I guess you did not get my message on the other thread when you asked about st aug seed..

Here's what I wrote in that thread...

Unfortunately, there is no seeds for sale.

I HIGHLY recommend that you get pieces of Floratam st augustine. Not sure where exactly you live in Houston as it is a huge city but if you are close by, you can get at Buchanan's Native Plants ( 611 East 11th Street : Houston : TX : 77008). It's the only place that I know selling them by pieces. Avoid Lowe's and HD! They sell far inferior variety called Raleigh. Floratam is much tougher against drought, pests and disease. Will fill in fast. Just make sure to mow high and water deeply as needed (1 inch of water, maybe more if you have trees). you will have to water moderately few times a week for a couple weeks for Floratam to get established. They seem to get established rather quickly.

Anyway, organic program seems to work much better for st augustine lawn. You simply call feed stores close by you and find out the price for soybean meal or cottonseed meal. I prefer soybean meal. Easy to spread by rotary spreader. Less messy but harder to find. Do that every 3 months starting now.

For watering, you need to put down tuna cans on the lawn and find out how long it takes to fill up 1 inch depth. That's your target. If you find after 1 hour and it's half then it takes 2 hours to water deeply that would get water down 6-8 inches deep where the roots are. My rule of thumb is if 50% of lawn start to wilt, water deeply. It could be any time. Maybe every 5 days. Maybe every 2 weeks. You just don't know. Sometimes you get plenty of rains and you don't have to water much. Just observe the lawn.

Right now. go straight to Home Depot and get LESCO 15-5-10 fertilizer (never touch weed and feed type). That will help grass fill in faster but focus on organic program after that. Mow high. 3 inches minimum. 4 inches during summer and in shady area if your mower can get that high.

{{gwi:79085}}

That's how I maintain my lawn. It has mostly Floratam in there and I found it to be much superior to other varieties. I highly recommend Floratam variety.

Thanks Lou. How am I going to take care the area with spots of dead grass? Those areas are sparse and make it hard to use sod to replace the dead ones out. Any suggestions?

You can just scalp that dead area with your mower at the lowest setting. If you have a string trimmer, get rid of dead as much as you can. loosen up soil a bit (Claw garden tool is great for that), put down Floratam pieces (they are 24 inches by 18 inches size). You can do that every 5 feet all over the lawn or any dead spots. By the end of the year, they should mostly take over the lawn. Floratam fills in pretty fast. Please do not go to Lowe's or Home Depot. They sell inferior st augustine variety called Raleigh. I am not a fan of it. Very poor drought tolerance. Seems to be prone to fungus disease. Make effort to find Floratam variety please.

You will have to water few times a week to keep new grass from drying out until they are established. 30 minutes each time for 2 weeks should do it unless you get a good soaking rain. After that, water one inch of water a week if you don't get good soaking rain. Once your lawn have fully covered, water only if needed.

If you have hard time finding Floratam, come back and Ill try and help you find it. I don't know where exactly you live so I can't do a thing. If you happen to live close to Conroe, you can go to Turfgrass America sod place and get left over Floratam pieces. You would have to call that place and ask about getting them. They will call you when they have left over pieces.

Perhaps this is a good place to insert this thought. It is very difficult for anyone to give good advice unless we know WHERE you live. You do not have to be specific, but a general area would be so helpful. If you do not wish to put this info on your homepage, then just insert it into your post. I am sure there are many who want to give advice, but are reluctant because of this lack of info.

I thought I said I am at Houston in my original post.

Houston is a huge city. It would help to know where like southwest, south, by 59 and 610, things like that. I grew up in northwest Houston by 290 and 610 so I know some places in that area.

I live in Midlothian which is small town. If I had put in Dallas, that's also a huge city. Helps to narrow down to places that we'd recommend closer to where you live. Just trying to help.

When in League City, our problems were usually related to fungus, grubworms, or chinch bugs. Neighbors had a policy of fertilizing about every holiday. I think they got that advice from someone selling fertilizer.
There are two USDA zones near Houston, and old maps showed another thin band near the coast, meaning 3 within 100 miles of the coastline.
The Woodlands area is a whole lot different than south of Houston. Find a good nursery or two - avoid the home centers.

Hey Lou, is the Floratam variety the kind that has the purple tinge on the runners? My grandpa has some of that and he swears by it.