Paging Auteck, paging Mr. Auteck - your cat5 cable is ringing!

March (or whenever the forsythia are in full bloom) - preemergent crab grass and weed preventer ONLY. No fertilizer.
April - do nothing
May - fertilize with balanced fert
June - water once a week and be sure the mower is at the highest setting
July - continue
Aug - continue
Sept - balanced fert again. Overseed if you need it (you probably will)
Oct - Nothing
Nov - fert heavy on nitrogen.

Most of your fertilizer should go down in the fall. Doing it in March will give you scads of grass that needs to be mowed down. It stresses the plant and is generally not needed. After the grass finishes the spring flush and gets back to normal (May), then you can fertilize normally.

If you are watering weekly and mowing high, you should not have weed problems.

dchall_san_antonio You say that in sept you should put down a fertilizer...any brand you can tell me to get?? And what is overseeding?? Currently my grass looks terrible in the back. It is bare, a big mud pit in a lot of places and full of weeds. Starting this week I have decided I am transforming my yard into something I can be proud of and I am LOST!!!

The brand of fertilizer doesn't matter. Look at the NPK numbers and use the one best suited to your needs.

Overseeding is spreading seeds on an existing lawn.

Reseeding (or renovating) involves killing the existing lawn and starting from scratch.

Ok how do I know what NKP I should be using?? I am sorry if I sound like a complete idiot I just don't really know anything about my lawn other than I have st Augustine grass with tons of bare spots and weeds

"Ok how do I know what NKP I should be using?"

Without a soil test, you don't know for sure. I think there are some general rule of thumb numbers, but those can vary greatly for different areas and you don't know what the prior owner used.

Where I live, there's no need for P or K, so the best choices are things like 21-0-0 or 39-0-0.

Take a soil sample to your local extension office and they will test it (for a fee) and tell you what type of fertilizer you need. Usually they will have instructions on taking the sample on their website, if not, call them. Also if you have a Ag/State University nearby they usually are a great source of information as well. Below is a link to NC State's site.

Here is a link that might be useful: NC State Turfgrass Website

When do you suggest aerorating? I would assume at the time of overseeding. When I had a local lawn care service here he suggested two applications of weedkiller, and you suggest only one? Was this simply because he was trying to sell more service, or is there rational to it?

There may be a method in his madness. Some people kill the lawn, then water it for a week or two so that any weed seeds will germinate, then they kill it again.

How should I go about watering after overseeding? still once a week.

"How should I go about watering after overseeding? still once a week."

Garycinchicago usually posts this:

water 15-20 minutes twice a day for two weeks
water 20-30 minutes once a day for one week
water 30-45 minutes once a day every other day for one week
water 30-45 minutes once a day twice a week for one week
move into deep irrigation, increasing the time to provide 1 inch of water all over and decreasing the frequency to just once a week. If you have to move the sprinklers at any point, the new location also receives 1 inch.

Scotty, North Carolina has 4 different climatic zones, what thries in Wilmington might not in Boone and vice versa, where are you located?

Located in Raleigh,

about the watering after overseeding - due to the size of my yard/time contraints watering the entire yard like that is impossible, but I may be able to break it up into sections (ie overseed over a 6 week period to make sure I get it properly watered).

Is there anytime better than than another to apply lime? My soil samples indicate I need to apply.

Okay I have to sort out who's asking what. We got two conversations going here. I think almost everyone is replying to scotttyd in North Carolina. Then novicegardener2008 jumped in with a new but related question that then jumped the shark. The following is for novicegardener2008:

Since you have St Augustine in Houston, this thread really doesn't apply to you. The customary thing to do is to not 'hijack' the thread with your own question but rather to start your own new thread about your own situation. Why? Because the people reading this one are attracted by the title and decide whether they are interested in the issue by reading the OP (original poster)'s question. Nobody will come here looking to reply to a question about St Augustine in Houston. However, I am here and I will reply. If you want more replies/opinions, then start a new thread (bottom of the forum page). Your St Aug is either suffering from a fungal disease or simple drought. If you have not been getting or adding 1 full inch of water per week this summer, your lawn will die. You can recover by starting now with the water. Water once for an hour and see how long the grass goes before looking wilty. If it did not go a full week, then water longer next time. St Augustine will spread and refill the thin or bare areas.

Also be sure you set your mower's deck height to the highest position and WELD it in place so it never changes. There is never any reason to lower the deck height for St Aug. It thrives MUCH better at the highest setting.

I don't pay any attention to NPK. Never did. Now that I am on an organic plan NPK doesn't even have any meaning. You can fertilize with whatever Scott's is selling locally. Scott's owns all the big brands (Vigoro and Miracle Grow) so just get something. Or you can look at the Organic Lawn Care FAQ in the Organic Gardening forum on GardenWeb to learn about an inexpensive (and low hassle) way to care for your lawn.

Start a new thread if you want to talk about it more. Be sure to put "St Augustine" somewhere in the subject. Maybe "Fertilizing St Augustine" would be a good subject.

You can apply Lime any time of the year, but the best time is in the fall after aerating. The reason for this is that Lime moves VERY slowy thru the soil, but when you aerate, the pellets can easely fall in cores. What you are looking for is to increase your Soil Buffer PH to about 6.5 or so. It doens't have to be perfect, and you don't want to apply all the Lime at once. Apply no more than 40 lbs per 1,000 sf of grass per year to be on the safe side.

In the Raleigh area, the recommended grass is a combination of Turf Type Tall Fescue and Kentucky Bluegrass. You can buy them at your local box store like Lowe's or HD, or even ACE, or you can also buy them directly from a Lesco/John Deere store in you area.

The receommended fertilization rate is 3 to 4 lbs of actual nitrogen per 1,000 sf per YEAR.

You can do the following:

Late summer: Starter Fertilizer (usually Sept. 1st or Labor Day weekend)

Halloween will be the second application. You can use any fertilizer you want except Starter and Organics.

March, 5-10-17 with Ronstar pre-emergent. You don't want to overfertilized your lawn in the Spring or you will pay dearly in the summer months with drought and disease.

In May you can go Organic or nothing.

June, July, and August is summer in full swing with the ocational heat wave. water your lawn every 3 days to half inch, but ONLY in the AM hours. Do NOT water at night.

The inch of water per week does not work well during the summer in full sun settings, you need to split that i half and possibly add another half inch.

Do not apply any weed control during the summer months, leave those for early Spring when cool season grasses are thriving.

My recommendations to you is to go with a mixture and blend of Tall Fescue/Bluegrass in full sun to part shade, Fine Fescue/Tall Fescue in medium shade, and Fine Fescue in deep shade.

The new Hybrid Bluegrass do very well around here, there are set to displace Tall Fescue in the Transition zone.

You can purchase a blend of Hybrid Bluegrasses from Family Home and Garden in Raleigh or the Apex store, or you can order them directly from www.newsomeseed.com

I hope this helps.

Auteck