Help!!!! Husband killed my Lawn!!!!!!

15 years ago

My husband put down some Weed and Feed for St. Augustine on Saturday evening. He did not follow the directions so now my once beautiful backyard has burned brown patches. He applied some of the stuff by hand instead of with the spreader because he did not want to take the proper time to apply with the spreader. I looked at one of the patches and I could still see caked granuals of this stuff.

What do I do now? Am I going to have to put some seed down? I also have a 2 year old that I am afraid to have run around outside now.

Please any advise will be helpful

Dorothy

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Comments (12)

lou_spicewood_tx
15 years ago
St augustine does not come with seeds...

I don't know what else to say...

Do not use weed and feed fertilizer. It's about the worst kind of fertilizer you can use. Contains far too much poison to kill a few weeds. I have 3 years old daughter and a dog and there is no way they are going to play in the grass with that stuff there. My st augustine lawn is purely maintained organically. No chemicals of any kinds. Just organic fertilizer every few months. They seem to do best on organic program instead of synthetic program.

At this time... just wait for whatever is left to recover and let it grow back in by watering and mowing high (3-4 inches).
paulinct
15 years ago
If you are seeing "caked granules" of Weed and Feed you need to water heavily to wash that stuff down, asap. Then see what your grass looks like, and we can help you from there.

By watering heavily I mean hours of watering, preferably starting in the morning. If you have some old tuna cans or anything similar (relatively shallow straight-sided containers), spread them out on the lawn and water until the level reaches one inch. Then do the same the next morning. If you don't have containers like that, or an irrigation system, water 3 hours at a time for two days straight everywhere just to try to dilute that stuff as best you can.

Either way you will wash out a lot of the excess fertilizer, then in the future just water in a way that will provide your grass with 1 inch of water every week, taking rainfall into account of course, and, also of course, only apply fertilizers and pesticides in the amounts recommended on the bag.

Good luck!
Paul
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Do you even have summer? Don't y'all head for Aberdeen when you get 3 days in a row above 20 C (in the 70s)? For summer feeding it is better to use an organic fertilizer. I like alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow) at a rate of 10 kilos per 100 square meters. I get alfalfa at feed stores. Here are the feed stores near you. I use alfalfa because it is inexpensive in my neighborhood. You can use any ground up nut, bean, seed, or grain. I'm not sure what you can get in your area, but I'm pretty sure people raise rabbits everywhere. A side benefit of the organic will be that you should never see a dog spot again. That is a dog spot. It might not be from the fortnightly dog, but that's like a poster child image of a dog spot. Classic! On a more immediate basis, what I do is scatter a heaping handful of sugar on the spot. The sugar kick starts the soil microbes into the re-population mode. They will quickly grow in numbers to a point where they can deal with the sudden appearance of urine in the soil. In about a fortnight and a half you'll see that spot growing much faster and greener than the rest of the lawn. I think you're the first person on this forum who has admitted to properly fertilizing with a liquid fertilizer. If you are going to use liquid, it has to be done every half-fortnight. In our American heat we can't do that in the summer, so granular is the way to go. That way we can apply about 3 times per year and not deal with liquids every half fortnight. And yes, I'm trying to figure out every way I can to use fortnight instead of Imperial time units. ;-)
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Yes you are screwed. So far you're not doing much right. But at least you have your lawn pre-killed for a full renovation. Next time us Round up and you can seed it in faster. For now try watering the lawn daily, 3x per day, for about 5 minutes each time. This process will sprout all the weed seeds that are not dead. Do that for at least 2 weeks and then spray Round Up on all the green stuff. Let that work a couple days, scalp off all the dead stuff, and seed right on top of the new soil. Don't rototill. Then roll the new seed down into the surface and start that same watering regimen to sprout your grass seed. Crabgrass seed only sprouts in the spring, so you don't have to worry about that. There are some spring weeds that sprout and immediately become dormant in the fall, but don't worry about those for now. For now worry about getting new grass growing.
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rcnaylor
15 years ago
Well Dorothy, every lawn whacko here can appreciate the feeling of a spouse killing a beautiful yard accidentally or otherwise. Some spousal sins are just too horrendous to comtemplate. Adultery and "little" stuff like that, we might be able to forgive... but, killing a yard?!

