Hey Folks,

I know this has been asked before and I've read all the posts. Its left me
rather confused, so I want to see if I can clear this up.

Briefly, I had a st augustine yard which I did not take care of (too lazy to
drag hose around) and now its in bad shape. The areas in sun are now mostly
bermuda, those in shade are st augustine. There are also some other weed
grasses growing at places (I am told its foxgrass) and bare spots that just
have dead grass (no, its not dormant..its just dirt under underneath and no
root) and some rye grass growing in between.

NOW, I just had a sprinkler system installed . I am hoping to recover the
yard and looking for options from people who've done this before.

So whats the best way of getting the yard back in shape? This is what I've
heard from numerous sources:

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.

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

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?

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?

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

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.

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

thanks!