The Floratam variety of St Augustine was developed in Florida and Texas to address the issues of both states. The one fault it has it cold tolerance; however, in actual use it seems to survive as far north as Dallas with little problem. Now if you have several days straight with high temps below 20 degrees, then you might have a problem. I doubt you see that in southern Alabama. They only see it in Dallas once every 10 or 20 years. Floratam loves full sun. I have it in heavy shade under a giant live oak, and it survives, but it is not exactly dominating. I also have it in half day full sun and it is amazing. Floratam was selected for disease resistance. Here is the thing about disease in St Augustine: I can induce a disease in any St Aug by covering it up with something like cardboard or anything that covers it like a blanket. My wife likes to throw garden clippings out onto the grass. If I don't watch her and clean it up, a disease will start after about 3 days. That used to be horrible before I discovered corn meal. I put sod after sod on the same diseased soil and watched the new sod die before it rooted. After corn meal I have not had that problem since. So in order to prevent the disease you have to water it properly (see below) and never let anything blanket it and cut off the fresh air. Watering is important for proper root development, weed control, and disease control. All lawns should be watered in the same way. The mantra is deep and infrequent. Deep means one full inch applied all at one time. Infrequent means allow the soil surface to dry out completely to the point where the grass is almost wilting before you water. When this happens depends on YOUR situation regarding temperature, wind, humidity, soil type, shade, cloudy days, grass type, mowing height, and a few other criteria. But in a practical sense, the advice is not much different between Vermont and Phoenix and Orlando. In general... with temperatures in the 100s or above, water once every 5 days. With temps in the 90s, water once every 7 days. With temps in the 80s, water once every two weeks. With temps in the 70s, water once every 3 weeks. With temps in the 60s and below, water once a month. If you have full shade like I do in San Antonio, I still water once a week in the heat of summer, but I only water 0.3 to 0.5 inches instead of a full inch. If I lived in Las Vegas in the summer, I would water 1.5 inches once very 5 days. Mow St Augustine at your mower's highest setting - always. There is never any reason to lower it for St Aug. Tall grass uses much less water than short grass. Tall grass grows much deeper roots than short grass. Those deep roots will be able to pull water from deeper in the soil structure from that rain that came by 3 weeks ago. In order to demonstrate that tall St Aug needs less water, I am doing an experiment in George West, Texas on the edge of the Texas desert. I have not mowed parts of my lawn since October of 2011. 2011 was a moist year but 2012 and 2013 were both very dry years. There is one area in the shade of an oak and my house which has not been artificially watered once since then, and the grass looks great. I don't recommend you let your grass grow up to 32 inches high, but it can and will survive nicely if you do. In San Antonio I mow St Aug at the highest setting every 2-3 weeks. The last thing I do and have done since 2002 is use only organic fertilizer. I started using corn meal back then and have moved up to a little higher performance with alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow). The biggest advantage I see for using these materials is the improvement to the health of the soil. When I was using chemical fertilizers it seemed that sometimes the fertilizer didn't work. Of course with chemical ferts you can't just reapply right away, so the next time I fertilized I applied it heavier. That seemed to work, but I was on a see-saw with the fertilizer. Once I went to organics, it always worked. With organics, if you missed a spot or are not happy with the results, you can reapply right away if you want to and not fear damaging the grass. One of the gurus on another forum experimented with extremely heavy doses of soybean meal and Milorganite. He applied both at a rate of 50 pounds per 1,000 square feet every weekend all through the growing season. Here is a picture of his lawn taken in the summer of 2011. All the other lawns in that picture were the original builder grade Kentucky bluegrass, but his is an improved variety. But if he was not taking proper care, his would look just like theirs. He lives in eastern Pennsylvania and does all the things I suggested above for caring for St Augustine. But he was also overdosing on organic fertilizer. But back to you - St Aug can be fertilized 3x per year with organics. I prefer 5x per year on Washington's Birthday, Memorial Day, 4th of July, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. These dates would work for you, too. I use them because they are easy to remember and I'm always home. St Aug wears fairly well in that it can recover from some trampling. We have a new puppy and he has worn a path in the grass leading to our side yard. I am confident that he'll settle down someday and the grass will return. Bermuda and St Augustine are both good about refilling after wear. Now having given you the sales pitch for St Augustine, bermuda, specifically hybrid bermuda, makes a good lawn, but it is a higher maintenance turf than St Aug. Bermuda needs to be mowed 2x per week and fertilized heavily once a month if you want to to look nice and have minimal weeds. If you prefer low maintenance, then St Aug should be lower maintenance for you. I used to have an annual conference in Mobile and Pensacola and found the St Aug lawns to be beautiful. I did not see a disease problem, although I wasn't looking for that specifically. I realize you are spooked by your father's lawn, but give the corn meal a try and see how that works. You have time to wait for that to clear up. Apply the corn meal now and check back again on the 4th of July. I suspect he'll notice the improvement by then. You should not have to live in fear of a St Aug lawn. I have been there, but since I have discovered the corn meal "trick", I obviously fully embrace it now.

