I'm afraid you St Augustine is gone.
1. Buy a pallet(s) of new grass and resod laying over the existing lawn
giving you a deeper soil layer
2. Plant bermuda which loves sun and will come back after such a incident
and needs less water.
3. Do the xeriscape thing
4. Let it go natural or plant a flower/veggie garden

good Luck

JEM

"austinartistdotnet" wrote in message
oups.com...
Okay, so I thought the grass looked nicer when it was mowed really
short. What did I know about St. Augustine and drought? We left town
for a few days after I mowed and the sprinklers stopped working while
we were gone. Go figure. So now the lawn is yellow and crispy with
patches of green. What can I do at this point? The soil is very
shallow, would it help to add a topsoil now? The sprinklers are set to
run for 15 minutes every morning, and I've heard this is no way to
water St. Aug. in dry conditions. But with such shallow soil, can we
really do the deep water/ skip a few days thing? The lawn is in full
sun. Should I broadcast some Bermuda? We're also considering cutting
out the yellow areas and creating xeriscape gardens, but that will have
to be done in phases since we're do-it-yourselfers. The HOA is bound to
get on us about it soon. Any advice would be great!