Question
St. Augustine sod was laid down in June.  I watered every day for first two weeks, and thereafter at twice a week.
It look like it was doing fine; however, I notice that there are "mud balls" or what I thought was animal feces.  I don't think it is feces because there are no flies and it does not smell.  These mud looking balls are starting to show throughout the lawn.  the size is about one inch in length or smaller.  they are in small clusters.  If you step on one it look like mud.

I never had this problem before Hurricane Katrina.  My entire lawn was brown.  So I had at least the front part of the yard replace with new grass.  This is the basic St. Augustine grass.

Also I am in the process of redoing the side and backyard. Because the weeds, close ground cover weeds and crab grass have taken over, I plan to spray with round up to kill and then have yard tilled.  Cover with river sand and then cover with top soil.  Is this a good method?

Thanks for your assistance.

Answer
The mud balls definitely sound like some sort of critter digging away.  That said, there are many such things, and they rarely cause serious problems.  I certainly wouldn't recommend any sort of treatment unless the grass really starts to go downhill as a result.

As for the re-planting, you definitely do NOT want to put down river sand and then topsoil.  You'd be creating a layering problem that would be devastating on the new grass.  Essentially, the lawn would not drain.

You can go ahead and kill off the existing weeds.  If the soil is bad and needs amending, then you can add good topsoil and till it into the existing stuff so as not to create these layering issues.  Here's a good link that will bring you to a column that deals with this issue.

http://www.thelawncoach.com/Past_Columns/Entries/2008/8/19_Pond_Slop_as_Lawn_Top...

Once you've amended the soil, then go ahead and plant the grass.  Good luck!

-C.J. Brown
www.thelawncoach.com