What is your watering routine? How often and how long? Are you sure the dead vegetation is dead and not dormant? The best way to rehab your soil is to get full control of watering and to use organic fertilizer. The reason soil goes bad is the microbes in the soil are not getting fed. Organic fertilizer feeds them. Compost does not feed them. It is not detrimental, but it is nowhere near as good for the microbes as organic fertilizer. As grass said, seeding is best done in the fall. I'd like to turn that thought around - seeding in the spring is a horrible idea. Spring seeded lawns are almost universally disappointing for the owner. The newly seeded turf grass does not have strong enough roots to make it through the summer heat, but the crabgrass seed that came up at the same time as your turf grass is evolved to survive the heat.

I have a sloped back yard around my pool, which is much more steep than your slope in the pictures, covered in St. Augustine. I too detest lawns, but I have no money right now, so my St. Augustine is here to stay. I water my St. Augustine with an irrigation system on my allotted days and once yearly treat with weed/feed. Yes, my St. Aug is great on bare feet and very healthy looking. I have no problems with maintaining it on the slope. I'm not bragging, I'm just trying to explain that I have personal experience with this situation. I think your first problem is with the underlying sand. My underlying soil is a thick layer of decayed organic material, on top of a thin layer of sand, on top of a thick layer of loose clay. It's clear from your photos that the mower tires are disturbing the St. Aug's growth. That is very easy to do regardless of the underlying soil, but especially easy in sand such as you have. I think your second problem is with your lawn guy. Seriously. And, I mean absolutely no offense. Your lawn is covered in weeds. It didn't happen overnight, although sometimes it might seem that way. Your lawn guy should know (1) how to mow on a slope without destroying the roots, (2) how to point out a weed problem before it becomes a massive weed problem like you have. How convenient for him that you need sod replacement?!?! Isn't his job routine lawn care, not routine lawn destroying and replacement? That being said, I have a cheap temporary solution for you. I see in the first picture, to the left of the hose/brick path, you have a bush/tree surrounded by a small circle of mulch. And, in the second picture, you have another tree just down slope from the pool, surrounded by another small circle of mulch. I would take a sharp straight-edged shovel and cut away shovel sized squares of sod in a circular pattern around those trees. Making much, much larger circles around the trees. Take a section of the sandy/weedy area, cover thickly in newspaper, wet newspaper, then lay your homemade sod squares on top of the wet paper. Water daily until they take root and can survive on their own. Go back and extend the mulched area around the two trees, so your weed problem doesn't extend under the trees. This should really be done in stages, because the sod squares that you cut out and move need to be kept wet during the moving process. I say my solution is cheap, because you can buy mulch for $1.68 at the big box stores these days, and you would probably need 10 bags. Less than $20. Of course you will have a little extra water expense from having to water daily to establish the newly sodded sections. It is a little bit back breaking, but I'm sure you can either do it or find someone to help. I say my solution is temporary because, ideally, you could eventually plant some sort of hearty, Florida friendly ground cover over that entire area. In the long run it will not require as much water or care as St. Augustine, and you can get rid of the expensive lawn guy! Things to remember: Don't put any weed and feed down on the newly sodded sections either immediately before or after laying the sod. Don't forget to water daily until the new sections have taken hold. Especially during this, our driest time of year. If you choose to use RoundUp on the weedy areas before moving the grass squares, don't lay the grass squares directly on the area treated with RoundUp unless you put in a layer of newspaper or cardboard first. If you can get your hands on some liriope, you could make a border along the brick walk (at the top of the slope), to help hold it all together. Their roots tend to spread out rather than down, so it will keep slope erosion in better check. Lastly, don't let that man with the mower anywhere near the new section. Weed-whacker only until it's established. You probably won't need to mow this area for the next 6 weeks anyway. Maybe someone else will have a better/easier solution, but this is what I did and it works. I certainly welcome any criticism or comments on my suggestion.

Hi Trey, appreciate the early reply here - maybe something in my question was phrased obliquely, but I think we crossed signals about what I was trying to verify. Let me re-ask it, kind of linearly: In your first answer to me, you said we should spend spring and summer getting out the rocks, then in late summer (September) get the new topsoil brought in and put down quality seed (because that's a good time of year to re-start a lawn fresh). So I'd asked if that meant that: a.) my son and I would start *now* (June) by removing all the existing grass (leaving naked dirt), then b.) would use the time between now and September digging into that dirt to sift out the rocks (these aren't necessarily large rocks, just a LOT of them, palm-sized or smaller) c.) the front yard would be essentially bare for the months of July and August, and therefore vulnerable to erosion, weed infestation, and having the clay compacted by any traffic on it (kids would not stay off the yard, that's pretty much guaranteed), so d.) if we have an open-dirt front yard in this process of taking out rocks, should something protective (pine shavings, other organic material, or a re-seed of a temporary grass) be used over the areas where the rocks are removed, but there's no new topsoil brought in yet in advance of the September seeding? That was my main point of questioning in my follow-up, was the concern for going from a front yard that has grass *now*, to leaving it stripped and open all summer, as opposed to my thought that my son and I would wait to strip the existing sod, dig out the rocks, then refill or whatever with soil and then re-seed, *in the fall*, and not actually starting with this process now, precisely because it would mean leaving the front yard barren of any grass for two months during the heat of the season. I was trying to confirm that you thought the digging-out should begin now as opposed to later on toward fall. I'm not exactly sure how long it would take to do this digging-out, but would rather start the stripping/digging stuff closer to when the new topsoil and seed would go down, unless there was an advantage to having it done by July and then letting the yard "rest" for six weeks or more as you'd seemed to propose, maybe to let the soil settle after the rocks were removed??? Did I ask this more clearly, I hope? :) Thanks! Sherry

Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. 1. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an inch in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. 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. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in El Paso your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, temperature, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. 2. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. 3. Fertilizing 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. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it (unless you use organics in which case you may overdo it without fear of hurting anything). At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide. More on Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.