Question
QUESTION: Hi Charlotte,

I am thinking about starting a St. Augustine lawn in my new home in Atlanta.  My previous neighbors in Va have it and I loved it.  My questions are, how many plugs do you recommend, what do you think about the Palmetto variety, and does the grass grow well in a clay-like soil?

Thanks a bunch
ANSWER: Hi Vince;
Nothing grows well in clay soil.
It is too tight to let water soak in to get to the roots, and roots have a difficult to impossible time breaking through that clay.
You will save yourself years of frustration and work if you till in some bark mulch before you start to try to grow anything.
I had hard clay here, and we put down 4 inches of cedar bark mulch and tilled 8 inches deep. That made a 50/50 mic of the clay and bark mulch.
Cedar bark mulch repels a lot of harmful insects, including termites, and it takes 2 years to decompose, as opposed to 1 year for other bark mulches.
So, by the time it decomposes, if you follow a totally organic program, the soil will be loose enough for grass and shrubs to grow well, and on organics, will continue to improve.
With chemical lawn care products, you keep battling the same problems year after year. With organics, you do a few simple things, and the beneficial microbes, nematodes and insects, and critters like toads, lizards, and grass snakes keep improving on it, and solving all the problems.
Really, all we have done for the past 8 years is apply sugar in the fall and spring, spray with baking soda to kill molds and fungus, water, mow and edge.
We have NO weeds or harmful insects.
The lizards and other lawn livestock eat all of them as fast as they come to the yard.
Weeds will NOT thrive in rich soil, so make rich soil, and if weeds even come up, they start to die out right away.
The sugar does absolutely, except nourish those beneficial microbes that work round the clock enriching the soil.
Write if you need more information about organics. I have answered many questions about organics, and you can look up those answers, and write me for anything you want to ask me.
As for planting the St. Augustine.
I am not familiar with that particular variety.
I don't even know if that is the variety of St. Aug that I have in my yard.LOL
It depends on how fast you want coverage.
If you have the patience to work with it awhile, you can cut each of those little sod pallets that are about 12X18, or so, into 6 or 8 pieces, and put them 6 to 8 inches apart, in sort of a checkerboard pattern.
When I sodded mine in, I put down the pieces, and watered till it was practically a swamp. Then the kids and I walked on it barefoot and pressed the pieces in till just some of the blades were sticking out.
You can also scoop enough of the tilled up soil to lay down the pieces, lay enough soil in between to make it level and water thoroughly.
In a day or so, when the soil is settled down, you can scatter more soil in between, and a little on top of the pieces. Watering deeply, to a depth of at least 6 inches will encourage the roots to grow deep. A deep root system protects against heat, cold and drought damage, and prevents thatch.
You cal also lat the pieces closer together, or pay dopwn the whole pallettes an inch apart, and fill in with soil, for even faster coverage.
I put mine down, and let it start growing and grow to about 6 inches high, then put down a couple inches of good soil, and watered. That put the roots even deeper.
If yopu go organics, earthworms and cockroaches and other beneficial insects will tunnel through the soil, keeping it aerated and adding nutrients through their castings.
You must either go all organics or all chemicals. If you apply any chemical fertilizers, weedkillers or pesticides, you will kill off all the beneficial microbes etc, and the lizards, toads etc.
Cockroaches are beneficial if they are allowed to live in their natural enviornment, the soil. they feed on harmful insects.
We use pesticides, and that kills off their food supply and threatens them, so they come inside outr houses to find food, and hide from the pesticides.
To keep them out of my house, I use herbs I grow.
I have no weeds or harmful insects in my yard, and no roaches, ants, spiders or anything else inside my house.
Write me if you are interested in this worry free, and work and money saving method.
I am more than glad to share what I have learned and am still learning.
Charlotte


---------- FOLLOW-UP ----------

QUESTION: Charlotte,

Thank you so much for your very informative response.  I am very interested in growing organically.  I have already ordered a few trays of st. augustine plugs, which should arrive in a few days to try in a small, bare portion of my back yard.  Can I buy organic soil and till it into the clay since I really wont have the time for the bark chips to decompose?  Also, the rest of my yard is bermuda, which was seeded by the builder last year and looks horrible!  If this st augustine does well, I would like to replace the entire lawn with it.  How should I kill off the bermuda?  Finally, should I begin with the sugar treatment in my lawn and on my azaleas?  I know my questioning is all over the place, but I have so many questions and really would like to have an organic garden and lawn.

