North Texas’ wacky weather has caused serious chaos in our lawns and landscapes

I’m a Native Texan, specifically of the Metroplex for 53 years. I have decided that our weather is wacky. The past 25 months have caused some of the most unusual chaos in our lawns and landscapes that I’ve seen since my wife and I got here. Let me describe a few situations and explain where we’re heading as the weather warms and things start to grow (or ought to).

• St. Augustine looks like it’s toasted, roasted and history. I’ve had more people asking if they’re going to have to replant their lawns this spring than in any spring I can remember.

I have St. Augustine, and our yard is in a micro-climate that gets a few degrees colder than most of the rest of North Central Texas. I looked at my turf before I started writing this column, and I can see what people are thinking. It looks pretty pathetic. However, I also see sprigs of green coming up through the browned runners. My bet is that much of the St. Augustine will green up and come out just fine once things warm up. Have patience and apply an all-nitrogen fertilizer with 30% to 40% of that nitrogen in encapsulated or coated (timed-release) form. It’s still a bit cool to do that, so practice your patience.

Here’s my theory. Yes, we had a drought last summer — some might say a “biblical” drought. But I don’t believe that was the only cause for the St. Augustine downfall. Concurrent with the drought we also were slammed by a chinch bug invasion. These pests make our lawns look dry, just as a drought will do. People watered their lawns thinking “drought” as they did, but they didn’t notice that the grass wasn’t responding. Before they knew it, entire sections of the St. Augustine were dying, and the drought was getting undue credit.

If you find that your St. Augustine doesn’t green up this spring, take note of where the browned areas are. If they’re only in full sun, then chinch bugs were probably the cause. In that case you’ll want to re-plant, and when you do, you’ll need to protect the new grass in those same areas from chinch bugs this summer and for summers to come.

Chinch bugs are always going to be in the hottest, sunniest parts of your lawn, so you’ll want to start watching for the telltale signs of dry grass that doesn’t respond to irrigation starting in mid-June this year. Apply an insecticide labeled for chinch bugs when you see the BB-sized black insects with irregular white diamonds on their backs.

• On to a plant with “freezer burn.” Asian jasmine. It’s long been our most popular groundcover for hot, sunny spots. However, it gets wounded about one winter in three here. The leaves and even sometimes the runners turn brown. This year almost all Asian jasmine turned shoe-leather brown after that Christmas-time freeze.

But wait! There’s more! And it’s good news this time! Your Asian jasmine will come back. Where the St. Augustine might have to be replanted due to cold, drought or chinch bugs, about all you ever have to do with Asian jasmine is prune it back with hedge trimmers to 3 or 4 inches and let it sprout out from its old stems and bases. That same all-nitrogen lawn food will speed it along, as will timely watering. You’ll be amazed at how beautiful it will look in a hurry, so that “problem” will soon be solved.

• Mondograss (a.k.a. “monkeygrass”) really got slammed by this winter’s cold. Almost unlike any winter damage I’ve seen in all of my years here. And I’m talking about regular mondo, dwarf mondo and even their big cousin liriope. They all turned brown after the cold. I have perhaps half an acre of regular mondograss (6 to 8 inches tall) that looks singed and unsightly.

One other time, 8 or 10 years ago, ice laid atop all my mondograss and browned its leaves, but nothing like what we’ve seen this year. And, as I mentioned, I’ve never had the numbers of phone calls to my radio programs that I’ve experienced with this plant and this problem already this year.

Folks do seem to be paying attention when I tell them that I’m facing the same decision with my own landscape, and I go on to tell them that I’ve decided just to wait it all out with my regular mondograss beds. I’m going to let the browned leaves shrivel away as the new growth comes up from the clumps. I can already see it starting to happen. I’ve taken my leaf rake to clean out the loose leaves, but I’m not going to go through the tough task of trimming and raking all the debris now. I think the beds will take care of themselves. I’m going to give that all-nitrogen lawn food a real workout. In fact, I already have. It’s already performing its magic.

• If you have shrubs that got too dry last summer and lost large parts of their top growth as a result, you may want to consider replacing them now. Most won’t regrow to fill in as you want, and you may waste several years finding that out.

I’m thinking mainly about hollies, because so many people let them get past the point of no return last summer without realizing it. Hollies don’t really wilt. By the time you notice their subtle change from glossy dark green to insipid pale green foliage it’s too late to save them. That’s why it’s so critical to water them by hand for the first couple of years that you have new hollies in your landscape. Sprinkler and drip irrigation alone won’t suffice.