While it is true that you can put down St. Augustine any time of the year but Fall is the best to do so.
Why because the heat doesn't get to it. Water, right now you would not have to water near as much as in spring or summer. Plus if we had a wet spring it's a mess trying to work getting the sod laid down.
If you have trees that have not lost their leaves may I suggests that once the leaves fall to leave them on the ground. This will help like a mulch and with the first sign of spring mow over the leaves. I did this one year and the grass really did great, even better than all the other areas that I've laid sod. If you don't have trees then don't worry about it but DO NOT USE REG. MULCH it's not the same.
Don't use chemical fertilizers. Get some box's of Bone meal and Blood meal spread it over the grass and water it in. It takes at least 6 months for blood meal to work but bone meal helps right away with roots.

You may still have a little time left for the roots to start taking hold before the grass goes dormant.

I'm by no means an expert this info as only my experiences and I've been working on my yard for four years for ST. Augustine to take over it's nearly there but I've been doing plugs and playing the waiting game, for it to take over.

Jneil, you're south of me...but I haven't had to mow my St. Augustine yard since our over night temps started staying in the 40s and 50s. That's been about a month now (amen!). My feeling is that it's kind of late, but with your southerly location, I may be wrong. I definitely would not just take the supplier's word on it though. You might want to give your county extension office a call. They'll have the info you need that is specific to your location.

If they say it's too late, one option would be to seed right now with perennial rye. That way, you're not tracking mud into the house all winter. The perennial rye grows more slowly than the annual rye (read....less mowing) and although it is a perennial, it will die out with the heat in spring at about the time it will be good for laying sod.

Good luck with it and let us know how it works out :).

Kristi

You're south of me too but I've noticed the much slower growth of all lawns in my neighborhood...buffalograss and bermuda. Definitely call your county extension office to get their recommendations.

When we've had to cover some bare spots going into winter, we've used annual ryegrass, not the perennial kind. And, yes, it does require more mowing, as Kristi said, because it really grows! It's gone by late spring or early summer and will not come back in fall.

Sandy

Thanks all for your advice. A&M and the county extension both said it could be done year round, so I went ahead and put down a pallet last weekend. I need about another 1/2 pallet to finish, but have some site prep that may delay that for a while. Looks great right now compared to the dirt and asphalt that covered the yard before.

Go get yourself some seaweed and fish emulsion -mix it up about half the rate it says and spray your grass, it is a root stimulator and will help those roots get establised and grow before cold weather. I use it on all my new plants when they go in.

I know the feeling. We had trouble with our back yard of grass not growing because of to much shade and I got so tired of looking at the dirt. That's when I started putting down plugs of St. Augustine and within a year it's really taken off. The good thing about having ST. Augustine is that it chokes out weeds.
Do not mow it for two weeks if it should grow. I've noticed some of mine still growing and I'm up by Dallas.
Do water it maybe twice a week for the next month, if you can check to see if it needs water by using a meter would be very helpful. If you get rain ship watering.
It should go dormant soon but even water it during the winter, one of the most important times to water is if your going to get a freeze, water it a day ahead if you can.

I've had mine freeze back because of having warm weather and get hit with a freeze before it's had a chance to go dormant but the good news if that ST. Augustine is a very fast grower, unlike others grasses. Once spring came the grass quickly filled back in.

I'd skip blood meal. Too expensive and works too fast. No way it breaks that slow over 6 months. More like one week. It is the fastest acting organic fertilizer.

I'd go with alfalfa pellets which is your "starter" organic ferilizer. Spread at the rate of 20lb per 1000lbs.

I would also strongly suggest you spread 1 yard of good quality of compost per 1000 sqft on the lawn followed by corn meal at the rate of 20lbs per 1000 sqft to prevent fungus attack brought by frequent watering in cool weather.

If you do all these, you should have a great start in the spring.

Mow high (3.5 inches) and water only if needed (50% of lawn wilting). That's why I'm able to go 2 weeks between watering in the summer if there's no rain. Just make sure you water deeply, about 1 inch worth of rain (it is more than you think)...