Thanks again.

Answer
Hi Vince;
Organic soil is just soil that doesn't have a lot of chemicals applied to it.
If you order a load of dirt from a dirt and sand and gravel company, it is going to be organic dirt.
You don't need to go to the expense of buying potting soil and/or top soil in the bags at a nursery.
I ordered a load of sandy loam from a sand and gravel company in my town. I needed a lot, so I bought 16 yards. That put 3 inches of sandy loam on my front lawn. Then I put 4 inches of cedar bark mulch, and tilled it in 12 inches deep, with the existing clay junk that was there. T tilled in weeds, what grass there was, and everything all together. I did put about 1 inch of peat moss and humus, but I have since learned that wasn't necessary.
The bark mulch keeps the clay loose while it is decomposing. You don't have to wait for it to compost, it will do it over the next two years, while your grass is growing think and lush.
Put down the sandy loam and bark mulch, or you can just put bark mulch and till it in so that you mix half bark mulch and half clay soil.
Water it well to settle it, or roll it a little. easier to just put down the sod, put about a half inch of soil on top of the sod, and put soil between the sod pieces.
Save back some of the soil to add to places that may settle more and not be even, or for some of the sod to be sticking up above the level of the rest of the soil.
Water it till it is opractically a mudhole.
St. Augustine will almost grow in a swamp, and unless it stays completely submerged for several days, it will not hurt it.
I let my grass start growing, and grow to about 5 inches tall, then I added a couple more inches of soil and bark mulch mixed, to get the roots a little deeper.
A deep root system is your best ally.
Watering deeply makes the roots grow deep. This helps protect from heat, cold and drought damage, and prevents thatch.
In time, the St. augustine will crowd out the Burmuda.
I just re-read, and you said bark chips.
You DON'T want chips, you want bark MULCH.
That is much smaller than the decorative chips. Those are to be piut on top of flower beds etc to cover the soil between the plants, and look nicer.
Leave the burmuda in and let the St. augustine control it. It will keep the lawn looking full and green while the St. augustine thickens up.
Put the sugar everywhere.
all the sugar does is feed the beneficial microbes that work to enrich the soil.
alfalfa meal will help your azaleas. It is full of nutrients, and helps flowering shrubs and plants to produce more and larger blooms.
I put alfalfa meal all over my lawn last summer. I had been just using it on my comntainer plants and house plants, and roses.
Lava sand is also full of nutrients.
You can just broadcast the lava sand and alfalfa meal like you do the sugar, or you can add it to the soil and bark mulch and till it in too, same with the alfalfa meal.
You don't need deep coverage of either.
About the same coverage as you get from the sugar.
The weight is much different, so I go by how much it covers.
the alfalfa meal is much lighter than the sugar, and the lava sand is much heavier.
I got 1 bag of lava sand from Home Depot.
I am not sure what it weighs. It is not that large a bag. I covered my front yard with one bag, which is about 3000 sq.ft.
The bag of alfalfa meal is large, but there is no weight on it. I can lift it ( not easy, but I am old and weak.LOL) I CANNOT budge a bag of say, fertilizer that size.
My husband said he thought it weighd about 20 or 25 pounds.
I used about 3/4th bag last year, and I covered my front yard, by back yoard, which is a little larger than the front, used it 3 or 4 times around my roses, and made alfalfa tea about 4 times.
I still have about a gallion of it left. I had to go to a feed stroe to get the alfalfa meal.
If you have a lot of fungus problems there, apply about 10 pounds agricultural corn meal per 1000 sq.ft.
For added nutrients, you can till in about 10 or 15 pounds of Corn Gluten meal at the time of tilling.
I hope I haven't rambled so I confused you more.
Write me anytime.
I am more than happy to answer any questions you have to help you get on this wonderful program I am on.
Your azaleas need a more acid soil than your grasses and most other plants need.
I just bought some gorgeous azaleas yesterday, and today I wanted to put them in. It rained. DRAT!!! LOL
Write me, and don't worry about the questions being all over the place. sometimes my answers are like that.LOL
Charlotte