These are pictures of my friend's front yard. We live in the DFW area. I'm not sure what type of St. Augustine this is but he says it's never looked this bad/sparse. The kicker is that he pays for a lawn service (some local company). I would really like to help him out with what I've learned the last few months but I'm no expert. Any direction would be great.
That's a lot of trees. Looks like the HOC is too low, bump it up to at least 4". St aug likes a high HOC, and even more so in shade...it needs all the surface area it can get to catch enough sun.
Shade issues, for sure, under those trees plus the trees may be stealing water from the grass in this heat. Also, what kind of trees are they? Looks like oaks and the leaves are very acidic, so could be changing the soil ph in those areas. Soil test, at least pH, would be important. Does he have even sprinkler coverage? How often/how much is he watering? How often and at what height is it being mowed? Every other week cutting short (so scalping constantly) would cause damage over time for sure. And close ups of the blades in and around the effected areas?
I will go over to his place tonight and get some more pictures. He has a sprinkler system but I'm not sure how much hes been watering. We've had deluges this summer every week, it's crazy. Everyone's lawn is green, I don't think I've watered my whole lawn once this year and I'm mowing every 4-5 days
That looks like the results of fungus damage. Most likely he got it bad at the end of last season and it killed a bunch off. DFW had a bad case of Take All Root rot last season in St. A.
I will go over to his place tonight and get some more pictures. He has a sprinkler system but I'm not sure how much hes been watering. We've had deluges this summer every week, it's crazy. Everyone's lawn is green, I don't think I've watered my whole lawn once this year and I'm mowing every 4-5 days
Sounds like more likely to be fungus or insects than lack of water then. Shade plus lots of water might be fungus. See if you can get some pictures of the blades maybe. But no matter what starting with the basics - fertilize, water appropriately but not too much, and mow high and often will help a ton.
Oh,a nd definitely have him check the pH of those areas - still wondering if it is the oak leaves contributing. St. Augustine usually looks like crap under oak trees.
Hers are a few more photos for inspection. I pulled those particular runners because they're half green half brown/dead. Maybe that helps someone I.D. what's going on
My yard looked like that before we removed out trees. Most of the grass under the trees was pretty bare. The roots suck up all the water and nutrients in the area. Looks like all the water runs off the slope and I bet the tree roots are also growing downhill toward the water.
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