Some more information about this grass; this house is located in a neighborhood that I wouldn't expect to see Zoysia planted. Because of the cost. I'm pretty sure whatever is in the lawns of the houses on this street grew here naturally. I think. This lawn has at least 3 kinds of grass. But whatever this grass is, it's what does best, and looks the best on this lawn. So I'd like to get some sod of the same thing. I'm familiar with Empire Zoysia, and it usually has a stem, with blades of grass growing off from that. This grass isn't like that. The blades of grass seem to all start at ground level. I'm not an expert on lawns, so I'm just trying to help with the identification of this grass, not give my opinion of what it is.

Funny thing is the Celebration is touted as being shade and drought resistant, and the shady areas I planted plugs are doing remarkably well compared to the full sun areas that seem like they get scorched my mid day-late afternoon full sun. I live in Florida and with the drought, and water restrictions with only 1 day a week watering and no watering after 8am, these plugs are struggling (full sun ones-shade plugs are doing GREAT!). I am sneaking late night water from my rainbarrel that collects rain water from my roof, but I think if the neighbors caught me using my own rainwater they would still report me. The odd thing is I think it should be legal as that is water I saved and is not being taken from the aquifer.

Hmmmmm.... this is the Organic Lawn Care Forum.... This thread is titled "Moved to Florida, grass is a mess and I want ONLY organic" swflagrdnr said: "Only after a lawn is well established should you try only organic methods." Then went on to say: "start out with syntehtics and then later experiment with organic methods." Also said: "He is in Oklahoma, so his advice is not pertinent to our Florida discussion." That's just wrong. It's not true & is ill chosen advice. Since when does the state you reside in have anything to do with whether or not you choose organic practices? Since when is St Augustine grass unique only to Florida? Since when is the practice of organic gardening an experiment? Since when has plant nutrition changed exclusively for the state of Florida? St Augustine grass is grown in many other parts of the country other than Florida, including right here in Oklahoma as well as Texas and Louisiana to name a couple. Successful organic lawn programs are centered around the soil. It must be alive with wide variety of beneficial microorganisms and bugs. Beneficial microbes both feed and protect the plants from disease-causing microbes. All the organic gardener does is feed the beneficial microbes and let them do their work. Chemical fertilizers provide an "empty" type of food directly to the plants. This is like the empty calories we get from eating pure refined sugar. Microbes provide full service to the plants. They decompose dead plant and animal residues to humus; combine nitrogen and carbon to prevent nutrient loss; suppress disease; produce plant growth regulators; develop soil structure, tilth, and water penetration/retention; clean up chemical residues; shift soil pH toward neutral; retrieve nutrients from distant parts of the soil; decompose thatch; and control nitrogen supply to the plants according to need. The intensive use of inorganic nitrogen fertilizer may so overload a humus-depleted soil with nitrate as to cause it to leach into surface waters when nitrate levels may readily exceed public health standards. Leached nitrate also wastes expensive fertilizer synthesized from an increasingly diminished supply of natural gas. Apart from any other possible and yet to be established virtues, the use of organic fertilizer avoids these difficulties and holds the promise of restoring the natural source of soil fertility - humus. Lisa, in your original post you said: If someone could give me a brief step by step, just a "do this first, then this" I would greatly appreciate any suggestions :) I want to plant a "cottage garden" next but first things first. You should take a shovel and just dig into your lawn, dig it down 6 or 8 inches deep so you can get some kind of idea what kind of soil you're dealing with. If it's really really poor like swflagrdnr thinks it is, just made up of fill dirt, a calcerous, sand mix with shells and little to no organic matter, then you should consider topdressing with compost, but no where in your post do you indicate that this is new contruction & I'm thinking if this had been an established lawn, perhaps it just hasn't been looked after in a while and a bit of TLC would go a long ways. When you dig it up, if you see some bugs, worms, you know, living stuff, then that's great! Let's get your microherd some water and some food & as I posted earlier, we just treat it like it's the best lawn in the neighborhood, then one day later this year you'll look out the window and say "I've got one of the best lawns in the neighborhood!" Here's your list: 1) Identify your turfgrass. 2) Stop using chemical fertilizers 3) Begin using feed grains, right away. Then fertilize on a regular basis. 4) Depending on what's available you can use: CGM (applied @ 20lbs per 1000sqft for use as pre-M or 10lbs per 1000sqft for use as fertilizer), Soybean meal (applied at 15lbs per 1000sqft) Alfalfa pellets (applied at 20lbs per 1000sqft) 5) Follow the lawn care basics I outlined above. Good day, Dan

OMG! Brazilian peppers are banned in FL if I'm not mistaken. If/when you remove those, be VERY careful to get all the seeds. Those are carried into the wetlands by birds and, well, there's a good reason they're banned. We need to ban them here, too. Mangos are simply a pain in the butt. Nobody can eat the fruit fast enough because they all ripen and fall off the tree on the same day. You go from a clean yard to literally tons of fruit on the ground overnight. Banyan trees look nice as a gigantic ornamental specimen in an even more gigantic open space. You don't have that. That's the wrong tree in the wrong place. So I guess I'm saying you need to get rid of all those trees. All of them are the wrong tree in the wrong place. The palms can stay - maybe. At 30 feet high it's not like you can enjoy the foliage. They are simply a big trunk you have to mow around. At least they are not a pest and won't interfere with grass. Okay so currently the only grass that even might survive is St Augustine, but I would focus on tree removal before spending another dime on the lawn. Any grass you install now would get torn up with tree removal. Plus if you get rid of all that shade your choices of turfgrass open up beyond just St Augustine.