Just moved in – yard is painful – some St. Augustine

austin.texas – posted 29 August 2002 12:11

I just moved into a house in Austin, TX. Here is the deal. Yard is a mess. It’s about 50% St. Augustine in front and back…problem is the other 50% is crappy grass and weeds. It’s all random….no real strong patches of good grass anywhere. I have never had a yard before – so I need some help. The Augustine is in pretty decent shape, but looks like it needs some TLC. Where do I start….?

Will-PCB – posted 29 August 2002 19:13

That really all depends on your patience factor.

If you are an impatient person like I am, you can use Round-up to clean out all the weeds trying to keep it off the St. Augustine. Then you can sod.

However, if you are a patient person, you can just kill the heavily weeded areas, and plug away with the St. Augustine. Where the weeds are mixed with the St. Augustine, I will just pull the weeds and plug.

Choice is yours.

frenchman – posted 29 August 2002 21:35

Use some type of 2,4-D for the weeds

seed – posted 31 August 2002 16:45

austin.texas, before treating with any herbicide, please make sure from the label that the product is safe and legal for your type of lawn grass, also make sure that it is intended for the type of weed, and check any other fine print on the label, e.g., time of year, temperature, particular situation. An improperly applied herbicide can make a bad situation worse.

Then, especially in the case of St. Augustinegrass, consider whether a fertilization and consistent, uniform irrigation might encourage the runners to spread. It may be that you don’t have enough decent grass to start with, so sodding or plugging may be the way to go.

But this is getting a little late in the season for you to reestablish a lawn from plugs or spot sodding.

Phil

Will-PCB – posted 01 September 2002 13:38

Phil,

This tends to confuse me a little. I could understand the risks of sodding this late in the season (depending on how cold it “can” get).

However, isn’t St. Augustine an evergreen down here in the South? I’ve pretty much plugged at will and have never had a problem with St. Augustine spreading from plugs.

/me shrugs