It’s been one month since I got the front lawn enriched with soil. You can read about it here. This post shows the progress of the lawn. I’m pleased with it and I have learned the following about how to care for a St. Augustine grass lawn:
First, St. Augustine grass is never grown from seed. It comes in either sod or plugs. So, the $18/lb. seed that Jose spread was useless. My helpful neighbor planted a few runners in part of the lawn, but they didn’t take because they were too exposed.
Second, the crabgrass (probably lying dormant) took advantage of the fertilizer and proceeded to sprout everywhere. Every day I weeded out the crabgrass. Crabgrass is easy to distinguish from St. Augustine, and it comes out easily. Crabgrass is a grayish green and configures in a star-shaped pattern, whereas St. Augustine configures as a runner.
Third, St. Augustine grass does best when watered between 1:00-3:00 am. Hooray for automatic sprinkler systems!
The weather was HOT! I’m talking days upon days of from 100 to 109-degree heat that broke 90-year old records. I watered every day. Antonio, a landscaper who regularly mows some of my neighbors’ lawns said that in this kind of weather, he waters his lawn every day for 20 minutes. His water bill last month was $275. Yikes! Antonio recommended that I have 2 pallets of sod installed to cover the exposed areas.
June 19th fertilizing of the front lawn
July 19th front lawn
So, there you have it. The lawn is filling in nicely, I got my daily dosage of sunshine, vitamin D, and I got to mingle with my neighbors.