For many, many years I have been fertilizing my St. Augustine grass wherever I lived w/a 3-1-2 ratio w/micro nutrients and is slow release fertilizer. However, this year when I had it done w/the fertilizer I bought myself and had the gardener put down in Feb. the grass greened up nicely but we have an abundance of "weeds" i.e. wildflowers in the turf. I was always careful NOT to use a weed and feed feeling it didn't do that much good. However, w/a lawn full of evening primrose, stickery things, vetch, wild oxalis, and various other things I'm beginning to rethink all this. This is our first year w/this lawn which has been here since '78 or so. Should I put down a weed and feed next when I have it fertilized? I always was taught that if your turf was good and healthy the weeds wouldn't grow in there. I realize that these are all early spring weeds and will die out w/the heat but Jim is giving me a hard time about the looks of the lawn and our daughter put down weed and feed and her lawn is gorgeous. Any ideas would be appreciated. I, however, am not going to try to add anything addition such as Epsom Salts because I don't know if I can get thru to my gardener what I want done. Thanks in advance..
Ann
Fertilizing St. Augustine lawn
First of all, have you had your soil tested? If you do, then you'll only need to add the nutrients to build healthy soil. Healthy soil=healthy lawn and plants.
Personally, I'd not apply weed and feed. I'd just pull up the unwanteds.
About every second year I spread a thin layer of sifted compost. The turf is so dense that almost nothing comes through. There were a couple of dry spots in this terrible drought that shriveled, but no "furriners." We've had a bit of rain recently and our lawns are recovering.
Ann, I'm in the same boat as you with my lawn. This house and garden had been severely neglected for years before we bought it. My lawn is about half St. Augustine and half various weeds. We have oxalis, dandelions, dollar weed, crab grass, etc. If it's a weed, you name it, we have it. I've been slowly working on it and I'm giving it one more try with Scott's Weed & Feed, which I've always had good results from. Some areas are showing improvement with lush, dark green new growth, but there are still lots of weeds; way too many to even think of hand weeding them all. If you find a magic bullet, let me know!
Crow
I have the same problem with my back yard, which--oddly enough--is my healthiest, thickest lawn during the warmer months. Every year when March and early April roll around, we fight primroses, crabgrass, annual bluegrass, and henbit. Used to have dandelions but I've finally popped most of those out. I think it's just because they are cool weather weeds and, in my area, St Augustine is slow to emerge. They disappear when the grass greens up and grows. Then we have no weeds all summer.
I don't use weed and feed because I'm organic. But you can use corn gluten meal as a pre-emergent in September and Feb. We have good luck with it, and it's also a mild fertilizer. Our problem is, we can't ever seem to remember to get it down in Feb before the spring weed seeds germinate.
Thanks to all of you for your solutions. Crow, I didn't want to use W&F because we have trees, etc in the lawn and I don't want to risk runoff of the water to contaminate. Perhaps I could use the W&F just one time and get the front in shape and worry later about the back.
Ann
That sounds like a plan, Ann. I don't have a problem with it around my trees, but I do keep it away from the shrubs, like oleander and roses. I wish I knew of a place near me that sold alfalfa pellets and dry agricultural molasses. I've found the molasses at Lowe's, but it's liquid :) I too would prefer not to use the Weed & Feed.
PbTx, I'm the absolute worst about remembering to put out the pre-emergent stuff, so you're not alone in that. I finally figuered out buying it and leaving it in the garage in the box doesn't do a bit of good towards stopping the weeds.
Crow, for alfalfa pellets, we found that rabbit food from Walmart serves the purpose. I'm going to use the weed and feed ONCE and then go from there.
Ann
Ann, I haven't had any problems with my lawn since going organic (I have both Bermuda and St. Augustine). I use Texas Tee fertilizer and it's taken my hard, clay, barren soil to a wonderful texture complete with earthworms. The healthier the soil, the better. Treat your St. Augustine like it's St. Augustine and it will beat out the weeds with or without your help. The TT fert that I use is a blend of a bunch of good stuff meant to get the good bacteria in the soil really going. Phenomenal stuff...I should get paid for all I spout about it. LOL I personally would just jump right in with the organics and ditch the weed and feed.
HTH!
Steph
If you're organic AND your lawn is really just a huge weed patch AND it's too late to use cornmeal (as it would just now fertilize the weeds and cause them to grow more), what do you do? This is my situation. I have a large portion of my backyard that's nothing but weeds. Some of it is nice St. Augustine (the part in the shade), but a big chunk of it is weeds.
The most heavily recommended "weed and feed" fertilizers contain atrazine, a toxic chemical herbicide that is quite effective killing your trees and shrubs. Weed and Feed fertilizers are actually banned in most European countries and they should be here too.
Some of my favorite flowers are considered weeds, so I don't like to use anything. Our St. Aug. is doing a good job as it spreads, but DH is going to have the guy that mows for us fertilize the lawn in April. I told him to make certain it isn't a weed 'n feed product. Also, I don't trust some of the companies that do lawn service, it seems you have more problems with weeds after they start than you did before.
