please give any advise ......its driving me nuts!

Maybe fellow Texas gardeners can give helpful advise. We were very fortunate during hurricane Rita and I hate to complain but....... unfortunately our grass is horrible. This bald patch was once lush St. Augustine grass in shade now it is dirt in the blazing sun. We have tried everything but no results.

My husbands' solution is to drench this spot nightly. The only thing that will grow are weeds. Our yard was the pride of the neighborhood but not anymore! The neighbors stop and offer sympathy.

thanks in advance
sdogwood from Lake Charles

Have you put new St Augustine plugs or sod in the spot? If the St Augustine is comepletely dead, you will have to start over. Was the area covered in salt water during the hurricane? You might want to get your soil tested to see if there is an imbalance in the soil.
St Augustine, once it is established, doesn't need watered more often than every 5 days. It does well in full sun here.

When I bought my first TX house - no yard - brand new subdivision. A man stopped by and offered to plant St. Augustine for me. Told him I could not afford to sod the whole yard (just married, relocated and a child on the way). He said, no problem - $30 (1970). Took one layer from a pallet of grass, cut strips anout 2-3 inched wide and did the curb, walk and drive, the chopped the rest into 2-3 inch pligs and randomly planted the whole front yard. Took 2 years but filled in completely.

When we returned to Houston, had to sod the front of a lot, but took about 1/2 a pallet and did the same strip-and-plug for the back yard - within two years the grass has gone out behind the back fence almost to the creek. Have a little die-off from the dry spells, but it always come back with some rain. Only had bug problems once. Just took some of the excess from along the drive and walks and plugged away. I have even taken a single rysome that was heading into the garden, and stuck it into a bare spot with some water to soften the soil - took off as expected and was mowing it before the end of the season.

I would use a dethatcher to loosen the soil, and plug or put in some strips. Then use a little Bonus-S or Turf-Builder and water it in..

My St. Augustine and a friend's looked real bad last fall and worse this spring. In April, I fertilized it with the Lady Bug brand of organic fertilizer, then went back over it with pelleted molasses. It rained the next day (which was predicted and why I fertilized then). I wasn't sure how much molasses to use, just put out the same amount as I did fertilizer. (Unfortunately, the molasses has not yet seemed to help with the fire ants.) It perked right up; my friend did the same, and hers is looking much better as well. Who knows if this will hold up over a hot summer.

I am sorry that you have lost your grass. I think your husband might be right on with watering and watering, but I could be wrong. It is hard to tell from the pic if you have any St. Augustine left. If you do have some left, water is the best thing for it to keep it alive and to keep it sowing. I would recommend you trying to add some topsoil in the fall. Then depending on your budget, either try to add some St. Augusting plugs or re-sod. If you aren't tied to St. Augustine and there isn't any left of it you could always reseed with another type of grass.

Have you checked for chinch bugs?

I know this is not what you were looking for but I would put natives in there instead. That's the area in between the sidewalk and the street, right? We refer to it as the h--- strip. Mine looks good now, because we just had a lot of rain...but by September--I'm going to wish I could get someone to dig it out and fill it with Gulf Coast Muhly, russelia equisetiformus, I forget the name of that beach sunflower (it's short and clumpy not tall), or rock rose.

I'm just not a big fan of turf grass but I have to have a little of it out front to satisfy the yard nazi's (HOA).
Debbie

Debbie- I hate that spot too. I have been thinking of what I can put there instead of the weeds that are growing there now. I just don't want to put anything there that requires alot of maintenance yet still looks nice.

Its a good xeriscaping location...others are probably able to suggest small agave's. I just don't grow them...but some of the smaller ones bloom all summer it seems.

One of these days I am going to take all the St Augustine out of the h--- strip; but I got a few other projects need doing first.

Now you have got me thinking......What native plant would grow in this Louisiana heat?

We have a pretty Lilly type plant that is a volunteer. Its sold in plant catalogs under the name of dollar Lilly by the locals call it sewer lily.

I'll check for bugs than thank about transferring the sewer lilies. Thanks Texans!

Another closeup of the horrible patch.

Pink skullcap makes a low mounding plant. Scutellaria suffrutescens
link;
http://davesgarden.com/pf/go/51664/index.html

If you really miss your st. augustine grass, it looks like it may be time to replace it altogether, but I'm with Debbie...do something different.

If you don't want to spend a lot of money and liked the look of grass, I think dichondra is a great alternative. It is evergreen, carefree, and much greener than grass!

If I had to do it over again, I'd have seeded my front lawn area with dichondra seed, and not have sodded it, at all.

Dichondra is a very popular alternative to sod in Florida, but is only very slowly catching on here.

In my "h***bed" I'm slowly replacing the sod with xeriscape and tough, but pretty perennials(roses, ornamental oregano, liriope linging borders, spanish lavender, caryopteris, dwarf iris, shorter daylilies etc.)

But, if my st. augustine got to the point yours has, I'd not do it again. Dichondra for sure!

I saw a post by Salvia_lover a while back and fell in love(she was showing the playhouse, but all I could focus on was the dichondra! lol) .
http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/466119/

We decided to try it inbetween pavers, and love it. It bakes between hot paver rocks in the sun all day, and I hardly ever have to water it. It is much greener and prettier than the nearby grass, and stays short, and doesn't need to be mowed!

Just went out and took this photo for you. I took this so you could see the dichondra compared to the nearby suffering st. augustine grass. Both get the same amount of water. This dichondra has never been cut or trimmed. Ü

I sure with my entire "lawn" was dichondra...no mowing & dragging around the sprinklers, sounds like heaven, lol...

