Question
this is out of your area but maybe you can help me.  i live in the st augustine region, recently noticed that there are small, circular tan areas in the lawn.  Look like indentations.  grass is zoysia.  any ideas you have about this?

Answer
Do your "small, circular tan areas" look anything like th ones on the Topturf "Lawn Diseases" web page(http://www.topturf.net/lawndiseases.htm)?

"Brown Patch" shows up as circles of brown grass on your lawn -- in come cases, several feet wide in some cases. The usual chemical Fungicides never work on these, no matter what they tell you on the container.

Here's what you need to do:

1.  Stop wiping out the natural controls in your garden soil with fungicides, pesticides and herbicides.

2.  Improve the soil -- it will make it lighter and it will drain better.

3.  Stop fertilzing your lawn.  That's right -- STOP!  Too much Nitrogen is GOOD FOR FUNGUS!

4.  Let me guess -- you have one of those superduper computer-controlled automatic sprinkler systems, right?  BAD MOVE, w.a.  Turn it off and keep it off until the soil dries out.  Do you like to sit in the bathtub 24/7?  Do you eat, sleep, and live in the shower?  Would you ever want to?  No!  Your poor Zoysia needs to dry off, too.  Turn off the sprinkler.  It's not good for your grass.

Now, w.a., I guarantee someone would love to sell you all kinds of products to fix your Brown Patch.  That's what they're there for.  FACT: Once a Fungus sprouts, you cannot kill it with Fungicide.  You cannot kill it with Baking Powder, or Corn Gluten, or Brown Patch Killer.  The best you can do is stop new spores from erupting on the lawn AND you can STOP giving the Fungus the basic life support it needs to live and grown all over your lawn.

And I have told you how to do that with Steps 1, 2, 3 and 4.

Dry out the lawn.  Do not Fertilize except as directed by ME.  NEVER use anything with a Skull and Bones on it, a Caution label, with ingredients you cannot pronounce, or that you cannot DRINK when mixed with water.  And turn off the superduper sprinkler -- the Fungus loves those fresh cold water treatments.

There's better ways to live.  I'll give them to you step by step if you want.  Keep me posted on this and let me know how it works out.

Yeah, I know -- it's hard to believe that controlling your Brown Patch can be that simple.

But you know that old Gardener's Saying, w.a.:  The Best Things in Life are Free!

Any questions?