A lot of people are dropping their professional lawn care this year. You sound a little 'type A' in your approach to doing it yourself. Lawn care is very easy if you get the basics of watering and mowing established. More on that later... I use organic fertilizer but don't let that stop you from reading. My schedule is what is important. I start on Washington's Birthday, then hit it again on Memorial Day, 4th of July (not for chemical ferts, though), Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. By keeping to the federal holidays, my schedule is very easy to remember. What insects do you have problems with? I haven't done anything extraordinary for insects since about 10 years ago. Then again with an organic program I have a lot of birds, toads, lizards and geckos in the yard to eat insects. Here's a general schedule that should help you. Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an hour in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. Mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. Bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses are the most dense when mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. Dense grass shades out weeds and uses less water when tall. Dense grass feeds the deep roots you're developing in 1 above. Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above.

sooo...what did you come up with and how is it working so far ? I have a Centipede & Bermuda backyard and in the front SA and Bermuda. I favor LaPrima XD Bermuda..they seem to work well together. The bermuda fills in the other grass and has a dense undercoat of the primary grass(SA or cent.)

I used to live off of Aviation Blvd in Hawthorne. Wish I knew then what I know now. I would have bought every house on the block. My fertilizer recommendation would be ordinary corn meal bought at a feed store, but I realize you are more synthetic oriented. If you were thinking of a chemical fertilizer, I can't help you with names. You can probably use anything that does not say "Weed and feed" but does say "Safe for St Augustine." Weed and feed is a general no-no around here (you didn't ask so I won't get into it). Just buy a St Aug-safe granular fertilizer and you should be okay. If you are interested in an easy, effective, and inexpensive organic program, go to the Organic Gardening forum, find the FAQ, and look for the one on Organic Lawn Care. If you keep the turf irrigated (no more than once a week, but deeply each time) and mowed at your mower's highest setting, your St Augustine will crowd out almost all the grasses and weeds. It will have trouble with clovers, dichondra, dollar weed, oxalis, and some other broadleafed weeds. Those will have to be spot sprayed or hand pulled as soon as you see them. If you pick a spray, be sure it is safe for St Aug. St Augustine should grow and fill a 10 food diameter area each season. A few strategically placed flats of sod should cover a lawn in one season. Most growth is in the spring where it gets summer heat, but 3 miles from the Pacific is pretty mild. You may get growth all summer.

Exactly right. You can encourage St Aug to take over by mowing at the highest setting and skipping a week or two now and then. Water deeply every week in the summer. It will spread best when the temps are in the 70s and low 80s. It should creep 10 to 15 feet per year. Here are my most recent example pictures. This picture shows almost no St Augustine. Most of the turf is bermuda, prairie, crabgrass, and some horse herb. If you look carefully the St Aug is between the pot and the concrete. There is also some underneath the faucet. That was summer of 2014. This is the same area with the pic taken last week. Everything that is lime green is St Aug (no fertilizer yet this year). The gray-green is prairie grasses. Knowing that I wanted to keep the St Aug I only watered the small areas where it was and let the other grasses suffer. When I saw a St Aug stolon creeping out into the other grasses, I watered that runner. If you have common bermuda, I would let the St Aug take over. If you have hybrid bermuda, then you have a decision to make. If you want to keep the bermuda, mow it low 2x per week and stop watering. After a month with no water, the St Aug will begin to die out. As long as it has a golden cast to it, it is still viable, so be sure it is dead before you resume watering. The dormant bermuda will come back fine and fill in where the St Aug was.