Does the Dichondra spread over into the St. Augustine grass? If so would it eventually choke out the St. Aug. if not taken out?

I'm very interested in this groundcover for part of my Mother's yard. She has one side of her yard that has the dreaded Bermuda grass!!! :( I detest the stuff. If Dichondra was planted would it eventually choke out the Bermuda? My guess is no. Bermuda is the grass from h??l. But the Bermuda could be killed out and then we would have a blank slate to work with. When I say killed out I realize that means some will ultimately show up somewhere. My Mother is 84 and she does not feel like watering and all that stuff anymore. So the dichondra might be a nice change for her yard. We maintain her yard for her and the backyard has St. Augu. grass. She lost several patches of grass last year and now we've been trying to cover those areas again with St. August.

While Dichondra requires less water than st. augustine, it certainly can't compete with bermuda for longevity. Bermuda has more than nine lives, lol...you just can't kill that stuff, and if the two were in competition, the bermuda would win.

If you truly had a blank slate, the dichondra would be a premium choice.

You could over seed with the dichondra, but I'm afraid when the bermuda started popping through, it would be a great frustration and almost impossible to dig out, without hurting the dichondra.

Dichondra is very invasive in my yard where I don't have a good stand of grass. I have one area that is bermuda and slowly but surly the St. A is wining the battle.
That said, I would take out the grass as Debbie suggest and look at making a statement with some perennials that would come back year after year. Even in winter when there may only be some decorative rocks and mulch with maybe a evergreen shrub and groundcover etc. It would look better than patchy brown sod for sure.
A Sedum would be great to fill in around some rocks and be green or bronze year round. Debbie's suggestion of the other perennials would be right on for you since she is in a lower zone than me.

I found a link to a recent show on HGTV about Curb Gardening. The actual show was more interesting, but it may give you some good tips.
http://www.hgtv.com/hgtv/gl_design_other/article/0,1785,HGTV_3566_2224953,00.html

This message was edited Jun 6, 2006 10:38 PM

If you have any St. Augustine left, watering at the wrong time will not help. If you have sandy soil and you are watering between sundown and sunup the plant does not use the water at this time. If the water is gone from the soil that the plants roots are in by the time of day that the plant starts using the water, then it doesn't get it.

Time to kill off whatever is there. Volunteers are most likely, but not always, invasive plants. I agree with some others to do a xeriscape with perennials or native grasses. Scutellaria is a very xeriscape plant - neat and tidy, native, pretty little flowers etc.

Bermuda grass is a non-native grass that is rather invasive. If you have garden space somewhere in your yard, it will get in your flower beds. Bermuda grass takes a lot of watering, too. Have you heard of the Buffalo grass cultivars like Cody or 609? They only grow in full sun and are extremely drought tolerant if you are tired of water bills. They grow only 4-6" - if you don't like to mow, don't have to. And if you fertilize it, you might kill it. Did you know that homeowners put more fertilizers and herbicides on their lawns annually than do all the farmers on their crops? Just some trivia I learned recently.

Yes St. Augustine will eventually win out over Bermuda. We've found that true here in our yard.
Seedpicker I think you are right about the Bermuda. Even though we kill it out there will always be some to pop back up and then we would have a problem with the Dichondra.

I like the idea of xeriscape. My Mother's yard is fenced front and back with chain link fencing. Her front yard is sort of divided in half by the stepping stones at the front entrance and a large shade garden. The smallest side of her yard we would be working with already has mostly garden beds. We put in another garden bed just this spring. So it would be fairly easy to finish out the rest of that side with perennials, ornamental grasses, and a pretty shrub. There is already a pretty rose of sharon in that area now. We just need to sit down and plan it out. She has some very pretty vines growing on the fence.

I was just reading an article in Neil Sperry's Garden magazine about the Buffalo grass. My only problem with it would be all the shade we have. We have so many large oak trees it probably wouldn't get enough sun. We don't mind mowing the grass right now but eventually as we get 'older' it will become a chore. We live in the country and have our own water well but we do try hard to conserve on water.
I'm not too surprised about the fact that people fertilize their lawns much more than farmers fertilize their crops. We fertilize spring and fall. Now that I have lots of aged compost I sprinkle it over our grass and water it in. It gives the grass a good boost.

Sheila I enjoyed reading the hgtv article on curb gardening. I missed it on the tv show. I watch hgtv a lot and get some neat tips. Thanks for the link.

We have so many ideas that could be used for my Mother's yard. We live in the country and do not have neighbors close by so we can do anything we chose. This is going to be a fun project I can see. ;)

Personally I hate St. Augustine. It's just established down here everywhere and as dmj says, the yard nazis won't have it any other way. But I'm trying to minimize it, putting in a big rose garden and stuff. Seems like when you want it it won't do a thing, and if you don't want it you can't get rid of it.

LOL that's about right. Although it's much easier to take out than Bermuda grass. Hope you don't have any of that anywhere near your gardens. I have spent years trying to keep that grass out of my gardens. I've almost won the battle. ;) Once in a while I will have to take out a piece or two.


Lin

Dancey, - I was just reading about native grasses in the shade that need little water and little mowing. There has been a suggestion to use native sedges instead. There are a few to choose from, but I think they are difficult, but not impossible, to find in the nursery trade.

I think I found some growing in the woods on our land, though. I will see if I can propogate it for sharing, but this will take some time.

If the nurseries know we want it, they will get it for us if we keep asking.