"skunker" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hey everyone,
I'm a total newbie, but I've purchased 2 books about grass/lawn care
and one of them was Scotts "Lawns", a guide to a "beautiful lawn".
It's a great book and I highly recommend it, especially for greenhorns
like myself.

In December 2005, I purchased a home in San Antonio, Texas. During the
Spring, we had a severe drought condition and, being new to this whole
lawn thing, I neglected and did not take care of the grass. I've
attached some pictures of my lawn in hopes that it will help provide
some clues as to what is the best way for me to tackle this problem
and how I can bring it back and have the "toe-ticklinest turf in
town!"

Pics: http://www.ogmda.com/temp/lawn

My grass type: St. Augustine
Soil Test Results: Should be received this week! I am waiting for this
before I make a move on feeding the lawn

Question: With my lawn condition, should I just do some lawn patching
or do I need to renovate the lawn by killing the whole thing and then
starting over? What would you do?

What's the fastest way to get this lawn back in top shape?

Thanks for any advice!!
P.S I had Scotts do a free lawn analysis and they gave me the
following info: Turf density: Thin, Moderate shade, Aeration needed/
compacted soil, Clay loam, good mowing, drought stress, weeds: clover,
dandelion, dollarweed, oxalis, crabgrass, foxtail, goose grass, chinch
bugs(?)


Too busy here to respond in detail at the moment, but:

I'm not a big fan of dogs, but you apparently are. Keep in mind that the
Scott's franchises are in business to sell chemicals, none of which can be
legally tested for safety in humans. I have no idea if they've ever used
dogs as test subjects. Probably not.

I see you have some vegetables in the raised bed thing. Most lawn chemical
companies hire high school children to apply chemicals. They lie to these
employees, telling them that the stuff they're spraying is safe around food
crops. My one experience in this area involved walking out of my house about
30 seconds before a lawn spray child was about to contaminate MY vegetable
garden with a chemical which he claimed was safe, but was NOT legal to use
anywhere near food crops.

Everything else they told you is probably true (soil quality, etc), but you
can get that information in other ways. I would recommend that you contact
the cooperative extension service and get some advice from them. It's free,
and they don't sell anything. It's a service of your state university. It
exists to advise farmers and homeowners on agricultural issues. Go to google
and search using the words "cooperative extension texas". You'll find it.