Scott's is a pesticide and synthetic fertilizer company so I would be
very weary of any advice they give to you. Having said that, you need
to water if you want a lawn, period. Each year I remove more and more
turf and replace it with perennial and annual plants which are native
or adapted to my area in Austin, TX.

You no longer have what I'd call a "lawn." If you want a "lawn" you
will have to remove all the turf and lay new sod and you must water it
every day, several times a day till it is established. After that,
St. Augustine can work well with one inch of water per week.

Everyone in Texas eventually gets chinch bugs, which can be regulated
using beneficial nematodes, but you must water to keep those alive.
Nematodes are un-segmented organisms which are microscopic and you can
get much more information about that online.

If it were my home, I'd remove most of that lawn and put in beds and
plant ground cover or have some interesting islands of companion
plants of differing color.


On 27 Mar 2007 06:56:26 -0700, "skunker" wrote:

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(?)