# Cwp587's Lawn Journal: Corpus Christi TX St. Augustine Lawn Renovations



## cwp587 (11 d ago)

This journal is to document my journey through renovations of my St. Augustine lawn and hopefully provide some guidance to those in similar climates to mine in restoring a lawn back to health. I fully expect this to take at least one season to get the side yards in shape and at least two or three seasons to get the backyard in shape.

*About My Lawn:*

Purchased new home in February 2022 and moved in around March; Did not care deeply about the lawn until September 2022, and I didn't know what to do with my yard in the as-found state
3.2ksqft of maintained "St. Augustine grass" weed salad, with at least 1.5ksqft currently (1/2/23) bare or infested with crabgrass or bermuda; Prior to December, it was closer to 2.5ksqft crabgrass infested or bermuda infested; Still have a lot of Bermuda in side yards but will live with it for now
Black clay soil. Hardiness Zone 9B. Soil does not freeze. According to greencastonline.com, min. soil temp. 5 yr avg. is 53 degF at beginning of January, reaching 60 degF around mid-January. Temp. drops to 70 degF around beginning of November.
Based on historical pictures of the lawn, I am the first homeowner to attempt to care for the lawn. Also my neighbors on both sides have weed salads, so I will likely have to stay on top of pre-emergent herbicides and will have to treat the property borders with post-emergents (or get used to hand-picking every couple weeks)
*What has happened, prior to 1/2/2023:*

Purchased Ego Mower (LM2135SP), Weedeater (ST1521S), and Blower (LB6504)
9/18/22: Fertilized with Milo (2 bags / 64 lb, NPK = 1.2-0.8-0)
10/8/22: Applied Anderson's Barricade (Prodiamine pre-emergent) on whole yard (18 lb, 5.6 lb/1ksqft); Realized afterwards that it needed to be watered in, so not sure how good this application was
10/22/22: Installed above-ground irrigation system
11/18/22: Finally got a soil test; found that I was sufficient in all minerals except Phosphorous (1.5 lb / 1000 sqft low) and have a 7.2 pH. This will play into 2023's fertilizer plans.
After being defeated by the amount of crabgrass in front yard (and dead spots), I re-sodded it with Floratam on 12/2/22; Total ~1ksqft (essentially all of front yard, not including side yards); I decided I'd deal with the backyard since I am the only one who sees it
Dabbled with killing crabgrass with baking soda; it took a couple days to have effect, but it did a number on the sections of crabgrass that I tried it on in the backyard;
12/23/22: Although temperatures are mild in South Texas, we did have a 3 day freeze blow through with a low of 22 degF. Thankfully the freeze did not kill the sod but did hurt the crabgrass immensely.
12/30/22: Applied 3lb/1ksqft of prodiamine pre-emergent; This slightly exceeds max. yearly rate when added with 10/8/22 app. I realized after application that this was exceeding yearly max. rate by 20%, so I will hold off on Prodiamine until late in 2023 before re-applying.
1/1/23: Applied Celsius WG with ~1% MSO on broadleaf weeds and several patches of live crabgrass in backyard even after the freeze. That is why the backyard has so many blue spots in the pics.
*What will happen, in 2023:*

~1/1/23 (app. on 12/30/22): Applied 3lb/1ksqft of prodiamene (0.48%), due to rising soil temps.
~2/4/23: Apply Starter fert. at 0.94-1.25-0.31 per 1ksqft of lawn (Sta-Green 18-24-6 Lawn Starter Fertilizer)
~3/4/23: Apply Dithiopyr 3.4lb/1ksqft (0.17%), to push pre-emergent into 80+degF soil temps. Also apply synthetic fert. at 0.95-0.0-0.16 per 1ksqft of lawn (Sta-Green 29-0-5 All Purpose Lawn Fertilizer Plus)
~6/3/23: Repeat fertilizer app. from 3/4/23
~9/2/23: Repeat fertilizer app. from 6/3/23
~10/21/23: Apply Dithiopyr 3.4lb/1ksqft (0.17%), to get pre-emergent with soil temps approaching 70 degF; This is also when I plan to apply my first pre-emergent treatment to the newly sodded portion of the lawn
Based on my observations from 2022, I should probably plan to treat for fungus in November/December if not earlier. Still considering if I want to do something proactively or reactively.
~12/2/23: Apply "winterizer" fertilizer at 1-0-0.31 (Sta-Green 32-0-10 Winterizer)


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