Question
Charlotte, we just moved to florida & our home has St.Augustine grass in gated over 55 community.
Some people have lawn services that weed, feed, and spread pesticides. My lawn is in good condition now with only one 1 ft. area where it seems to have more thatch from the dead grass. I would like to know just what I have to do to maintain a decent lawn. [I don't want, or need a perfect homes and gardens lawn]. I'm thinking I need a rotary spreader, a bag of Scotts weed and feed. I manually treat the fire ants as I see their mounds. As far as the other critters, I don't have a clue what to look for and what the treatment would be. HELP!!!!  Dave H.

Answer
Hi Dave;
Lawn services that wewd, feed spread pesticides are absolutely RUINING out atmosphere, enviornment and ability to live and breathe.
Ok, that's my Enviornmentalist speech for today.
Seriously though, I struggled with the big bags of dertilizer, hauled this mowed and hoed that, spread this watered in that, pulled weeds till my knees are not wortn a tinker's damn anymore, tilled and dug and all the backbreaking yard work, and had a fairly decent yard but labored to breathe with my asthma, and wore out a perfectly good back. Have to have surgeret now to try and undo some of the damage.
I never used weed killers after my daughter's precious kitten ate weed killer in a neighbor;s garage, and I had to hole her while she died. My vet was out of town, and didn't get back in time to help her. We were in a small town and no other vet there.
He told me cats are attracted to weed killers, and will eat them out of the bag. I always pulled and dug weeds after that.
I thought since I was using all the best products to combat the molds, and bad bugs, and had somewhat control over them, going organic would be having to put up with more aphids. grubs etc, and have a lawn that looked more like a wild meadow.
WRONG!!!
About 7 years ago I tried some of the organics and was so impressed I am totally organic now, and
I NOW have a gorgeous. lush, dark green, weedfree lawn.
 First, this is the principle.
Organics is more about what you DON'T do, rather than what you do.
Weeds like poor soil, and will not thrive in rich soil, so any that try to come up will die out.
Make rich soil and you will not have to worry about weeds. I haven'r pulled a weed in a little over 5 years, and I don't ever see any.Not in my yard anyway. I see them in a couple of neighbors' yards.
Fertilizers  DO NOT enrich the soil. They put nutrients into the soil that benefit the vegetation, but they wear out and they wash out with waterings and rain.
Fertilizers kill beneficial microbes that enrigh the soil. Dry molasses ( or sugar) keep them alive.
Yopu say you have a pretty decent lawn mow, ok, you do not need to fertilize.
I tried the dry molasses, but I also tried sugar. I like the results I get with sugar, and it is easier to handle than the 40 lb bags of dry molasses, costs about the same and I can buy it when I shop for groceries.
I put 1 pound sugar per 250 to 300 sq.ft of lawn ( and garden,. I put it everwhere) down each spring and fall. I just broadcast it by hand, because unlike fertilizer, if you get a lot in one area, it does not burn or harm the grass.
Then I water it in well.
My husband mows and edges.
If there is a mold or fungus in damp cool weather, I disolve baking soda in water in mt garden sprayer, and saturate the infected area with it.
I spray this baking soda solution on my roses and other shrubs susceptible to molds and fungii. at the first sign of new growth in the spring, and again after a rainy season if it is cool enough for fungus to be a possibility.
I have no blach spot on my roses, a big problem here in North Texas. We have high humidity.Powdery mildew is also bad here. the baking soda keeps that away too.
When I used Funginex ( fungicide). I kept it pretty much in check, but I had to spray once a month.
I sprayed once a month with insecticide and fed my roses with rose food with systemic insecticide, and I still had aphid damage in almost every rose that opened.
Grubs were a constant battle, as were army worms and all sorts of bugs.
Now I let my lawn critters take care of them, and I never see a grub worth mentioning. When digging, I might see one occasionally, but June bugs,( the adults) are not at my house. I might see a half dozen over the whole period when they used to be swarming here.( ou may call them Japanese Beetles).
I have toads, lizards, and grass snakes. I have some noce fat ones too.
They do a much better job of keeping me bug free than the insecticides ever did. I have beautiful roses and never see a bud with aphid damage, when they open.
They smell better without all that poison in them too.
I do not allow anyone to put anything down that will harm my lawn livestock, and they take royal care of my beloved roses etc.
I have always watered deeply. Deep watering encourages the roots to grow deep in the soil, and they are more protected from heat, cole and drought damage.
shallow roots are sexceptible to heat from the sun, and dry soil, and they die and trap other debris, and you have thatch.
I had to dethatch when we bought this house 39 years ago, and haven't had to since.We had heavy clay soil, So I brought in some good sandy loam, mixed it with bark mulch, peat moss and humus and tilled it in, then I sodded in my St. Augustine. I haven't had to dethatch since.
I always water to a depth of at least 6 inches.
When you have a nice deep root system, and the weather is dry and hot, your grass and plants will go longer withour damage, because they are still getting moisture in the roots.
When it is in the upper 90s and lower 100s. like it is now, my grass gets watered no more than once a week, and it stays nice and green. My neighbors that don't listen to me, have pale green to brown grass right now.
I lower my mower blade setting in the spring to 2 inches, so the roots will be stimulated to grow, and will thicken up more, till it gets niice cna thick, then i stop doinf that. We have had the blaes set at 3 inches for 6 years. Don't want it to get any thicker.
when the temp gets to 85, you want the highter setting so the taller blades will help shade the ground and roots.