Crow.....I just got some dry molassas for my compost piles and was able to find it at the local feed store.
Stephanie, I would second what Endorphins said. We also use Texas Tee, and we also had a very bad soil situation where nothing would grow for years and years. (Not even bermuda.) We top-dress every 2-3 years with homemade compost, and use Texas Tee exclusively 3 times a year. We finally have a front lawn and good soil.
I really don't know if you can ever get rid of all the weeds in St Augustine in THIS area. Down south of here it comes out earlier due to warmer temps. Mine gets very lush once it's out, and we have no weeds from then on. But mine stays dormant till mid- to late April, and before then, we still get cool-weather weeds. Apart from pulling and the corn gluten, I don't know what you can do about it.
What is Texas Tee? Where do you get it?
Sheila, you can call AJ Southwest for lawn treatment. They're all organic, but expensive. They also do pest control. Anyway, you can buy the stuff from them to do it yourself, too.
Stephanie....I am not the one that thinks we need fert., it is DH. I never want anyone spraying pesticides either because I raise caterpillars and release the butterflies. Too dangerous from my cats/butterflies, but thanks for the info.
Sheila, I think all they do pretty much is come out and do the applications of green sand, molasses, cornmeal, and maybe something else. We use them for pest control. They come out quarterly and apply something that smells really good, but keeps the bugs at bay. Since we started using them and their organic pest control, we've had no problems. They now just have to treat the outside unlike when we first moved in and they had to do both inside and outside. We have lots of good bugs around, too. Geckos, lizards, ladybugs, anoles, and of course the nematodes in the lawn. :)
All that, and it smells good? I wanna know what they're using! I have been gardening organically since 1990, and I just love it. BUT, if I have one complaint, it's the ODORS. I spend a lot of the spring and summer smelling like a landfill. LOL!
Stephanie, we get Texas Tee from our favorite feed store, Roach's in Garland, which carries a lot of organic gardening supplies. That's not helpful for you in Ft Worth, but a quick Google says that Green Mama's carries it. You know what I really like about that product? It has all the same stuff I've been breaking my back spreading by hand for years and years--in the right amounts. I won't say that Texas Tee turned my lawn around all by itself, since I did spread all the same stuff before we started using it. I refuse to believe that all that work did nothing to rebuild our stripped topsoil. Maybe it was just timing. But we did see a dramatic difference when we started using Texas Tee.
I have not used either product, but I've heard about similar results from both Rabbit Hill and Bluebonnet. Apparently the owners of Rabbit Hill have retired and sold their company to Maestro-Gro. Since Maestro-Gro also offers Texas Tee, I don't know if they'll offer the Rabbit Hill lawn fertilizer. It looks like both Calloway's and Handley Feed Store in Fort Worth offer the Bluebonnet product. Again, I haven't used it, but the people at our feed store say it's great.
Thanks for the info! I'll be on the lookout for it. Wonder if they have it at Marshall Grain??
Anybody know where a feed store is close to the west side of Houston? There used to be one on Alief Clodine around Dairy Ashford, but it closed years ago and I don't know where another one is. I'll check WalMart for the alfalfa, but would love to find some of the dried molasses. I don't want to mess with the liquid, I'm too lazy.
Someone, someplace here on DG said in some thread (I'm just too full of information!) that the dried molasses was a waste of money. Now, if I could only find that thread.... Sorry, Crow, but he did say that and suggested that everyone keep using the liquid. Seems that the dried was mixed w/other stuff that was inert (or something) and a poor buy. I was thinking before that that the dried sounded better to me, too, but I bit the bullet and bought a gallon of liquid. Haven't used it yet but at least I have it.
Ann
Thanks, Ann. I hadn't seen that comment. Do you know if you have to mix the liquid and them spray it on the lawn and beds? Man, I have a big yard, that'd really be a pain to do, which is why I'd been thinking of using the dried.
Unfortunately, Crow, that is one thing I don't remember. I was going to use it on my flowers: roses, etc. That would take 1 T per gallon, I remember.
Ann
I didn't want to mess with the liquid. I saw the thread also, after I had already purchased the dry and figured I would do it this year.
Sheila, would you post back later and let us know if you saw any appreciable difference after using the dried? I'd like to know if it works. I can't take a teaspoom of soil up anywhere without finding earthworms, so I'm figuring my soil is in pretty good shape, but anything that helps this gumbo is a welcome addition.
Crow
Most of my yard is that way too Crow, but if I can improve the front and see a noticable difference I will definately let you know.
Here is a fertilzation schedule from the Garden Line that works well for me:
http://www.ktrh.com/pages/gardenline-lawn.html
Here is an organic schedule I haven't tried from the same web site:
http://www.ktrh.com/pages/gardenline-organiclawn.html