Two turf grasses and a forage grass. That's weird. Did they mention the varieties of the grasses? Like they might have said, "Chewing's red fescue" or something like that. If they don't mention the varietal name, and if they quote percentages that happen to be rounded off to the nearest 20 and add perfectly to 100%, then I get suspicious. It should mention varietal names and the percentage should be out into 3 decimal places. They should list 0.023% weed and 0.402% Other Crop, for example. Or they might have 0.00% weed and other crop. It happens. But some weed seeds are very light weight and can fill your lawn with a mess before you know it. Anyway I can't find a picture of the rye forage grass, but they all call it an aggressive growth type of grass. Being an annual grass, it will not persist through the winter. It may come back next spring from seed. Both of the other two grasses should form an amazingly dense turf that fights off weeds, though. Keep it mowed at 3-4 inches (I lean to 4). The additional shade from the tall grass helps fight off weed seed germination. Most importantly be sure you allow the soil to dry out at the surface before you water. The dead grass among the healthy is likely to be KBG that has gone dormant. It will come back. KBG turns brown in winter and it can turn brown in summer when it gets too hot or is not watered deeply once a week. It might be possible the dead grass is the annual rye which is actually dying. Eventually this should be a great looking lawn. I like both the KBG and the creeping red fescue.

Thanks for the help. The seedlings haven't made much progress, but that's just as likely because it's been rainy and overcast in Oklahoma (I'm in OKC) every day since I posted. I'll have to wait until the sun comes out to see what happens. I've assumed the purpose was grubs, but don't know what the precise chemicals were. The back yard is fairly small, so I handled the work myself. That's what made me angry about the insect control application -- the mowing service hadn't been doing anything in the back yard for months, then decided to get involved just after I planted seed. I killed the old turf and removed it with a turf cutter, then leveled by shovel (like I say, it's small). Compacted the soil and then lightly raked the top for seed. Seeded and fertilized. Rolled after seeding. I knew when I planted that it was a little late in the season, but for work reasons it couldn't be helped. I was willing to take the chance because Oklahoma stays pretty warm in September and frequently into October and lately November; and if it doesn't take, I'll start again in the spring. So far, the usual warm weather has been absent -- let's hope the sun comes out soon.

capewillard, If you are hoping for some informed answers it would be helpful to have a photo of your grass (one close up and one distance) so we can determine if what your looking at is a typical example of spring grown grass on the Cape. Frankly a few things have thrown up red flags for me. Number one is you did not choose a Cape Cod mix of grass seed, secondly I have great reservations about using a product that mentions in its own description it can even be applied at the time of seeding without causing injury to germinating seedlings of most cool-season grasses. , and finally to be honest the few times that I have used Jonathan Green products (pellatized lime...that wasn't and grass seed..hard to tell why my sucess rate was so poor) I have been unsatisfied. I did a little poking around and here is how they describe their own products. I would suggest next you take the time and research what the best mix of grasses for you would be. kt Your Fertilizer Jonathan Green Crabgrass Preventer Plus New Seeding Prevents Crabgrass and grassy weeds from germinating, and allows you to seed on the same day without injuring seedlings. Starter fertilizer with 20% Controlled Release Nitrogen feeds new seedlings gently and longer. Smaller particles provide better weed control. This product can also be used under new sod lawn installations. Use as an alternative to the 1st Step in our 4-Step Annual Lawn Care Program when seeding in the Spring. Contains Tupersan. 10-15-10. TUPERSAN® EPA Reg. No. 10163-213-2217 Packaging 4 lb Bag; 12/case, ship wt 53 lbs 50 lb Box Downloads MSDS Specimen Label Product Information Sheet Wettable Powder Recommendations For pre-emergent control of listed weeds in newly seeded or established plantings of blue-grass, fescue, redtop, smooth brome, perennial ryegrass and many cultivars of bentgrass. Labeled for use on sod farms. May be used on newly seeded areas as well as on established turf  it can even be applied at the time of seeding without causing injury to germinating seedlings of most cool-season grasses. This high degree of selectivity allows you to seed later in the spring when soil temperatures are warmer and more conducive to seed germination. And because Tupersan is a sprayable formulation, you're not locked in with a particular fertilizer analysis, so you can adjust your fertilizer rate without affecting your pre-emergent rate. This sprayable form of Tupersan is ideal for spot treating smaller areas where fertilizer is not needed. Labeled for most major cool-season turf species, Tupersan provides highly effective pre-emergent control of smooth and large crabgrass, as well as controlling foxtail and barnyardgrass. Tests at major universities in both the north and south show that Tupersan can be used without adverse affects on bentgrass greens. Tupersan is also labeled for the suppression of encroaching bermudagrass onto bentgrass greens. Tupersan can be used for hydroseeding to reduce the competition during establishment. Tupersan is labeled for use on sod farms and has long been preferred by progressive turf producers. ï§ Highly effective crabgrass control. ï§ Labeled for use on bentgrass greens. ï§ Convenient sprayable formulation. ï§ Can be applied over newly seeded cool-season grasses. ï§ Eliminates bermudagrass encroachment onto bentgrass greens. ï§ Can be applied at time of seeding of many common cool-season grasses. ï§ Use in hydroseeding. ï§ Use in chemigation systems. ï§ Labeled for Kentucky bluegrass, tall fescue, perennial ryegrass, bentgrass  most common cool-season grasses  and zoysia sprigs. ï§ Recommended for use on sod farms. Disclaimer Not all products listed are available for purchase or authorized for use in every state. In addition, some states, counties and cities may require special licensing and training to sell, purchase or apply some of the products presented in this web page. It is the responsibility of the distributor, retailer or professional applicator to verify, before product sale/purchase, that the product is approved for the use intended in their state, county and city. Your Grass Seed  Jonathan Green Black Beauty fescue seed Black Beauty contains three exceptionally dark-green, turf-type tall fescues. Sod growers around the country have planted thousands of acres for increased drought tolerance.  50% Black Magic Turf-Type Tall Fescue  25% Taos Turf-Type Tall Fescue  25% Tombstone Turf-Type Tall Fescue