Our complete grass maintenance program is this.
  Spring, put down sugar, water it in.
Treat with baking soda if trhere is molds or fungus.
Mow and edge and water till fall.
 Fall, put down sugar and water it in.
We always leave the grass clipping to compost and feed the soil. that is the only feeding we do.

 BAD BUGS:
Don't buy insecticides. Make it healthy for little natural preditors to live there, they will live and get fat on your bad bugs.
 Termites, fleas, ticks and a host of other insects.
I put down cedar bark mulch. Cedar repels a whole host of insects, and it composts and adds nutrients to the oil.
when it is time for termites to swarm, I put a little trail of cedar bark mulch around the foundation of our house. We have a wood frame house about 2 inches high and 2 or 3 inches wide. Never get a termite. I have dogs, abd don't want a flea or tick on them. I use Frontline on them, and the yard is free of fleas and ticks, so if they are off the property that won't get fleas or ticks either.
 Fire ants.
The main ingredient on effective fire ant killers is orange oil,
when it is time for them to show up in the spring, I buy a big bag of oranges and the grandkids and neighborhood kids eat oranges and I chop the peels, and we scatter them all over the yard.
I chop them small so they will settle into the grass and not look like a garbage dump in the yard.Any orange peels we have, we chop and toos them into they yard. They compost and add nutrients to the soil.
when you toss the chopped peels from about 20 pounds of oranges onto your yard, it sure smells fresh and nice. As they decompose, there is no unpleasant odor.
I don't like the neighborhood cats to use my flowrer beds and containers for their litter biox, so i chop the pels from lemons and toss then in there. Kitty cats will not come near them. Lemon scented repellants you buy will not do that. I know, for years I tried them all, withour success. the fresh lemon peels work like a charm.
I live in noth Texas. This is cockroach heaven,
I used to spray all the time, and still see the disgusting things.
Now, once a month i put a small piece of fresh Rosemary on each pantry and cabinet shelf, under each apliance, and anywhere they might come in and/or hide. My house is cockroach free.
Between to cedar bark mulch, lemon and orange peels, and rosemary, I have no bug or ant problems.
A big comntainer of lavender by each door, makes a beautidul comtainer plant at your door, and it also repels house flies from coming in.
Put a few spriga of lavender by your food when you picnic or eat outdoors, and flies will stay away from your food.
I never but a spray or poison of any kids, and i have no bug problem, and no weeds.
Send me an email address and I will send you a picture of my grass, that used to be full of dandelions, crabgtrass, johnson grass, dollar weed, chickweed, clover, you name it, I had it.
You can email me at

[email protected]

I grow my herbs to cook with, and to use for aroma therapy, and I use the same herbs to keep my home insect free.

So, don't go out and buy all that stuff. Just go buy enough sugar to put 1 pound per 250 sq.ft. toss it down and water it in.
Tear up those thatch areas so the water will get down to the roots, and the grass will spread over that area in no time.
Any questions you have about the organics, or a problem of any kind, feel free to write me anytime.

Oh, my asthma.
I don't have to take meds very much since I got rid of all those chemicals. I have little trouble with it.
I no longer have to take the oral meds for it, and I use one inhaler in about a year, or more. I used to use one inhaler per month.
If Dallas county would clean up the air more, O probably would not ever have to use anything.
North Texas has the dubious distinction of being the allerfy capitol of the world. Our temperatures, high humidity and the fat that we have very little breezes, makes it ideal fr allrgins to hiver in our air. Add to that all the pollutants pumped into the air here and it is a wonder any of us are still alive,LOl
Charlotte