifolium repens, in your existing lawn or in bare areas. Clover is another legume that fixes atmospheric nitrogen. This clover grows 7 to 10 inches tall and produces white flowers in the summer. The flowers attract pollinators like butterflies and bees. Clover will stay green longer through droughts than turf and can help suppress weeds. This plant can also be grown as a cover crop or for erosion control.
A less aggressive, low-maintenance clover is Miniclover, though the seeds are more expensive than those of the white Dutch clover. Miniclover only grows 4 to 6 inches and flowers once a year in the summer. Inoculate the seeds with the beneficial bacteria Rhizobium or purchase inoculated seeds for maximum nitrogen fixation.
There is also Asiatic jasmine, Trachelospermum asiaticum, a woody, vining plant that sprawls over the ground. Cultivars to choose from are Bronze Beauty, Goshiki, Long Leaf, Snow and Summer, Summer Sunset and Variegatum.
The woody vines are pruned and not mowed. Though the plants produce flowers, they are typically trimmed before blooms appear. For a manicured look, frequent trimming will be necessary. Forming a dense ground cover in full-sun locations can take two years. If you have a shady location, this plant will also do well, but it will take more than two years to become a dense planting.
For readers who are already familiar with my articles, you won’t be surprised when I recommend adding biology (also called the soil food web) to the root systems of established plants. The component missing in the soil of most yards, parks and other maintained green spaces are the beneficial fungi known as mycorrhizae.
Plants with difficulty acquiring phosphorus from the soil share root exudates to attract mycorrhizae because they want and need their help. Luckily, some products will inoculate lawns' root systems, trees (considered mycorrhizal dependent,) landscapes and gardens.
Products that contain a variety of beneficial bacteria along with both endo and ectomycorrhizae are available. The endomycorrhiza supports annual and perennial herbaceous plants, along with some woody plants. The ectomycorrhizae primarily support woody evergreen trees and shrubs.
If you would like to receive information on how to add life to the soil, contact the UF/IFAS Extension Brevard County Master Gardeners at [email protected]. If you have read this information before but haven’t contacted us, do so now.
If you have a large lawn, consider removing some of the turfgrass and adding one or more of these plants to reduce the square footage of the lawn or interplant with one or more of these plants or cultivars of St. Augustinegrass to keep your lawn from being a monoculture.
That alone can make your lawn less desirable to insect pests.
Sally Scalera is an urban horticulture agent and master gardener coordinator for the University of Florida’s Institute of Food and Agriculture Sciences. Email her at [email protected].
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This article originally appeared on Florida Today: Here's a natural way to protect your Florida turfgrass from pests
