Newbie in Houston - St. Augustine questions

16 years ago

Hi everyone,

I bought a house in the Heights area of Houston (Zone 9ish) a little over a year ago. The grass was in terrible shape, and as this is my first house, I didn't know what to do. After doing a little research, I decided to spend my limited garden budget on having the lawn professionally aerated (there was tons of thatch), and then I kept a good mowing schedule (high, every 5-7 days). The grass appeared to improve and the St. Augustine appeared to crowd out a few of the weeds.

This is my second year, and I'd like to do a little more. My husband and I are expecting a baby this summer, so we would very much like to garden organically...but are on an extremely limited budget. I've read so much here about different things to do, but I am thoroughly confused.

I would appreciate advice on any things you might recommend to someone who is just starting out an organic lawncare regimen. I know the non-organic calendars say to apply pre-emergent weed killers around now, and then to fertilize after the first mowing in march/april. What main things should we be doing? Are there any organic weedkillers we should apply? Our lawn is fairly large, so purchasing high quality compost seems to be a pretty big expense.

Thanks so much!!

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Comments (4)

lou_spicewood_tx
16 years ago
Large lawn in the Heights? Wow. That's something I don't see after growing up there through high school by 290 and 610.

I suppose that Scott's Organic fertilizer from Lowe's or Home Depot would be sufficient at a minimum. Who cares about the weeds? Just mow high (3-4 inches) and you will be fine. That's what we do at my mom's house few miles from you and it's the greenest lawn on the block during the winter and it's hardly ever watered during the summer.

What kind of garden? Mulching is the best way to conserve the water and improve the soil dramatically. Look for tree trimmers around Houston and ask if they would dump a load of wood chips. That saves you a few hundreds of dollars.

I don't really know where in houston to get compost for free. As far as I'm concerned LETCO (Living Earth Technology) has the best compost in Houston for bulk. It does help a lot. One cubic yard per 1000 sqft is all you need. It's the delivery fee and fuel surcharge that suck so if you have a truck or a trailer with sidewalls, it's great. Fortunately, it's only one time application. All you have to do is feed the lawn with organic fertilizer every 3 months. Nothing to it. There is two organic places in Houston... Wabash feed store off Washington nearby Memorial Park and Southwest Fertilizer off Chimney Rock (i think) outside 610 loop not too far from the Galleria. My preference is soybean meal but I don't know how much they cost there. I think I saw it at Southwest fertilizer but that's over a year ago.
dchall_san_antonio
16 years ago
2. Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an hour in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds.
1. Mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. Bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses are the most dense when mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. Dense grass shades out weeds and uses less water when tall. Dense grass feeds the deep roots you're developing in 1 above.
1. Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 4 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above.
Check out the organic lawn care FAQ over on the Organic Gardening forum and see if that helps.
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Everything it takes? COOOOOL! Find a local feed store that sells rabbit food (yes, I'm serious). It comes in 50-pound bags for about $10-$12. The application rate is 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. If you accidentally dump 80 pounds per 1,000 square feet that won't be a problem, but try to keep it down to normal levels. After you apply, you have to moisten the pellets or they will be easy pickins for birds and bunnies. Once they get dampened they swell and burst into shreds. Why rabbit food? Rabbit food is made of alfalfa. Alfalfa is a key ingredient in many organic fertilizers. I'm just trying to save you 5/6 of the cost of commercially bagged organic fertilizer. Why organic? Because you CANNOT burn the grass with organic fertilizer. You need some confidence building right now and this is the way to do it. Organic fertilizer does not set up a situation that can burn the plants like chemical fertilizer does. Even if you apply on the hottest day of the year. One thing you will notice is that organic fertilizer does not produce an immediate greening effect. After 3 weeks you will notice though. You will say, WOW! Who knew rabbit food was fertilizer??? So is dog and cat food but those are more expensive. When do you apply? With organic you can apply as much as you want as often as you want. I fertilize my lawn starting on Washington's Birthday and again on Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. Those dates are easy to remember. STOP WATERING SO FREQUENTLY. In the hottest part of summer you should only be watering once a week. This time of year you should be able to go to twice a month on your way to monthly. Your browning is more likely due to fungal disease from too frequent watering than from other causes.
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Good point about the shade. Can you post a mid day picture taken from, say, across the street, showing how much shade you get? Generally St Augustine will spread about 2 inches per week when the temps are in the 70s if everything is going well. You applied a chemical fertilizer waaaaaay too early even for the Woodlands. I just read Randy Lemmon's website recommendations. At first it sounded fine, but he gets into preventive treatments for disease, which I STRONGLY disagree with. Your soil requires a healthy population of beneficial fungi to be healthy. Treating it for no reason kills off the beneficial fungi and destroys the soil biology. Then looking at the rest of his suggestions it appears he's selling fertilizers just like Trugreen is. He's just not applying it for you. And he's selling far too much. Growing great St Augustine is really easy. Water deeply (1 inch all at one time) but infrequently, mulch mow at the mower's highest setting every 1-2-3 weeks (depending on how fast it's growing, fertilize once in early May (for the Woodlands) and again on Labor Day and Thanksgiving. You do not need to core aerate. As you pointed out it's hard work. You can do a much better job by spraying the lawn with shampoo at a rate of 3 ounces per 1,000 square feet followed by deep watering. Then 3 weeks later you can reapply if you think the soil has not become soft enough. I sprayed mine in 2012 and after a rain like today it's almost too soft to walk on without turning your ankle. If you want to get rid of weeds, wait until April and spot spray the weeds with an atrazine product. Be careful to read the directions 2 times. You should only spray atrazine once a year so make it count. It will kill just about everything except the St Augustine in 3 weeks. The odd thing about spraying it is you have to walk backwards so you don't walk through the stuff you sprayed. Atrazine is not a friendly chemical, hence these warnings. After a decade or so of doing these lawn care forums I'm willing to go out on a limb and proclaim that most people do not water properly. I mentioned deep and infrequent. Deep is 1 inch all at once. Infrequent depends on the temperature. With temps in the 90s you only need to water once a week. Yes, even in the Woodlands. And yes, even in Phoenix. With temps in the 80s deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70 you can water once a month. This is probably the most important part of lawn care. Once you get the water controlled, then the mowing and chemicals (or organics) will work better for you. I have become full organic and have seen some benefits. If you want to continue with full chemical fertilizers, I would suggest at least once a year you apply an organic fertilizer like corn meal or alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). These materials feed the microbes living in the soil and make everything work better. These are quite often all it takes to make poor soil healthy again.
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Kimmsr
13 years ago
The above post is SPAM.
Spraying, or applying, any kind of "fertilizer" on any plant that is growing in a soil with inadequate levels of organic matter is a waste of your time, energy, and money since without adequate levels of organic matter any nutrients in those "fertilizers" will not stay very long unless there is something to hold them (sandy soils) or will be tied up by the soil (clay) and will not be available to the plants.
ltruett
13 years ago
Berry,

There is a feed store near you on Main Street that you can get feed from for fertilizer. Soybean meal or cottonseed meal are probably the highest in N (protein) though you can also use alfalfa pellets and cornmeal too.

Here is a link that might be useful: feed store

Newbie in Houston - St. Augustine questions

Comments (4)

lou_spicewood_tx

dchall_san_antonio

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ltruett

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