About all I could suggest is post your picture here and we'll see if we can line you up with a guy that knows how to treat a yard for after the divorce.
rdaystrom
15 years ago
Blast the caked up areas with a hose end nozzle and just flood the area with water to dilute the excess fertilizer and herbicide. Your husband was just trying to help and got overzealous. No big deal. It's important to read the labels and apply as directed. The grass will grow back.
dobra1629
Original Author
15 years ago
Thanks for all the suggestions. I am watering heavily now. I won't divorce him for this but I don't understand why he went willy nilly when he knows how much money and back backing work went into our 7500 square feet of sod that we had to put down ourselves and did I mention that this is my 2 year old son's playground.
rcnaylor
15 years ago
Well, if divorce is out of the question... you could hope for a judge that is a lawn whacko at heart at the sentencing phase. ha ha.

PS If you show him this thread about how serious some of us take our yards he'll keep that in mind for "next time."
whip1 Zone 5 NE Ohio
15 years ago
Where is all of the fertiliser/herbicide going? Into the Gulf? Into your well water?
Billl
15 years ago
Once you put out too much fertilizer, there is going to be major runoff. It is either going to happen by you watering it a lot or by the next big rainstorm. Doing it yourself just gives the lawn a much better chance of surviving.

On the plus side, st aug is an aggressively spreading grass. If you can stop the damage before it gets too bad, it will regrow and spread into any dead spots.

If your soil is naturally acidic, now would be great time to add some fast acting lime. A strong base + water soluble nitrogen + water produces ammonia gas.
skoot_cat
15 years ago
Water is going to do nothing in your situation, more than likely its going to make it worse. In my honest opinion your SOL.

The only weed-n-feed that I'm aware of for St.Augustine contains Atrazine as a pre and post emergent. Atrazine is very nasty stuff, even when applied correctly. It remains in the soil for a long time. Im sorry to say if you were concerned for your child, why would you even consider putting this stuff down, according to directions or not. The label clearly states warnings, application rates, etc.

The only advise I can give is remove any areas where the clumps are visible. Be sure to wear heavy duty gloves or use a shovel and dispose of properly. Do not throw this stuff away in you county garbage.
joepyeweed
15 years ago
I would probably try to sweep up the clumps and get them into the garbage, or rent a lawn vac, rather than washing them away.
rdaystrom
15 years ago
lou_midlothian_tx , Your yard looks nice. Did you establish it 3 years ago from solid sod or sprig it? How much soil prep was done? I have trouble believing that a St. Augustine yard can be maintained long term only with your "organic" fertilizer. A three year old sodded yard can be nice on almost nothing. When I say long term I mean let's see the yard after 10 to 25 years. I'd be willing to wager that it would be 25% St.Augustine and 75% other grass and weeds of many varieties. I'd also like to see a St. Augustine yard that was started from sprigs among all the other weeds and grasses with nothing but your "organic program". Where I come from it's virtually impossible to compete with weeds and other grasses without using some herbicides. Even with these herbicides the weeds sometimes get ahead of the curve. I'm no knocking what you say. I just disagree that it's so clear cut as what you imply about organics. I had a St. Augustine yard for 40 years. At times it looked as good as your picture but at other times weeds seemed to come from Mars and invade with a vengance.
giventake
15 years ago
Lou nice looking sod, Keep doing what your doing, it will be fine. I do have one small patch of lawn thats 25 years old and looks that good, and thats with 1/2" water a week and no feed of any kind.

Help!!!! Husband killed my Lawn!!!!!!

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lou_spicewood_tx

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Help!!!! Husband killed my Lawn!!!!!!

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