Question
I live in San Antonio and have St. Augustine grass.  My home is just two years old and I have yet to have a sprinkler system installed, so needless to say I have not watered my lawn appropriately since owning the home.  Additionally we have gone through a severe drought which has caused mandatory water restrictions in my area during the summer.  

My wife and I had our son not long after moving in so I have rarely had time to devote to taking care of the landscape, other than mowing.  Now I抦 ready to get that sprinkler system installed, but first I抎 like to take care of a few problem areas:

1.   With the lack of watering I have noticed the roots of the grass growing at the surface and then drying up and dying.  I thought that laying some new top soil would help take care of this problem by allowing the surrounding healthy grass to grow through and cover up these ugly dead patches.  All that has done is make my yard look like a dirt lot.  Not very appealing!  It has also attracted weeds.  At least something is growing!  I have watered heavily on my assigned watering days (remember, we have restrictions), but it seems to be doing very little in my favor.

2.   There is so much rock just below the dirt surface of my front and back yard.  I can take my rock bar and poke into the ground where the grass appears brown and find there to be very little dirt.  What I assume is happening is the rock heats up during the hottest days of the year and basically cooks the grass.  Where my grass is nice and green, there is thick dirt below.

3.   I would like to re sod large portions of my yard after getting the sprinkler system installed.  Basically I抎 like to 搒tart over?but there are areas where the grass is growing fine (shaded areas, under trees) and I抦 not sure how the new sod and existing grass will mend together without there being noticeable unevenness.  Also, a neighbor of mine told me not to bother with new sod until Spring (it is now September).  I can抰 imagine waiting that long to get my lawn looking good.  

If laying new sod, should I rototil the few patches of green grass in with the soil and lay the new sod right over it?  Should I bother trying to save any of it and just start over?  Do I need to lay down thicker dirt to solve the problem of the hot rocks?  I抳e read your advice on organic fertilizers, the sugar, etc., and I am anxious to get started, but I抦 not sure where 搒tart?is?  

Thanks for your help.


Answer
Hi David;
Iffin I were you, I would not install a sprinkler system.
Go to an organic proogram, and you will have no use for a sprinler system, will spend a fraction of what chemical gardening costs, you will have a small fraction of the work to do, and a much more beautiful and weedfree lawn.
Sprinklers wast water.
They spray in the air, and a great deal is lost to evaporation.
In our hot Texas summers, you can lose 50% or more of the water to evaporation. It never reashes your gras, but it registers on your water meter.
I use sopaker hoses.
You can design your soaker hose system so that you leave them down all the time, except for the ones you water where you mow.
I have them against the foundation, all around the house. I just take the hose to the connection to the soaker hose, attach it and turn it on. i let it run until it strts to run off onto the neighbor's yard. then i rurn it iff and let it soak in for an hour or so, and turn it on again. I keep doing that until it is soaked 6 inches deep.
when I have all the areas watered where the soaker hoses stay, I lay out the lawn soaker hose,in a pattern so that the hose is about 6 feet apart. I use two hooked together so I can water the whole area at once. I do the same, turn on till it starts to run off, and turn on after it has soaked in, like I do on the foundation soakers.
Then I roll up the lawn sopaker hose, and put it away, and my watering is done fopr the week, untill we have another 5o days of over 100 like we have had this summer.
I am 72, and about 80% disabled, and by using the soaker hoses like this, I can do my own watering.
I spend less than a total of 1 hour to get my whole lwan watered to a deopth that will encourage deep roots to protect against the heat, cold and drought damage, and also prevent thatch, so you don't ever have to job of dethatching.
Get some alfalfa meal. You will have to go to a feed store to get that.
I got a big bag, but I don't know what it weight. Alfalfa meal is pretty light.
Put a few bags of that on your lawn, and get some l;ava sand. That stuff it FULL of nutrients.
You can even get lava sand at Walmart.
The put sugar at the rate of 1 pound per 250 sq/ft ( 4 pounds to 100 sq.ft.) Water all that in, and makre sure you water it deeply.
I would just dig up  the bare areas enough to loosen the soil, and drop some St. Augustine plugs in it, water it good, and do all that other stuff I said up above.
That is assuming you have good loose soil. If you have clay soil, you may have to emend it so it drains better.
Get the little pads of St. Augustine from a nursery and cut them in about 6 oieces, unless you want to cover more right away. You can just loosen up the soil, lay them down, and fill in between them with soil ( put about a half inch on top of them too, ) water well to pack it down, and keep that new grass nice and moist, or wet. St. Augustine will almost grow in a swamp.
With organics you don't have to worry about weeds or insects.
Organics gives you a healthy enviornment for lawn critters like toads, grss snakes and lizards, that wil eat all the harmful insects that are attracted to your lawn, and the organics make rish soil. Weeds won't thrive in rich soil. They like poor soil.
When your soil is rich enough, weeds won't even come up.
I had dandelions, dollar weed, clover, crabgrass and johnsion grass, to name just a few that I had when I use chemnicals and worked myself to death for a mediocre lawn.
Since I have been on organics, I do very little work, and have to best lawn I have ever had, and never an ugly weed do I have to pull, dig or look at.
Charlotte
PS:
The most important thing, when thet little ones gets big enough to play in the yard, you will not have to worry about it playing on the grass or putting grass in his mouth.

The hot rocks. How big are these rocks. Maybe, if they are nice sized, but small enough to handle, pile them in one area, put some soil on them to sift down in them, and plant a rock garden. Maybe a little pond there too.
Write anytime. I am very happy to share what i have learned and am learning about organics.
I use herbs to keep insects out of my house, so I don't have to breathe in sprays etc, and my Asthma is 90% better.
C