Question
Dear Charlotte,
We moved to Aurora, TX (NW Ft Worth) last October and were
only able to get a small portion of lawn in during the spring before water restrictions killed any new plans.
I just laid some St. Augustine sod last weekend.  Is there
anything I can put on it to give it a good start?  Also,
we have sooo many stickers out here.  Mowed weeds all summer.  We have over an acre, and I have been deep tilling
before putting down sod or seeds.  We also have fireants,
regular ants, spiders (lots of blackwidows) and grasshoppers.  Don't like chemicals but have spot treated
a few fire ant beds with them.  

Answer
Hi Donna;
Welcome neighbor. I live in Irving.
Go on an organic program now, and you will be way ahead of the game.
Keep it watered well until the roots take hold and new growth starts.
Right now, get enough sugar ( plain white table sugar) to put about 5 to 6 pounds per 1000 sq,ft of lawn.
I just broadcast mine by hand, and water it in well.
St. Augustine lives water. Unless you keep it submerged for a week or more, you can't drown the stuff.
What the sugar does is nourish the beneficial microbes that work round the clock enriching the soil.
It will get them started now, and by the time your lawn goes dormant, you should be seeing very few of those sticker weeds.
They have already put down their seeds, so it is probably too late to do anything about them.
Those chemical weed and feed products don't work that well, and they will keep bulb plants like tulips etc from germinating too.
Chemicals create more problems, and don't really solve any.
I know, I gardened with chemicals for over 40 yers before I ssartened up and switched to organics 8 or 9 years ago.
For the last 6 or 7 years, I have had no weeds at all, and no harmful insects.
Weeds like poor soil and will not thrive in rich soil.
Next spring, some of the sticker weeds will come up, maybe, but there should be half or less than came up this year.
Feed with the sugar again for the spring feeding, and the ones that do come up will start to die out right away.
They shouldn't mature enough to form stickers.Each year for the first coup[le of years, I had fewer weeds, until there were none even bothering to try and come up.
One thing I have read about from our resident Texas Organic Guru,. Howard Garrett, is Corn Gluten Meal.
He says it is the best weed and feed he has ever used, and appluying it now should stop most weds from coming up in the spring.
Applied in the fall, it adds nutrients and is supposed to help kill the fall weeds that come up.
I have not used it yet, so I am saying it is supposed to, but everything he says to try, that I have tried, I like the results of. He says apply 15 to 20 pounds per 1000 sq.ft.
Applied in the spring it prevents mold and funfus, which we have in abundance around here in the sprinng, when we go through our rainy season.
Alfalfa meal is another thing that adds a lot of nutrients to the soil and so is lava sand.
Those to you just sprinkle around thinly around the yard.
Just a light covering, like you would a fertilizer, or the sugar. Water them in well.
Either one or both will only help your lawn, and none of the organic things you do will harm it.
If you spill a lot of sugar in one spot, for instance, it won't burn your grass or kill it,like chemical fertilizers will. It just wastes a little sugar.
The no chemicals used makes a healthy enviornment for the toads, lizards and grass snakes that will eat all the harmful insects that will be attracted to your yard.
You never have to bother with buying or using insecticides, and you don't have to worry about children or pats on your grass being harmed.
Since I started on the organic program , my Asthma is 90% better. Breathing in those chemicals is terrible for your health.
I used to use insecticides, and had to spray once a month, and still had aphid damage in almost every rose that opened. Now, my little lizards eat them all, and every rose opens to a perfect bloom, and no aphid bites out of the petals.
They eat all the tent catapillars that used to drop on me from my trees, so I couldn't sit out under them in the summer.
Toads love slugs, and that makes the disgusting little things my best friends.LOL
I see the lizards running up the tree trunks and in my rose bushes, but they never run toward me, so I am fine with that.
I never see the grass snakes and seldon see a toad, except after a good rain, which in North Texas means, you don't see toads often.
I always water to a depth of at least 6 inches t encourage a deep root system.
Deep roots help protect against heat, cold and drought damage, amd prevents thatch.
Organics gives you a  darker green, thicker, weedfree, insect free lawn, with little maintenance.
For the lasst 8 or 9 years (I am old, so I forget some things.LOL) all I have put on our lawn is sugar to feed the microbes, watered and my husband mows and edges.
In the spring, I put cedar bark mulch all over they yard. Not deep, just a fairly even covering. It sifts down into the ggrass blades. It repels a lot of insects including fleas and ticks if you have a pet, and it repels termites.
In early spring, when it is time for termites to swarm, I put a trail of it around the perimeter of the house, and out buildings, about 3 or 4 inches wide, and an inch or two deep.
That keeps termites from attacking our house etc.
Now I have used the cedar bark mulch for over 40 years, and we have never had termites in the house.
We had a dead stump in the back of the back yard, and it had termites in it.
I had some cedar oil, so I painted the sup top of the stump with the cedar oil and a little paint brush. The next day my husband sliced off the stump about 4 inches down, and there were no termites anywhere in the stump.
They do not like cedar.
In the spring, I chop fresh orange peels and scatter them all over the yard. Orange oil is the main ingredient in effective fire any controls.
I had a mound once, and dropped a handful of chopped orange peel on it, and in a couple of hours, all the ants were gone.
After you get enough lizards, toads etc, and beneficial nematodes, the fire ants will be lunch for them, and you won't even have to put down the peels.
I have all kinds of natural ( and cheap) remedies for keeping insects out of my yard and house.
Write anytime I xcan help with anything.
I am very happy to share what I have learned, and am still learning.
Charlotte