Thanks so much! So should I leave the first one alone or pull it? I have plenty of asters and don't really need one there, although it sure doesn't look like any of the ones I have. Then again, as you said, if there are thousands of species... I just know I did not plant it. I guess if I pull on it and it comes out easily, it was a plant and not a weed. :) And I was hoping the second was a Lychnis, although now I have to move it, lol.

That sort of looks like it. The flowers look right, just not the form. The seed pods look right. Thanks, I will try it out.

If this plant has purple flowers earlier in the day, it's probably a mexican petunia. It is a beautiful plant that grows quickly, but......it's best to put it in a container or a place where you only want that plant. They have underground roots that go everywhere. Cuttings root very quickly in water.

Where do you live? What I would do would be to nurture the St Aug until it took over everything. In fact I'm doing that now. Clearly that is not your plan, so with that in mind, and after ruling out sod, I would seed with rye right now (since you missed doing it 3 months ago). The rye will put roots in the ground to stop erosion and will grow up fairly tall to provide shade to the soil. Those roots in the ground are going to be the organic material the soil needs. Then in June get a mix of three types of bermuda seed (Sahara, Princess, and Yukon) for the final lawn. Get 1/3 each of what you would need to cover the entire area and mix them together before seeding. The rye should have died off by then. June is a good time to seed bermuda if you live north of Florida, If you want to do a full renovation that would involve watering daily for a week to sprout all the weed seeds, spraying with Round Up, watering again for another week, spraying again with Round Up, leveling the surface to perfection, and then seeding right into the sandy soil. Roll the seed down with a roller and continue with the daily watering until you get 80% germination of the seed. Notice there is no rototilling involved. Rototilling will lead to a bumpy surface, although with sand it is much less of an issue. Always mow bermuda at the mower's lowest setting to get the most dense and walkable surface. For very best results fertilize it every month during the growing season, even in the summer. It loves the heat and fertilizer. To get the best seed buy online form either Hancock Seed or Bermudaseed.com