St. Augustine revitalization & basic care

Frank O – posted 09 January 2004 12:59

Hi all, I live in Southern California (Pasadena area) and have a St. Augustine lawn. We had to have sod laid in a few areas that became damaged.

The overall lawn is okay at this point, but had been looking listless even before the weather got cold. I thought our gardener was cutting it too low and told him to put his lawnmower on the highest setting; he claims it won’t go any higher (I find it odd that they’d sell lawnmowers that will only cut so close).

I gather from messages here that trying to dethatch St. Augustine can create more problems than it solves. Although there’s some thatch it doesn’t look too bad, so I’m thinking I’ll leave this alone.

Apart from that, I keep it well-watered, and throw on some combination fertilizer and systemic something-or-other that’s supposed to keep weeds down. Anything else I should be thinking about as the weather gets warmer (besides buying my gardener a new mower)?