yard help

danocaster – posted 17 October 2011 23:23

Hey Folks,

First time poster here. My yard is in shambles and I need some advice. Here’s the rundown:

I live in Friendswood TX, which is right outside of Houston…a little closer to the coast. My yard is a mixture of San Augustine and Bermuda. My yard was looking pretty good before the summer. I had True Green 2 years ago and followed the plan off of Scotts.com for the last year.

In the beginning of the summer the yard was looking pretty good ,except for a few brown spots. I thought they were spots where my sprinkler system wasn’t hitting or maybe fungus. So I watered extra and put down a fungicide. My yard is pretty big, and my water bill was $400. So.. I stopped the extra watering. Within one month, it looked horrible. I’d say 30-40% is dead. Someone else told me that it was due to chinch bugs and to put down some Orthomax. I did that, but too late I guess.

Now,I have these big dead spots all over, and some thin areas too. I’ve started working on raking up some of the thatch, but, man, that is some work. True Green kept trying to sell me aeration, but I’ve never done it. I’d rather buy tools if I need to than pay out the nose to them.

So my question is.. where do I go from here? I’m OK with Bermuda since it’s already mixed. It seems like it’s more resistant to whatever keeps trying to desttroy the San Augustine. If I were to plan some Bermuda, do I need to aerate and de-thatch first? If I were to lay down some San Augustine squares, I’m not sure how I’d go about preparing the ground for it, being patchy and all. I’d just like to get it back on track as soon as possible. My yard looks really bad. Embarrassing.

Thanks in advance for your help.

Dan

RealGreen5 – posted 24 October 2011 10:02

Whether seeding or sodding prepare the soil in the best manner possible. If practical tilling the area, removing all the debris such as rocks that cause hot spots in the lawn, and level so there are no low areas for future fungal issues to manifest themselves. Tilling will make a huge difference if you over seed not only immediately but for the next few years as you have alleviated years of soil compaction. Good soil density will cut down on the time it takes for either sod or seed to become established. You may also want to check out some of the Zoysia varieties available in your area, they sure make a nice lawn. You cannot go wrong with Bermuda, anything that is somewhat native is going to have less disease issues and the drought tolerance of Bermuda can be useful if watering restrictions are imposed at some point.