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| Help! My lawn is nothing but weeds basically! Thistle, Dallice grass, dandilions, ect. I have a small patch of bermuda and St. Augustine mix but not enough to boost about!
My question is, what is the best way to start a new lawn? I have one section that receives full sun, and another that is mostly shaded. I was thinking the Palmetto versoin of St. Augustine may be the best. Any help and suggestions are appreciated! |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by texas-weed 7A (My Page) on Sat, Apr 14, 12 at 19:25
| What are your water restrictions? Do you have irrigation? If so do you have water rationing? |
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| Here's your rule for St. Augustine: Water. The second rule: Mow HIGH. That's it. You do these two things and you don't get the St. Augustine virus, you WILL have an awesome lawn. If St. Augustine goes brown except in winter, it is DEAD. And you have to start over. Don't let it get brown! |
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| (Along with mowing high goes mowing often--every week.) Watering means 1" per week with St. Augustine from when it greens up if the spring to when it goes brown in the winter. You can't really get away with less. With some of the cool season grasses, you can let them go dormant or let them coast with just an occasional boost, but if St. Augustine is beginning to go brown at all, you've messed up, bigtime. If you mulch as you mow, there's no reason to fertilize St. Augustine more than twice a year. (I miss that!!!!!) It's such a thug that you don't need crabgrass preventer or broadleaf weedkillers. The ONLY thing that could survive with St. Augustine that I've ever found are these horrible woody little daisy-like flowers. I pulled them all by hand. It took three years to get the very last one. If you have really, really bad soil, you will need to address that first. |
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- Posted by dchall_san_antonio 8 San Antonio (My Page) on Mon, Apr 16, 12 at 2:21
| The best way to start a new lawn in the south is with sod. St Augustine seed is not available so it has to be sodded. Hybrid bermuda is only available in sod. There is improved common bermuda seed available but it is still common. If you don't have to have a putting green quality lawn, then bermuda seed will work in the full sun. The problem with mixing bermuda with St Augustine is they each prefer different care. Bermuda needs fertilizer every month and mowing low twice a week in the summer. St Augustine only needs fertilizer 3x per season and likes to be mowed at 4 inches or higher only once a week. If you mow a mixed lawn low it will look weedy because the St Augustine stolon is much thicker than the bermuda stolons. If you mow it high it looks weedy for awhile because the bermuda seed head sticks up before you mow again. St Aug does not need to be watered every week unless you are not watering long enough. If you water it deeply enough, it will grow deep roots that resist the heat. Also when you water deeply and let the surface of the soil dry out, then your weed seeds will not germinate - and that is the subject you asked about. If you just water what you have now, and water it infrequently but deeply, then your weed pressure will fall off. Your lawn will spread because both grasses are the spreading type. If you mulch mow high every week, it will look like St Augustine. If you mow low it will look like bermuda with coarse weeds (St Augustine). |
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