Can you get your hands on rabbit manure? It works wonders for me. It does not burn (so you can use it fresh). Be careful though, too much and you will have lush leafy plants and not a lot of fruit/veggies. Also, put it where it won't splash on anything you will eat. I also use Tomatotone and Vegetabletone if I think of it. I have to admit I do not fertilize religiously. I think more in terms of building my soil. I try to add compost and manure regularly. I will throw in some organic fertilizer around planting time and some fish emulsion on occasion during the growing season. Seems to work for me. Also, you might want to think about getting a soil test to see what your soil needs. Here is a link that might be useful: Adventures in Agriburbia

I have Zoysia and live in Coastal NC. I have had better results by replacing areas in the heat of the summer. My backyard is the neighborhood baseball field, and I only ask my son and his friends to change the areas for the bases occassionally, then I prepare the area and place sod and it takes off. It used to bother me, but they are only young for a few years. Zoyzia seems to thrive in this heat. I would do it now and keep the new sod well watered.

I planted some seeds about a month ago and they are about 6 inches tall. I planted in a flat w. about 4 inches of soil.I planted as soon as I gathered the seed, kept moist and they came up in less than a week

The main challenges presenting themselves when planting on sale woody stock from a retail garden center in August are the plants being starved and therefore not able to establish readily, if at all - and keeping the new plant moist, both before and after planting. In my experience here growers almost invariably send root-bound specimens that need to be bare-rooted and have deformed roots cut or spread out at planting - you do not want to plant a tree or shrub with intact root-balls even if you really think the roots are not circling etc. anyway. Unless the soil on the final planting site happens to be just like the soil inside the root-ball. Mauling the roots, of course, temporarily reduces the specimen's ability to keep the leaves hydrated. I do not completely bare-root heath family shrubs as their very dense wads of hair-like roots are very difficult to get clean. Something bought this late it might be just as well to keep in the pot, in the shade near a water source, and fertilize it if it appears necessary - plants can be quite green and still have a severe nutrient deficiency that can impair their ability to root into a new site readily - until it starts to cool off later, plant it at that time. Ideally a new tree or shrub gets back in the ground before that particular kind has its annual burst of root elongation in fall. Of course, if many of its roots have had to be cut or are otherwise not intact it will not accomplish the same extent of rooting into the new site as it would if they were. New roots from cut root ends are not expected to appear until spring, when hormones generated by opening winter stem buds cause the roots to grow. The fall root elongation is prompted by the maturing of these same buds. Physiological fall is whenever that particular shrub or tree stops making new shoot growth and sets these buds. In a dry summer climate such as mine moisture preferring kinds like the native vine maple could be in their autumnal state and expanding their root systems right now. For specimens in such a state the ideal fall planting time has already come and gone. The nutrient deficiency issue with plants that have been at retail outlets for much time is due to the fact that many vendors water stock fairly diligently but do not fertilize. Container grown plants potted into soil-less media and not provided with long-lasting pelleted fertilizer soon become quite deficient. Some crops may be grown at wholesale production facilities with both dry and liquid fertilizer being applied, during the same periods. One retail outlet here that had a worker putting on liquid fertilizer multiple times during my visits seems not to be doing it this time- I have not seen him out there with the injector even once. And it shows. I would not waste time and money on most of the woody stock they have left now no matter how cheap it might get during any upcoming price reduction events. The exception is any recently delivered plants that were kinds I wanted.