There are two main methods to reduce the cost of establishing a new Saint Augustine grass lawn. The first is to use Saint Augustine Grass Plugs to establish the lawn, and the second option is to use Saint Augustine Grass Runners taken from another lawn. Both methods involve the individual planting of either the plugs or runners at a far reduced rate of coverage

than if using roll-on St Augustine grass sod, which then results in a greater cost saving to the lawn owner. But the compromise comes in the form of having to wait much longer for a new Saint Augustine lawn to become fully established.

Saint Augustine grasses will not reproduce with any form of reliability from seed, therefore seeding a new St Augustine lawn is not an option.

Establishment Times For New Lawns

The down side of using these methods will be that our new St Augustine lawn will take far longer to establish and cover the entire area to be turfed, often taking many months. But if we’re keen to save a lot of money, and time is of no consequence, then St Augustine grass plugs and St Augustine grass runners are an excellent choice.

The more dense the plantings of either plugs or runners, the more quickly the lawn will cover the desired area, so planting more runners or plugs will speed up establishment times.

Saint Augustine Grass Plugs

These will be sold in trays of individually separated small Saint Augustine grass plants. Much like the seedlings for many other small flowering plants or vegetables, the homeowner simply takes the plugs of turf from the tray and plants them into prepared soil. Plugs are very easy and quick to plant out.

Specialized growers will grow and sell trays of Saint Augustine grass plugs, and they may not be easy to find in retail stores, research a little online and you will find what you're looking for.

Plugs can be a slow way to establish a new lawn, and will be slower than if we were using runners to establish the same lawn.

Saint Augustine Grass Runners

Like the lawn plugs, Saint Augustine Grass Runners will need to be individually planted into the new lawn area. Runners can be more difficult and time consuming to plant than plugs as individual trenches will need to be dug into the soil to match the length of each lawn runner, and then filled in when the runner has been planted.

Saint Augustine grass runners will need to be re-planted quickly after they have been removed from their original soil before the roots dry out and deteriorate.