On Sat, 26 Apr 2003 04:39:25 GMT, "New Farmer" wrote:


1. "Keep watering deep every five days and st. augustine will take over."
Will this really happen? If yes, how long will it take? I dont care much if
its mixed augstine and bermuda as long as its green.

Bermuda will take over the sunny areas. Watering deeply and mowing high weekly
is supreme. Watering at least one inch a week will bring the roots into the
soil beneath. One inch of water penetrates or percolates about 8 inches into the
soil. The trees benefit, so does all the life in the soil.

2. "Till the grass in (no need to kill it all). Rake. Sod": This will
probably work, but its expensive.

No need. Call a service and have you lawn core aerated and top dress with
compost from The Natural Gardener. OR, buy a liquid humate product. Dromgoole
has his Terra Tonic or John's Recipe.


3. "Till the grass in, rake it. Sod with a 1 foot spacing between sod
squares". How long will this take to cover the whole yard?

A very long time and it will never be level. I do not recommend this in our
climate.


4. "Get some runners from other places in the yard and plant those in the
dead areas". Again, how long will the grass take to establish and how do you
really plant runners? Under the ground, over the ground..prepartion?

Just mow regularly, put out a light application of fertilizer (Milorganite is
cheap and fine for grass) and water deeply instead of 10 minutes a day. Measure
how long you need the sprinkler to run in order to put one inch down using tuna
fish cans. When they have an inch of water, that's how long you need to water
to get one inch. Probably a few hours.

5. "Just put a layer of dirt on top and keep watering. augustine will send
runners and grow by itself with adequate watering".

I don't recommend this.

Then I've also read a host of different things like use round up to kill
first before doing other stuff, to get soil tests, to put new dirt etc etc.
Obviously, I am looking for an option thats balanced between expense,
effort, and time to establishment.

My suggestion to you is to remove any turf which curls in heat and replace it
with native ground covers or turn them into native plant beds. Less turf is
ideal in our climate.


Any folks out there who've done this or have experience, please write back.

thanks!

I do everything I suggested.