Bermuda, St. Augustine or zoysia: which grass for your North Texas yard

We get asked this on almost every sod estimate. The short answer: sun decides. Everything else is a tiebreaker.

Bermuda

Best for: full sun, eight hours or more. Open lots, new builds with no trees, yards with dogs and kids.

Bermuda is the most common lawn in our area because it handles heat, drought and traffic better than anything else, and it repairs itself fast. Tifway 419 is the usual pick. The downside is shade: put it under a tree and it thins out in a year or two. It also spreads into beds aggressively, so steel edging helps.

St. Augustine

Best for: partial shade, roughly four to six hours of sun. Established neighborhoods with mature trees.

Wide blades, thick carpet, and the best shade tolerance of the three. It needs more water than Bermuda and doesn't recover from heavy traffic as well. Raleigh and Palmetto handle our winters; avoid less cold-hardy varieties this far north. It shouldn't be scalped and should be mowed tall.

Zoysia

Best for: people who want a dense, high-end lawn and have sun to partial shade.

Zoysia is thick, soft and handles some shade and moderate traffic. It grows slowly, which is good once it's in (less mowing) and bad if it gets damaged (slow to repair). It costs more per square foot as sod. It looks best cut with a sharp reel or very sharp rotary blade.

The mixed-yard answer

Lots of yards in Keller, Trophy Club and older Decatur have a sunny front and a shaded back. It is fine to run Bermuda up front and St. Augustine or zoysia under the trees in back. Sometimes the right answer under a big oak isn't grass at all. It's a mulched bed with shade plants.

Want us to look at yours? Request a sod quote and we'll recommend a grass for each area.

More guides

• A month-by-month lawn calendar for North Texas
• Why your backyard holds water after every storm (and how to fix it)
• When is the best time to lay sod in North Texas?
• How much does sod installation cost in North Texas?
• What does a French drain cost? (And when you don't need one)
• Lawn mowing prices around Rhome and north Fort Worth
• Why is my St. Augustine turning yellow or brown?
• 20 tough plants for North Texas yards (that survive August)
• How long should you run your sprinklers in North Texas?
• When to trim trees and shrubs in North Texas (and when not to)