Where do you live? Did it look okay in October before it went dormant? St Aug will recover, but you'll get weeds in the bare spots if you keep doing what you're doing. I would focus on watering properly, mowing, and feeding it right before I got mixed up with weeds. Here are the basics for St Augustine: Watering Once per week but water a full inch when you do. This time of year in most places you can water once every other week until it warms into the 90s. Then go to weekly. Time how long it takes your sprinklers to apply an inch of water by setting out several empty cat food or tuna cans. When they are full, that's long enough. That's how long you will water every time you water. My sprinkler takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. My neighbor's system takes 20 minutes. Every system is so different that you'll have to measure your own. Mow at your mower's HIGHEST setting. Always. ALWAYS. Tall St Aug is much healthier, takes less water, and stays dark green longer than short grass. Why? Because the roots grow much deeper. If you really want to kick start the return of your grass, fertilize with alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). Get it in 50-pound bags from the local feed store. Apply at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. If you can do that monthly the grass will really appreciate it. Don't fertilize the weeds. If you back off on the watering to once every 2 weeks you should not have a serious weed problem. Why? Because most weeds, and all weed seeds, need more frequent water than that. That's one of the main reasons to not water twice a week. Some people water every day - that's much worse for weeds.

I'd like to make a couple suggestions. One is never to take the advice of someone who neither explains nor proves what they tell you. Another is not to run the gamut of lawn services in search of a good one. Because you complain of several diagnosis from different people, it's a little difficult to know where to begin in helping you here. So, let me try to put things into perspective. 1. To diagnose lawn disease, I need characteristics of the dead/brown patches. Do they look wet or greasy? Are the patches circular or irregular? Do the patches seem to be spreading/growing? Is the grass matted? Any pinkish or grayish color? Does there appear to be fuzzy growths on the grass? I'm asking for details of specific diseases that might be present at this time of year. I don't think any others will have revealed themselves since temperatures have not been warm enough yet. 2. Chinch bugs suck the juices from grass blades. If the brown patches in your complaint do not have roots, you do not have a chinch bug problem. If there is chinch bug damage, you should reseed those areas. 3. Grubs do eat the roots. If you can fold back the top layer of soil like the image below, there was a grubs problem. Right now, you likely won't see many if any, but that is the type of damage they cause. You will have to reseed those patches. Treat for grubs in early June with an insecticide like Grubex or similar product. Liek Morpheus stated, it will also kill the earth worms, and earth worms are valuable to the soil. So beneficial nematodes might be a better idea though I'm not sure they will work quickly enough to prevent grubs this summer. Maintaining your lawn is not difficult though I can understand it may seem daunting to think of it. You don't tell us how much lawn area you have but if it's too much to irrigate, then perhaps you and hubby should consider reducing the actual-maintained lawn area for manageability. Either way, it is less expensive than a service. As you can see, the cost doesn't end with paying their weekly or monthly rates. In the very least, hire a service to do the mowing only. Become familiar with what must be done, how it should be done, and when it should be done so that you can instruct them, and thereby minimize damage and costs. You'll find a good maintenance schedule in this thread. It is the 10th response from the top. Pay particular attention to the paragraphs on watering and mowing.

No offense, but I keep my 3 and 6 year old sons well away from running power equipment (but they love to sit on the tractor and pretend they are mowing). I Have seen too many flying rocks, stalled blades, etc. Sandles while mowing are also a no-no but OSHA wont be contacted as I see much worse every day. Maybe I'm overly paranoid but with that said, what a great daughter/dad picture. I think your neighbor is on the no mow schedule. Maybe his KBG will seed and blow into your lawn.

@danielj_2009 and others around the stove, I got to thinking about what you said about speed of lime and particle size. Besides any physical leaching due particle size, I wondered if particle size and speed and amount of change might be the biggest influence on quantity of lime that gets recommended. The quotes you gave above refer to 25lbs for some limes but warn against exceeding bag rate for the "new fast acting" limes. Is the grind that big of a factor? I had my doubts. So I did a search to find the chemical analysis of lime products. To my disappointment, most products don't provide one. Most just say "derived from limestone." That could include a lot of different components. Finally, I found this: http://www.homedepot.com/catalog/pdfImages/41/417ecb06-d1a5-40cb-975a-78de1d1028f2.pdf PENNINGTON ® FAST ACTING™ LIME Plus AST ® GUARANTEED ANALYSIS Calcium (Ca)............................................................................................. 24% Magnesium (Mg) ...................................................................................... 6% Calcium Oxide (CaO) ............................................................................... 30% Magnesium Oxide (MgO)......................................................................... 15% Calcium Carbonate (CaCO3) ................................................................ 55% Magnesium Carbonate (MgCO3) ...........................................................30% Moisture (maximum) ................................................................................ 1% Calcium Carbonate Equivalence (CCE) .................................................... 90%* Neutralizing Value 90% Calcium Carbonate Equivalence (CCE) Derived from dolomitic limestone F525In Florida, this product requires 2000 pounds to be equal to one ton of standard liming material. That is a fair amount of calcium oxide (quick lime) and magnesium oxide. Both are extremely caustic, meaning among other things, they destroy living tissue. I know from personal experience that quick or "hot" lime will burn the heck out of your skin. I think the oxide content of the Pennington fast acting lime might help explain some of the difference in lime amount recommendations (from 6 up to 100lbs) and why the manufacture of this product advises 6-10lbs. Makes me question what the other fast acting (or other) lime products contain when the say "derived from limestone." Just another brick for the wall even if it doesn't clear things up. Update: http://www.espoma.com/wp-content/uploads/2015/03/LightningLimeFactSheet1.pdf http://encap.net/lawn-mineral-nutrients/fast-acting-lime/#tab-id-3 http://www.solu-cal.com/media/pdf/msds-sheets/11010%20Solu-Cal%20Calcitic%20Lime%20SDS%202015.pdf http://www.acgmaterials.com/wp/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/Product-Data-Sheet-MINI-PRILLED-LIMESTONE-112116.pdf http://www.jonathangreen.com/wp-content/uploads/2014/09/magicallabel.pdf http://mda.maryland.gov/plants-pests/Documents/limestones.pdf