Actually, I'm sorry to recommend tightening the purse strings in such an economy but you might recommend if she attend religious services or some type of social club to ask for someone in her neighborhood at those functions. They are liable to have simply applied too much weed killer in an area and killed the grass. As her friend monitor the service for her and help her make new arrangements if need be. Since I've been on disability I have a budget so tight that every time I need to buy something I think it over, over and over. And furthermore, before I moved into this house (by the way I save money compared to government HUD rent and will own this house in 15 years although most home buyers lucky for me scoffed at this house as it's not a new one and requires minor improvements) I lived in government HUD apartments and the government housing professional caretakers were frankly a negligent disaster. In fact the Somerset Housing Authority lost a 3 million dollar law suit after they had residents pleading to remove a large unstable tree but they ignored the pleas and the tree fell on an innocent pregnant woman and killed her. They actually have the nerve to appeal the decision but I expect they'll loose. In my time there I had to complain repeatedly about the neighbors dropping heavy things all day and night on my ceiling and infesting the apartment building with bed bugs! I also called the police on several occasions. I witnessed professional exterminators come in a spray a squirt or two of insecticide in the apartment knowing that was useless. I told them about trees and plants growing to the apartment gutters where the grounds maintenance was so negligent and a year later no change. I watched the meter readers fabricate false meter readings for both electricity and natural gas. I had to go to their office and challenge the false readings. I had to good to their office and file complaints against the exterminators. I had to go to their office and file complaints against the neighbors. I eliminated the bed bugs and roaches myself by cutting off the central heat and not using the gas stove for 3 months and washing everything multiple times, including the inside of the vents with Pine Sol. The roaches and bed bugs simply avoided the cold and Pine Sol and stayed in the neighbor's apartments that weren't killed by the Pine Sol and lack of food not that they need much. The above are 'services' from college educated professionals in service to the US government so help out your neighbors when you can. A university professional isn't smarter than you. They are simply educated in a niche that you aren't. And look at US government in Congress and the President and Wall Street and tell me you're going to listen to them and accept everything they say automatically? No way! They sound like the banal comments section on YouTube or 1/2 dozen other web sites. And these lawn service give people with no experience and often no real interest in horticulture jobs caring for lawns simply because they applied for work. Lots of times you don't get what you paid for.

If you are watering only once per week, then you have a shot at fixing this. The least harmful non-organic approach (after pulling the weeds) is to spot spray individual weeds with something like weed-b-gone. The idea of sprays is to moisten the leaves (ONLY) with the spray. That way you are doing the least harm to the soil and soil microbes. Crabgrass is easily killed in St Augustine. Crabgrass is very sensitive to salt and St Augustine is nearly impervious to salt. Thus you can dust baking soda onto wet crabgrass and it will die in a day or two. It turns a nice color of black almost immediately. When you wet the crabgrass, use a little detergent in the water or even molasses so the water does not simply ball up and roll off the crabgrass blades. Then dust the baking soda from a sock. That makes a very fine powder that will stick to the leaves. You might try that on the other weeds, too. I never thought of trying it on dollar weed. Two weeks after you use the baking soda, dust some compost onto the area to reinvigorate the soil fungi. Baking soda is very hard on fungi.

The weatherman is Austrian but has no other accent. My guess he is several generations here. My German grandmother always talked about downshprouts on the gutter, but she was tough on people who didn't speak english. But she wasn't on TV influencing children we are trying to teach proper english. Oh well! I'm half German and 1/2 Irish, and if you think German is hard try Gaelic. Ever try to read Baewulf? We sure are drifting aren't we! My hostas leaves aren't falling off yet. Neither are their leafs. Just covering my six! (lol) Les

See the tan colored spots with the dark brown edges? Those are fungal disease spots. That's what's taking out your grass. This should respond to ordinary corn meal if you have not already applied a fungicide. Call your local feed stores to find it in 50-pound bags. If they don't have it you'll find corn flour at any grocery store in FL and especially those that cater to the Hispanic population. If you get it at a grocery store there are different products packaged in very similar bags. You don't want the stuff that already has baking soda/power in it. Apply at the rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. Apply to the entire lawn or else you'll have green spots. Corn is a fertilizer. The reason corn meal works against fungal disease is through the decomposition process a predatory fungus takes over the final stages. Once the predator finishes with the corn meal it takes over killing the disease fungus in your yard. This is a biological process that takes about 3 weeks. You can apply in the heat of summer or whenever you feel the need. During the 3 weeks you should see new grass coming in but it might still get the spots. After 3 weeks the new grass should not get the spots. Most people in FL are watering wrong - at least the ones writing in here report that everyone waters every day. That's wrong. Here's more. 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 daytime air 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.