In recent years, zoysia grass has become a popular sod choice for Charleston lawns. It produces golf course-quality turf (in fact, many Lowcountry golf courses use a variety of zoysia for fairways), is heat and drought tolerant, insect resistant, can be used in sunny and shady areas, and initially spreads laterally as much as it grows vertically. Moreover, it’s available in strains bred to exhibit different characteristics: some denser with smaller blades, others with larger blades that resemble St. Augustine grass. (Pictured: Empire Zoysia, the latter.) In other words, zoysia is a versatile, hardy, low-maintenance sod choice.
Zoysia spreads remarkably well after installation, creating a continuous turf so hardy that it chokes out many weeds, even stubborn bahiagrass. As long as one remains vigilant about undesirable spreading, zoysia is an excellent sod choice for local residential landscape designs.
Seth Mason, Charleston SC
