Every lawn forum has some discussion about when to do your last mow of the season and how low/high should it be. Last September I changed jobs and had to buy a house in George West, TX. GW is on the edge of the Texas desert. To the west it gets hotter and very much dryer. To the east the weather is influenced by moist, gulf air blowing north west from the gulf to San Antonio. For some unknown (to me) climatological reason, GW is out of the wind from the gulf.

The new house is on an acre of land which gives me about 30,000 square feet of garden space. Half of that was sodded years ago in Floratam St Augustine. Sprinklers were installed and the lawn is doing well. There are several live oak trees around the house which provide shade that the grass has to survive under. All I have to mow with is my 19-inch battery powered mower...which worked fine on 2,000 square feet. I used to think riding mowers were for wussies, but not anymore. All I have ever mowed at the new house is the front lawn. Due to the grass growing speed, it has taken 2 days to mow if I let it go a full week. So since September when the previous owner mowed last, the sides and back have not been mowed. It is interesting that 3 months later, not all the grass is very tall. Only the grass in the deep shade is really tall. The grass that is still short is fully dormant while the tall grass looks as good now as it did in October. Here are some pictures. First one is from October and the rest were taken 2 days after Christmas.




My dog is about 25 inches tall at the back. This is on the west side of the house where the grass only gets sunlight in the late afternoon. Photo above was taken from about the same location and direction - just a higher camera angle.



On the east side of the house you can see the demarcation between dormant and still green. Grass gets full day sun where it is brown.





All the St Augustine in the shade is still green looking. All the St Aug in the full sun is dormant. Mixed sun/shade has mixed results.

Next season I hope to have tall grass out front to see what happens when winter comes. I will also be closing watching signs of drought stress in the lawn since it is going to be much taller in the future. I suspect I'll be using much less water next season.

I've heard you talk in the past about how tall st.augustine can get. These pictures are great! Thanks for sharing. You know funny enough I saw the photos yesterday, I have never seen st augustine this high ever, but sure enough on my drive home last night from work, I was stopped at a traffic light and I look over and there is some super tall st augustine it was down town on a hill leading up to an overpass, must have been 8-10inches tall there as well. Looking green as ever...greener than my lawn . I bet it helps keep it out of dormancy longer if you leave it tall like that. Makes me wish my mower would go higher than 4 inches, lol.

Erik

Here is a 2007 picture of St Aug growing wild in the sand dunes at Port Aransas, TX. It had been growing there since the 1980s completely unattended - no fertilizer and no irrigation. In the picture it was about 30 inches high. The grass on the property there (mowed area) has never (formally) fertilized or watered either. It is on the north side of a 4-story building and is the area where condo owners are supposed to walk their pets. The grass in the dog walk area has always been the nicest on the property. However, as of last Thanksgiving, after a prolonged drought of a full year, it is mostly dead.

Interesting photo. It almost looks more like a bush than grass.