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rockydog101

Help with getting new land cared for

rockydog101
9 years ago

Hi all,

I'm down in Lake Charles, LA (zone 9). I'm buying about a half acre behind my house. The half acre is basically surrounded on three sides (my neighbors, and my backyard) by St Augustine grass lawns. So, the half acre is about 75% grown in with St Augustine grass, and most of it has been growing out of control and was rather tall (about waist height.)

I finally made the decision to purchase the land, and had my lawn guy cut the grass there last week. It does seem to be about 75% St Augustine grass, and the other part various weeds. Some of the grass is very thick, but some seems to be in clumps (like a balding man) with 3-4" between each clump of grass.

Additionally, there are several crayfish holes and about a dozen ant piles. There are some high and low spots on the land, but being Louisiana there's probably a 6 inch difference between the highest and lowest spot.

My question is what can I do to help spoof this land up? After my lawn guy cut it last week, and we had a good rain, it looks like a lot of new grass has popped up and filled in some gaps, which is great. I have done the following:

1. Fresh grass cut, lots of rain
2. Applied a layer of "weed and feed."

I just purchased, and plan to do this:

1. An application of a bug killer product (ants, fleas, etc.)
2. Target kill the ant piles

Is there anything else I can do to the lawn to help it come alive and help the St Augustine fill in the rest of the area? Or, anything else I should apply to the area because it's kinda been neglected since the beginning of time?

Thank you

Comment (1)

  • dchall_san_antonio
    9 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    First of all, hold waaaaay off on using insecticide. The ants are likely not hurting anything. You might take a look to see if any of the ants are carrying pieces of green leaves larger than the ants themselves. In that case, then they are hurting something. Otherwise, leave them alone for now. That is a very low priority.

    Secondly, go back and suck up all the weed n feed product. You did not need that either. Most likely it will be completely ineffective as a weed control. You are much MUCH better off using a spray on weeds. You can control the spray without hurting the other plants or the soil. It is also very likely that the product you used will kill off ALL the St Augustine. So you might be starting over from scratch on that lot.

    The best thing you can do for that yard at this point is to apply a thin layer of compost. Buy no more than 1 cubic yard of compost per 1,000 square feet and apply that to the entire lot. This will help to heal the damage done by the weed n feed by replenishing the soil microbes. Secondly, apply 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet of any organic fertilizer to the entire yard. Water that lightly (or heavily) and leave things alone until next May. If you feel the need to do anything before May, use organic fertilizer only. Chemical fertilizers used before May will deplete the food stored in the plant roots. The grass will grow fast enough before that anyway. The compost and organic fertilizer will help transform your lot. It will change the ecology. It will help make the area more "normal" so that the ants will have more ant predators coming to visit. You should see more toads, lizards, geckos, and birds. You'll also see more predatory insects like mantis, wasps, and perhaps ladybugs.

    Always mow St Aug at the mower's highest setting. As you have seen, it can thrive at extreme heights. It likes to be tall.

    When you water, which should be very infrequently, water a full inch at a time. You may never need to water it with your climate.

    If you want to use a weed control, wait until the first week of May. Then apply a spray with atrazine. That's the only weed control that does not kill the St Augustine. There are some others that claim they do not, but they seem to anyway. Atrazine seems to work, but it's a little hazardous to handle. Read the entire label.

    The St Aug you had was only about 30 inches tall. That seems to be the limit. At least in my area that's the limit. After that it stops growing and flops over. You might have had other grasses and weeds up to your waist, but likely not the St Aug. What you should have done was cut it down gradually taking no more than 1/3 of the height of the grass off at a time. Start by taking off a foot. Then a week later take another 8 inches. A week later take 6 inches. And keep working it down until you got to normal mowing height. You can take it down like that with a string trimmer. I'll be doing something like that this weekend. I have some St Aug that's up to 18 inches which needs to come down to 12 to comply with the city ordinance.