The percolation test is quite simple -- Dig a hole about 1 foot deep. Pour it full of water and wait... Observe whether it soaks in... Then, once it has soaked in -- fill it up full of water again and let it soak in again.. If it all soaks in within a few minutes -- you may be draining too fast and the grass dries out too fast... If it doesn't drain within a day... you have other problems.... Sometimes clay soils will soak in great on the 1st round, then will become impermeable after the 2nd or 3rd round -- as the clay saturates... It can also help point out problems in the subsoil like pure coarse sand, big rocks and hard-pans... (Gosh, my lawn drains fine here, but doesn't drain at all over there... I wonder why?) The 2nd test is outlined on here somewhere -- but it is to determine your soil makeup.. You take a mason jar about 1/3 full of dirt (No rocks and sticks).. Fill it mostly full of water.. Shake it up really good and let it sit overnight... Then shake it up really good again and let it sit again... It will separate out into various layers.. Sand and rocks on the bottom, silt in the middle, clay near the top, and light organic material on the top or floating... You then measure the layers with a tape measure and it tells you the soil makeup... These tests will help lead you in the direction of which amendments will help vs which ones will hurt... If your soil is all sand and already drains too fast.. Adding more sand won't help anything... but adding a little Clay would help quite a bit... and vice versa. Thanks John

Thanks, TW! I am about 30 miles south of Nashville. All the yards here are Fescue and they all suffer major die off every summer and require major renovations every fall. On the high input schedule for the common, I have been very pleased how it has responded to the lower cutting heights. It did not look the best at 9/16"; a little too brown. But, it did get thicker while I cut it that low, to be sure. I'm thinking for these earlier generation improved commons like Transcontinental or Mohawk, just under an inch is probably about right. I think the internode length is a little too long to mow it at hybrid heights.

I would maybe do a soil sample in front and back to see if there is something different. Maybe lime the front? Or maybe the drainage is front to back so the front dries out and the back doesn't? We have that issue in our yard and during the drought the front looked like heck while the back was ok. IMO Bermuda is hard to keep weed free without a service. We tried it and it was a disaster. We wound up using more chemicals than the pros used. Now we have the service and it's a lot better.

We're practically neighbors, rurally speaking. I'm in Bandera with a daughter in school in San Marcos. Even when I was in George West and had a sprinkler system built in, it could not be programmed to water every other week, so I never used it. I used oscillator sprinklers on 7 hoses running at once to cover 20,000 square feet. In my water system in Bandera we have pretty harsh water restrictions - Tuesday morning and evening for a total of 4 hours. So far that's working very well with temps in the high 90s and humidity between 50 and 65%. The St Augustine will dominate the back yard once you start watering it. If you want the bermuda to look nice, you'll have to water it, too. Bermuda needs frequent fertilizer and low mowing. St Aug needs infrequent fertilizer and high mowing. Opposites. As long as you're taking care of the front as St Aug, you may as well set everything up for the same settings and schedule. Water according to the schedule below. Set the mower to the highest setting and weld it in place. There is never any reason to lower the mower height for St Aug. Mow every week or 2 or 3. If it gets too high, take it down first with a string trimmer. Then a day later you can mow it down. Fertilize first on Memorial Day, then Labor Day, and again about Thanksgiving. If you want to use organic fertilizer, you can fertilize again on Washington's Birthday and 4th of July. If you do all this, the St Aug will spread about 15 feet per year and smother all the grass in the way. It will not smother any horse herb, dichondra, clover, oxalis, or other broadleaf plants. For those you would have to use an atrazine product to kill them out. Spray that in mid April, and if you really need to, September. Atrazine kills everything but the St Aug. 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.