Springtime Lawn Plan / Weed control, identification and advice

16 years ago

Now that the beginning of March has introduced some warmer weather to San Antonio, I am anxiously making plans to do some serious yard work. This will be my first spring in this house (new to me). My front yard is facing South and primarily St. Augustine (although I can not tell the variety). The back yard I'll save for a later post.

After much research on improving the health of the lawn, my basic plan is as follows: I will core aerate the yard sometime in the next few weeks and spread a 1/3 to 1/2 inch topcoat of compost over the entire lawn to promote healthy growth.

My questions are:

Should I fertilize in addition to compost?

Where is the best compost in San Antonio? or is all compost from reputable companies almost the same?

I have some winter grass clumps (shall i call it weed grass) that I can't identify and don't know if I should just let the warm weather and St. Augustine take care of it or if I have a more serious problem. If so, please advise on a remedy. I have attached a picture of a section of the yard and a close up of the grass clump. (If you are in San Antonio, this grass is all over the place and in yards that have not been mowed during the winter. This grass stands out with its large clumpy growth and bright green color.)

I also have an abundance of a particular weed. Again, I ask for advice on controlling its growth. Chemically? Mechanically? or just let the St. AugustineÂs growth take it over.

Thanks in advance for any advice or suggestions for improving my plan. I will update the subject of my posting with the weed name after it is positively identified.

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Comments (6)

roselee z8b S.W. Texas
16 years ago
Thanks for providing a photo. The weed grass is the only thing I see from the picture and is what I call 'winter grass'. It is an annual, which means it grows from seed each year. It will die when the hot weather sets in, but only after it scatters it's seeds for next year. In the meantime it will have shaded out what St. Augustine grass there is and it will take a while to fill back in. Plus you will still have the dead clumps to deal with.

Pulling it out clump by clump is what I did, but if you don't have the time and inclination to pull it out you can try keeping it mowed very close to keep it from going to seed, but that will not work 100% of the time because it seems the seeds will just grow horizonally below mower height and then they would still have to be pulled. It's a tenacious little bugger to get rid of. Little clumps will keep coming up and going to seed. You really have to keep after it for a couple of years.

This coming fall you can spread some pre-emergent weed killer at the proper time, around the end of September I think, and this will help to keep the seeds from germinating, but you'll still have to pull a few clumps as soon as you see them.

Now is the time to spread compost and Fertile Garden on Leslie Rd. is the recommended place to get it. They have several compost mixtures for grass. You can talk to them and see what is recommended for your conditions.

If you have pretty good soil already you can probably get by with spreading an organic fertilizer such as fifty pounds of soy bean meal per 1000 sq. feet of lawn.

Looks like you have the makings there for a beautiful expansive lawn. Hope this give you a few ideas on how to proceed. If you post your pictures and questions on the 'discussions' forum, which is more widely read, you will get some more answers.

Scroll around on the link below for 'Turf Grass' for additional information.

Here is a link that might be useful: Plant Answers ...
roselee z8b S.W. Texas
16 years ago
Was just browsing the Organic Forum and some found some FAQS about lawn care. It seems the rate of application for grain based fertilizers is 10 to 20 lbs per 1,000 sq. feet, not 50 lbs like I said. However, I applied more than 20 lbs. per 1,000 sq. ft. more than once last year and had good results.

Here is a link that might be useful: Organic Lawn Care ...
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ba_tex
Original Author
16 years ago
Roselee,
Thank you very much for your feedback. I was dreading the possibility of removing that darn winter grass, although it is limited to 1/2 the yard. I think I am going to get the major clumps and let the summer weather "weed out" the rest. With a good deal of love, water and full sun, the st. Augustine should fill nicely this. I am going to go the route of compost and the soybean meal.
I have some bare spots that I need to fill in and wanted to use a few pieces of Floratam St. Augustine - although I don't know the variety of the current lawn (probably Raleigh). Is that a landscaping no-no or will you be able to see the difference between the varieties? Thanks again for you help!
roselee z8b S.W. Texas
16 years ago
You are very welcome. As to your question about interspersing Floratoam with the old fashioned St. Augustine I have thought of doing that myself, but I don't know which variety is the strongest growing and would persist. You might ask that question on the discussions forum.

Also -- even if you don't pull all the clumps maybe go around and try to pull off the seed heads when they form (drop them in a bucket and discard them) and you'll have that much less winter grass come up next year.
roselee z8b S.W. Texas
16 years ago
For compost we had four yards of the 'Soil Treatment Plus' from Fertile Garden Supply delivered. More expensive, but it has green sand, lava sand, corn meal, and molasses added to the basic compost. It was alive and steaming when delivered, which is GOOD!
lou_spicewood_tx
16 years ago
Floratam is superior to Raleigh in every way except cold tolerance but I have it (I live south of Dallas) and it survived 14*F in December of 2005 with some damage but it grows a lot faster than Raleigh so it may be a moot point. More drought hardy too. You can water deeply only twice a month if you want. I've done that before.