If you have that much shade most of the day, there are only two varieties of zoysia that might survive. At least one of those does not come in sod and it is unlikely you have the other one. If you have any control over the shade, it would help your lawn to trim the trees. Otherwise you will be limited to unconventional ground covers (not a lawn) or one of two grasses. Some of the fescues or St Augustine can enjoy limited success in shade like you have. 99% of the people who write in from LA do not live in LA. Can you please be more specific? If you do live in LA, please give the neighborhood but you likely live in a suburb. You might be able to salvage this. Start by backing off on watering. Your gardener doesn't know anything about watering grass. You will have a diseased mess on that schedule. And that might be your problem now. It sort of depends on whether you live more toward West Covina or El Segundo. In either case gradually move to once per week watering. If you live in the fog zone near the coast you might be able to back off to once every 10 days to 2 weeks. How long you water depends on your system. Turn it on and measure how many minutes it takes to fill a tuna or cat food can. Start by watering for that length of time and go to every 6 days to water. Watch the grass carefully. If it needs water before 6 days are up, water it immediately and restart the clock. The deep watering will eventually develop deep roots in your grass. Those roots will be able to capture that deep water and survive longer than a few days with the sprinkler off.

BTW, do you know if centipede will generally choke out weeds and BAHAIA grass if it's maintained? Any secrets? Proper mowing and watering practices are going to be your best defense against weeds and Bahia grass. For example: Bahia prefers to be cut high 4+" where centipede should be mowed low at 1-2". Cutting low will help your lawn become dense and spread outward, and should choke out some of the Bahia over time. MOWING: Mow at 1 to 1-1/2 inches. Mulch mow with sharp blades, and mow often enough so only 1/3 of the plant height is removed. High and infrequent mowing tends to encourage thatch development, which can lead to chlorosis, drought stress and winter injury. However, during periods of drought the mowing height should be raised about 1/2 inch. WATERING: No more than once a week, but the best way is to Let Your Lawn Tell You When it Needs Water. As the soil begins to dry out, the lawn will show a lack of available moisture by wilted leaf blades. This condition is evidenced by a lengthwise folding or rolling of the blades, caused by a loss of turgor or water pressure within the plant. Also Footprints remain visible on a drought-stressed lawn long after having been made. Unless rain is forecast in the next 24 hours, lawns should be irrigated when 30 to 50 percent of the lawn shows signs of wilt/stress. Irrigate in the early morning hours between 2-6am Your objective when irrigating is to get the maximum amount of water to the root zone without over-irrigating. In clay soils,(which Im assuming you have) is somewhere between 1/2 to 3/4 inch of water. This will target the majority of the root system and encourage more rooting at lower depths. So, how do you know how to apply this amount of water? An easy method of measuring the amount of water applied by your irrigation system is to set out several straight-sided, same-size cans (tuna cans work best) at random in each irrigation zone. Monitor how much water is applied if you run your irrigation system for fifteen minutes by measuring the amounts in the cans. If, for example, you have 1/4 inch after that time, your system should run for thirty minutes to apply 1/2 inch of water.

Hah! Deangreen, The picture in my mind of all those plant coverings sounds just like my yard...except the wind is usually so strong that I can't keep the buckets & sheets down on the plants. We had one of those blasted windy days yesterday. Last year I had just received my first daylily order the last week of April, got them planted, and the next day it went down to 22 degrees. Of course I ran out trying to cover them but the wind lifted every pot & bucket I put down before I even got all the plants covered. I didn't have enough bricks to hold them all down. I lost several of the new daylilies from that. Cindi, The wind always comes in from the North here. When you find this kind of stuff blowing into your yard it probably made it there all the way from my house in CO! LOL.... All the yard stuff from WY floats into my place, I'm sure.

JPEG is great, thanks! Since I just snap open the image on a new tab and work with it there, it's no big deal how you do it! I see why they recommended some of what they did, and I actually agree with them. Mostly. Except they missed a few things, and I'd rather be more gentle than they are. It takes longer, but doesn't challenge the soil biology quite so much. Let's go step by step. EC 7.0: Silty sand. We have to adjust slowly or run the risk of losing resources into the water table--which is both polluting and a waste of money. pH 7.1: High, but not unreasonably so. However, we don't want to make it worse, so we counterbalance everything we're doing with plenty of sulfur. This is good because... Sulfur 6: Quite low, but not a problem. This gives a vast amount of margin in how much I can add. OM 4%: Right on the border between Fair and Good. With a low EC soil, I'd rather see Excellent to Extraordinary. So I'd feed organically as much as possible, mow in all fall leaves, steal other people's leaves, that sort of thing. Phosphorus 34: Very low, and with a higher pH, probably deficient. You'll want to purchase the cheapest starter fertilizer (high second number like 18-24-6 or 20-27-5) you can find. Brand does not matter. Instructions below. Starter will also help pull down your pH a hair as it contains (acidic-processing) nitrogen and phosphoric acid. It's not extreme, but I'll take it. Calcium 62.5%: You aren't that short, and your sodium levels aren't that high. I'm not going to recommend a vast amount of gypsum this year, I'd actually like to see what the starter does. However, I don't want to dispel too much Ca so I would like you to add some. Magnesium 30.7%: Extremely high. Avoid any and all sources of magnesium, including Epsom salt and dolomitic limestone. Let's hope the starter abolishes some of this. Potassium 1.9%: Barely tolerable, and I'd like to increase this. A lot. Potassium sulfate can be ordered from many garden shops and landscape places. You can get it online, but shipping can be a killer. Sodium 0.5%: Quite normal. No adjustments required or desired. Most Minor Elements: Except for copper and boron, they're fine. I did mention iron below as well. Copper 0.84: A little low, but with everything else going this year, I'm disinclined to try to adjust this yet. We're going to ride it a year and then work with it. Iron 149: Fine, but at your pH it's heavily bound. Whenever you like, apply Milorganite at bag rate to slowly raise this. I'm not inclined to recommend ferrous sulfate here as your pH isn't that far out of line. Boron 0.39: This is a little too low to ignore. We use Milorganite as a carrier. In a wheelbarrow or the like, dump the Milo. Spraying very, very lightly with water (I use a spray bottle like the kind people use to damp their clothes when they iron) will help the boron stick. Add the recommended amount of boron and stir, spraying occasionally to get the stuff to stick to the Milo. Then apply over the recommended area. So if going for bag rate Milorganite (1 bag per 2,500 square feet), you'd add 10 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax. Recommendations: Because of your climate, I'm sneaking in some extra stuff. I wouldn't be able to do this in more arid or hotter regions. May 1: Apply starter fertilizer at the bag rate. May 15: Apply 2 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. Apply 4 tablespoons of 20 Mule Team Borax per thousand square feet. June 1: Apply starter fertilizer at the bag rate. June 15: Apply gypsum at 5 pounds per thousand square feet. July 1: Apply 2 pounds of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. September 1: Apply starter fertilizer at the bag rate. September 15: Apply gypsum at 5 pounds per thousand square feet. Apply 1 pound of potassium sulfate per thousand square feet. October 1: Apply starter fertilizer at the bag rate. October 15: Apply gypsum at 5 pounds per thousand square feet. November 1: Apply starter fertilizer at the bag rate.