Question
I live in midlands of South Carolina.  My lawn is St. Augustine I believe.  There are several areas of my lawn that have bare spots and areas near beds I would like to fill in to make the lawn look fuller.  My grass also looks like a mix of brown and green during the spring and summer.  How can I get the grass to fill in  these bare areas and also look greener?

Answer
My South Carolina friend, have you ever had your soil analyzed?  Trying to grow grass without knowing what in your soil is like driving down the street without a steering wheel.  Get a soil sample TODAY and have a professional take a good look at the soil profile with a microscope and test tubes.  I am not kidding here.  You need that.

And by the way, don't you guys call this "Charleston Grass"?

You can get a good test from your local County Cooperative Extension.  But if you REALLY want to do this right - I don't know how serious you are about your grass, I admit I do get a little carried away - you can arrange to send your dirt to Jon Nilsson at East Coast Compost in North Carolina ([email protected]) or Jerry Hutchinson ([email protected]).  Either of these scientists will conduct a careful analysis of your soil, and they will even tell you what to do to get your soil to yield the most beautiful grass in South Carolina.  Follow their directions and if they analyze the soil in Chinese, write me back and I'll translate.

I have a reason I'm pushing for a soil study, Curtis.  Your St Augustine grass is not thick and fluorishing.  All things begin with your soil.  Bugs live down there, microbes are down there, minerals and vitamins are there, pathogens, it all boils down to your soil.

Assuming you have full sun pouring from the sky dawn to dusk, and NO TREES to get between your grass and that blue sunny sky, there have to be reasons for your St. Augustine grass to languish with anguish.  There's an explanation for your patches of bare dirt year-round.  A soil test will tell you if there's a problem with the pH, or if instead you have a healthy, rich growing medium for your grass - and what you need to do to get that.

Because no matter how expensive your grass seed is, no matter how much you spend on weedkiller and pesticides, you can't grow remarkable grass in ho-hum soil.  There's just no way around that.

Please correct me if I misunderstood you here.

St Augustine Grass is prone to Iron deficiency among other things.  Is your lawn looking chlorotic before it kicks the bucket and turns brown?

And just when did your St Augustine stop looking great?  And how long did that take - was it an overnight sudden frost that hit it like a brick?  How cold was it and how long was it that cold?  Cold snaps can severely damage or some varieties of St. Augustine while others can take temps as low as 5 degrees F. with no serious damage.  Is this why your St Augustine grass clumps are few and far between?  The major insect pest of St. Augustine grass is the chinch bug, although resistance to chinch bugs varies somewhat among cultivars.

Now, let's talk about your watering skills, sir.  How good are you with a hose?  St Augustine has the kind of roots that should grow deep into the soil.  If you just splash and sprinkle water on it, the roots will be shallow - vulnerable to drought and other Acts of God.

There's an art to proper watering.  Soak your St Augustine nice and deep; then study it, see how long it takes for the grass to actually wilt.

That's when you get the sprinkler out and give it a good downpour again.  Water deep, deep, deep - but wait until the soil is dry and the St Augustine is begging for water.  St Augustine is a grass that needs water... but ONLY when it's thirsty.  If you water it properly, it won't turn brown from thirst.

Curtis, at some point, it will be time to sow or sod.  There are several great internet suppliers of state of the art grass, which is always being developed somewhere to resist drought and improve vigor.

My favorite, as you may have noticed, is Seedland.com.  They'll sell you plugs if you need those, too.  But there are many Internet Grass Stores to choose from.

The problem with local Plain Vanilla garden centers, as well as places like Lowes and Home Depot, is that they tend to sell whatever is available from the distributor, which is usually dictated by a huge advertising budget (Scotts/Ortho etc.), price/volume, and profit.  Most people don't know this grass from that grass.  So they go by price.  That's where the money is, so that's what they sell at Plain Vanilla.  So I usually buy seed on the Internet.  Not always, but usually.  We have a great local retailer here on Long Island named Hicks that has been selling supplies to gardeners for hundreds of years so sometimes I shop there, but often I want something that no one else has heard of and I have to get it from a laboratory or specialist in California, etc.

Here's my advice:

1.  Water generously when the St Augustine begins to green up in the spring.  Depending on where you are grass-growing, you want to make sure there is plenty of water available, deep down, for the roots to get nutrients.

2.  Instead of applying Nitrogen fertilizers right away, put down some Bone Meal and get your soil tested to see if it has everything it needs to grow perfect grass.  The Bone Meal takes a long time to incorporate into the soil; you cannot put in too much of this.

3.  Look to see how your Earthworm population is doing in the spring.  If you've got Earthworms, you are probably going to be able to support healthy St Augustine.  Overseed if needed - it sounds like you may be headed for some serious winter kill with temps going down to ZERO.

There are some tougher St Augustine varieties out there that will take more of a chill than others.

There are several great internet suppliers of state of the art grass, which is always being developed somewhere to resist drought and improve vigor.  My favorite, as you may have noticed, is Seedland.com.  But there are many Internet Grass Stores to choose from.  The problem with local Plain Vanilla garden centers, as well as places like Lowes and Home Depot, is that they tend to sell whatever is available from the distributor, which is usually dictated by a huge advertising budget (Scotts/Ortho etc.), price/volume, and profit.  Most people don't know this grass from that grass.  So they go by price.  That's where the money is, so that's what they sell at Plain Vanilla.  So I usually buy seed on the Internet.  Not always, but usually.  We have a great local retailer here on Long Island named Hicks that has been selling supplies to gardeners for hundreds of years so sometimes I buy things from them, but often I want something that no one else has heard of and I have to get it from a laboratory or specialist in California, etc.  

It's just like coffee, Curtis.  You can't brew great coffee without great coffeebeans and you can't grow great grass without great seed.  Remember that.

Could anything else be going on here, Curtis?  Because St Augustine Grass hates traffic, hates shade, hates cold weather.  If you stick with St Augustine, pick the newest cultivar on the market: Palmetto.

Still, I just have to wonder: Is St Augustine the right grass for you?  Is it possible you are in Cool Grass Season country there in S.C.?  We'll figure it out after you get your soil test analysis.  There may be better grass for you.  Otherwise, next vacation you take, get a Dartboard and shoot darts at a list of hotels - and that's where you'll spend the night, because that's exactly what you're doing with your grass when you grow it in Anything Goes.

Confusing?  Daunting?  Maybe even overwhelming?  Sure.

Will you end up with a terrific lawn?  Absolutely.