Cool, but that didn't really answer my question. I said it has to be grass.

Bermuda or zoysia?

My parents are lawn freaks. I've been trying to convince them to just quit making it look perfect, leave it alone weeds and whatever, and schedule their mowing at reasonable intervals so it doesn't look neglected. But each Saturday, especially in August, at high noon, they'll be out there, re-sodding and fertilizing.

My limiting factor is my spouse. It had to be grass, that is why I am asking what the best one to use is for our environment.

Oh, I just heard Sebastian Inlet is closed due to red tide.

A friend says it is in S.Cocoa Beach this afternoon. Ugh.

Lots of dead fish around satellite area had my dogs down there and left pretty quickly because I could feel it in my throat. I'm pretty sensitive for some reason though. Maybe something to do with living on the dune line during the last really bad one.

Neighbor 2 doors down just put in 0.4 acres of St. Augustine sod yesterday. Immediate neighbor waters 3X per week, fertilizes straight through the wet season, and is currently spraying weed killer on the root shoots around the live oak that leans over our garage. Neighbor across from her has two properties, residence and rental on adjoining lots. He waters 3-4X per week and relentlessly fertilizes. None of them get the clippings or leaf litter out of the street so that all washes down the hill. Nobody wants to shell out the money to fix the problem with septic and antiquated municipal waste water systems. It is kind of an uphill battle to try to get any kind of meaningful movement on controlling eutrophication.

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Edited: 10/17/2018 at 05:12 PM by scombrid

Several years back we had a neighbor that watered his lawn ~10 hours straight, so much in fact that I took pictures of ducks bathing in my gutters.

I called the St Johns Water District Management and thought they would have some teeth. They don't. In fact, all they can do is send a letter. Fortunately my numnuts neighbor got scared and backed off from his stupidity. Funny that this guy had a PHd in Computer Science. Dumber than a rock in regards to the Lagoon's problems.

This is what we are dealing with.

Hopefully, you talked to your neighbor (and educated him) before taking pics and calling the fuzz... Puff puff, pass

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It's really expensive for parcel owners that don't fall into a Priority Focus Area. Most counties do have programs that help foot the bill for conversion, but in OC at least, 69% of the neighborhood has to commit financially before a plan can even be drawn up. The average cost to a homeowner for converting from septic to sewer is about 25K-50K. Uphill battle is definitely an understatement.

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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.

Red tide has arrived in Indialantic/IHB.

I think the state has a big responsibility to foot a chunk of that bill. State was permitting 1000s and 1000s of units in high density developments with no sewage treatment long after it knew or should have known that the lack or sewage treatment would lead to water quality problems in lakes and lagoons.

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There are other programs, but unless you're in a PFA, they base it on the mean income of the neighborhood. I'm still doing research on the topic, but from what I can tell, most of programs are geared towards PFA's.

By Dec. 3, I'll probably be able to report back a more thorough answer.

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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.

The lawn thing should be the low hanging fruit on the clean up list but the cultural resistance to anything that doesn't look like astroturf year-round is insane. The guy that just put in the 0.4 acres of sod is a duck hunter. You'd think he'd be conscientious about the causes of the loss of sea grass in the lagoon. For every lawn in our neighborhood that has gone FL Natiive or FL Friendly Non-Native there are two that have been newly sodded with St. Aug. I was on the St. Lucie last week. Those people have some nerve blaming all their water quality problems on Lake O. It was all St. Augustine lawns and zero buffer between lawn and waterway or lawn and street.

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Well, it does make sense to prioritize where to spend the money when trying to carry out the BMAPs to achieve the TMDLs. (we are all paying an extra fee on our water/sewer bill since the BMAP for IRL was adopted a couple of years ago).

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Septic to sewer conversion is really expensive, the Impact fee is $$$$$$$. I do not think many residents will go for it. I guess the possible solution would be to waive all impacts fees to connect to sewer for any home immediately adjacent to the water & and as Daner stated earlier give more Homestead exemption to those who do not have sodded yards but instead have zero-scape or natural scape (whatever it is called). But how would you check and enforce it? . To answer Miker...if you need to have grass maybe this one .....BAHIAGRASS . "BAHIA is a pasture grass but has become a popular, low-maintenance lawn grass that performs well with limited water and fertilizer inputs. Bahia does not require irrigation during the installation and establishment period. It is for this reason that Bahia is widely used for erosion control on roadsides and retention ponds. Bahia forms a deep root system making it a great choice in sandy, infertile soils".

Edited: 10/19/2018 at 05:48 AM by SurferMic

Hmm, wonder if you can just seed in Bahia and let the st Augustine go.... chinch bugs or whatever.

Brevard is one of the few County's that are stepping up and offering other incentives, as well as most of the county being a PFA.

edit:
I know how to grow grass, but not bahaia.......

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Specializing in sarcasm and condescending rhetoric since 1971.

Edited: 10/19/2018 at 04:55 AM by worksuxgetsponsered

miker my neighbor let their lawn convert from St. Auggie when I first moved in to bahia now over a time. Seems like a good idea since it looks OK and is much better for the environment.