Need advice on St Augustine lawns in Florida

I bought my house in January and the lawn has been neglected for some time. There's dead patches, gotta be drought damage because it's been real dry and it took me awhile to learn how to diagnose and repair the sprinkler system. There's dollar weeds and a bunch of other common weeds that are starting to die off due to the heat building.

The sprinklers are fixed to the best of my ability, and I hired a guy to come cut and edge what's left of the dehydrated lawn today. I have no experience taking care of a lawn, so the only thing I can think of to help the lawn recover is start fertilizing and watering regularly, continuing to pull out weeds and junk and hope for the best.

I guess I'm wondering what might be the best product I should purchase to put on the lawn to encourage it to grow ASAP. I've heard it's getting late in the season to do a weed-n-feed like Scott's Bonus-S, and should probably just do a regular fertilizer?

All I know about St. Augustine is it takes a LOT of water.

Good luck

Bonnie

Try Scott's weed and feed. Give your lawn some time to see where it rebounds.
Sidney

Get rid of the grass & go Xeriscape. This is Florida & you will constantly be fighting to get grass to look good & can go crazy trying to make & keep it looking great no matter the variety. And don't even get me started on the money you pour into sod in Florida. Fungus, water, water, water, mow, chinch bugs, weeds, poison, snails & slugs & on & on & on. Then the armadillos will say, "Oh YUM! There's bugs in that nice juicy lawn & we're going to go dig holes allllllll over it & eat the bugs". Meanwhile you wake to find what looks like 100 grenades went off in your lawn & if you don't get right out there & "fix" all the holes then the grass roots are exposed to the sun & die.
I'm a native Floridian & fought to have a nice lawn for years till I finally wised up.

I'll go Xeriscape at some point, flaflwrgrl... soon as I got more than a Xerobalance in my checking account. :) I've already seen a mole in the back, and unless he's a busy little bugger, I'm pretty sure he's got some buddies judging by the soft spots I've found.

I'm not looking to have the best, most picture-perfect lawn on the block, I just want it to look acceptable. I know to have an awesome lawn in Florida takes a ton of money and labor, but re-landscaping everything is also a huge investment - and I haven't got the spare cash to do either very well. I just need to work with what I have, and a stressed out lawn is what I have.

I put down that bag of Scott's Bonus S yesterday and watered it in, and I'm praying that the "2.3 inches of rain on the way" that Accuweather's got posted on my forecast isn't a pipe dream like the 1" they "promised" yesterday.

Fingers crossed!

I hope you got the rain b/c we sure didn't! Forecast was 50% yesterday & nary a drop. Today was 20% & at least it piddled on us.

I had Argentenian sod put in a section of my yard a few years ago. It is what they use along the roads. It will survive almost anything - I don't water grass just the plants.

To get the moles to move - put some used kitty litter down their holes. Works like a charm.

I think Dollar Weed grows "just because it can"!!!! If I have nothing else I still have it.

Well, we've gotten some rain and the grass looks like it's greening up. Some of the weird vine-junk is dying, but it might be because summer's coming - and the dollar weed do not appear to have been fazed too much. I don't know how much the Bonus-S is good for killing the weeds, but I'm pretty sure it's doing a decent job of feeding the lawn.

I'll have to try that used kitty litter trick, Qwilter - I got some of that! I use the Fresh Step Odor Shield though, do I need to worry about whatever they put in it damaging any plants? I suppose if it's safe for cats to walk in...?

I'm working on my master plan to eventually not have too much lawn to worry about... Starting to re-pot a lot of my mismatched smaller pots into bigger containers that I want to put on pavers in mulch beds, but since I haven't figured out exactly where I want everything to go, I've only been digging out enough grass to put a single paver inside.

Fresh step is what I use and it didn't appear to bother the lawn/plants.

I bought something called "Sticky" from my local garden center. I mis that with the Dollar weed killer in a 5 gal spray container. The Sticky keeps the killer on the leaves, even if it happens to rain soon after applied. It does a good job.

No HOA was a #1 priority when I was shopping for my house, LoveBrug! :)

I'd let my kitties out in the yard to chase the moles and other critters away, but the cats are prone to worms when they're allowed outside. They like to eat what they catch! They've been behaving really well as indoor cats (knock on wood) so I'd rather keep them inside to cut down on trips to the vet for worm medicine.

My dad gave me some straight-up atrazine to dilute and put on the dollar weeds. He says it'll kill off the part that's actively growing, but doesn't really kill the roots, so they'll come back. The Internet says dollar weed is edible, so long as you're not eating stuff that's been treated with pesticide.

They ain't weeds, they're salad! :)

flaflwrgrl

I couldn't agree more with you on why go through the trouble to have lawns in Florida. I'm a native as well, and when I moved back last year, the first house we rented, the yard was terrible, their watering system didn't work right and they expected me to water using the hose, not in this lifetime was that going to happen, they even tried to keep our deposit when we left. Now at the new house the owner takes care of the yard, and so be it. But to me, why in the world go through all that time and money and wasted supplies while trying to keep something alive that shouldn't be here in the first place...LOLOLOL

I don't know if the grass is harder to keep going due to us living closer to the bay/gulf than when you are in northern or central part of Florida. I"ve been gone for 26 years and I don't remember it being such an issue on the east coast where I lived.

Yes it is nice to see a lawn but for what it costs in money and time to keep it that way, I'm not sure it really is worth it.

Jan

Well Jan , we are of like minds then. And until a year ago I lived on the southeast coast (near Jupiter) & can say it's not easy to keep a lawn there. And from what I've seen up here since we've been here ---- same old song.
Lawns began for rich people way back when. Then somewhere along the line all the rest of us wanted to look like rich people & have nice, fancy lawns. "Lawns" are non native. The thought process doesn't get much simpler than that.

And some people still say, "I want to have a nice looking lawn". Fine. How much water is going on your nice looking lawn which is depleting the Fl. aquifer? Water which sustains HUMAN life. The aquifer will not last forever with more & more population density & with more & more golf courses. Do you want to have nice looking lawns & play golf or do you want to drink water?

Off my soapbox.

flaflwrgl

I on the same soapbox with ya. Besides that water stinks to high heavens.... at least to my DH and I. LOL

I love Florida and I love the sand, one of the best things. My collies don't like walking on this thick grass blades here, they skirt around on the beds and only do their business on the grass...LOL

Jan

P4myPot, If you don't need a perfect lawn and the St. Augustine needs to be replaced ..... try Bahia. That is what I have. I do fertilize, I use weed & feed for Bahia in early-mid March. I haven't had any bug problems with my lawn.

Bahia looks better with irrigation during periods of drought, (that would be now) but will survive just fine without extra water. It will go dormant in cold witners and I usually over seed with rye for the winter.

All Florida lawns need to be cut at the highest setting on your mower....always.

There is also Zoysia. It doesn't need fertilizer, is only troubled by moths which are easy to control with Neem Oil (a natural pesticide). It does need to be watered, but, doesn't need as much water as St. Augustine.

Bahia is the "poor man's" lawn. Zoysia is for folks who can spend a little cash on water.


None of these are my home>

This message was edited May 8, 2012 2:15 PM

DaleTheGardener Bahia is lovely if you're a slave to the lawn mower ! Or have your lawn people come twice a week in Summer. I can't deal with it's constant blooming. It's nice but certainty not lower maintenance then SAG.

This message was edited May 8, 2012 4:45 PM

Johnny - I'll come over mow for you!!!!! I LOVE to mow grass!!!! My neighbors in MD could never keep up with me. I'd get home from work at 3PM, change, and mow. My reward was always a ICE COLD beer!!!!!