Not quite ready to give up yet, Tex. Dianna, you sound just like me when I first came to the Lawn Care Forum. I found this site looking for help with a new lawn I unknowingly drowned with water and was blaming my contractor because he told me to water every day. "Around here, folks water every day" is exactly what I told these guys, too. Because so many of them said much the same in the way of advice, I decided to try it and couldn't believe the results. What they were trying to explain finally clicked, so I began doing more research on the subject and found the professional turf sites, turfgrass research universities, the seed producers, advice columnists, everything and everywhere were saying the same things, which are the bottomline basics of lawn care. That all compelled me to do more research as well as conduct a few experiments of my own. I learned there is nothing more important to the health of your grass than proper watering and proper mowing. Believe me, I've studied a lot but that is little compared to some of these other folks on the forum. No one here would steer you wrong and if there is even the slightest information imparted incorrectly, someone will chime in to correct them and make sure you are provided enough information to work your lawn into the healthiest and most beautiful it can possibly be. I want to explain a little more of what Billl is saying. While your grass in the back may seem to be okay, trust that it is not thriving and it is not healthy if being watered every day. Frequent watering does not allow the roots to grow as deeply as they are supposed to. The life and health of the plant is totally dependent on the root system, and fescue grass has an extensive root system. When watered properly (deeply), the roots are allowed to grow as deep as they should. Shallow roots are weak, thin, and flimsy. Green grass is not equal to healthy grass. Unless the grass is healthy, it cannot thrive and tiller as it should, it cannot fight off disease it inherently is normally able to resist or tolerate, it cannot knit and form a thick, lush sod to help prevent weeds, and it cannot even produce its true genetic green color. What I neglected to suggest earlier, as Bill so aptly did, is to gradually back off watering rather than all at once. At this point, the grass is dependent on receiving it very often because you trained it to expect that. It doesn't need it though, and you can train the grass to be much less dependent on you for moisture and nutrients and to tell you when it wants water as I mentioned in the drought examples. Back off frequency while increasing the amount as Bill explained to work your way to just one inch just once a week. One inch of water will moisten the soil to a depth of 6-8 inches. Rather than sitting there in the upper layers of soil waiting to be fed, the roots will begin to grow downward looking for the moisture that one inch provided. See how it works? They will reach it and continue to grow beyond that point to receive the earth's water supply and natural nutrients for fertilizer. Then, you'll have a healthy root system. Just imagine yourself never being able to yawn or stretch out. Because you are located in a region of high temps, it may be necessary to irrigate more often as I mentioned earlier. That one inch can be stretched out over two or three days through the week to relieve heat stress. About the only thing we cannot tell you is exactly what species of grass you have. Without the advantage of sight to examine the parts of the plant, we're just trying to guess based on the clues you give us. Based on those clues, the only thing we know for relatively certain is it is a cool season type. You can find out for sure though by taking samples to the extension service I linked you to above. They are the real experts and will tell you the exact same as we tell you here. For starters, you can take advantage of their many publications. Type "lawn care" in the search box.

Wow - can't say I've heard of the Burlap treatment! What kind of grass do you have? Could you also tell us what zone you live in?

I see you have a hose and oscillator sprinkler. That's an excellent start. What is your watering schedule? How often and for how long do you water? Did you fertilize yet this spring? Whether you did or not, now is the time to apply for the first time (or second if you did it in the early spring...which you should not have). Have you applied any herbicides or insecticides? If so, when, and what were they? As for your picture, we cannot see a thing at this altitude. You need to be 3 inches away, not 10 feet. And 3 inches needs to be in the shade or have someone cast a shadow where you are photographing. Get a picture with both green and gray grass. Rather than tease you, though, if this is a disease, regardless of which one, I would recommend applying corn meal at 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. You can get corn meal at a feed store in 50 pound bags for roughly $12 or less this summer. Corn meal is a biological control that seems to work on St Augustine but not on other grasses. Try the corn meal before you try any chemical approach, because the chemicals ruin the biology rendering the corn meal useless as a bio control. Apply to the entire lawn, because you might not realize that the disease has infected the entire lawn. Also do the entire lawn, because corn meal is an organic fertilizer and it will leave deep green spots where you apply, so do the entire lawn. Once you use corn meal to cure St Augustine fungal diseases, you will completely stop worrying about it in the future. It is a complete solution and permanent...until you do something to let it happen again, which I seem to do annually :-( But at least I have a simple, safe, solution. Give the corn meal 3 full weeks to do the job. You will get very anxious about it for 2 weeks thinking nothing is happening. It simply takes 3 weeks, so relax. Between 2 and 3 weeks you will have forgotten about it. Then after about a month you will notice that "suddenly," the yard is perfect and deep green. Also if you are not already doing it, always mulch mow St Augustine at the mower's highest setting. You can let it go 2-3 weeks or longer if your mower can stand it. This will give you a deep rooted grass system that can withstand long periods of heat and go for days without watering. But do, please, tell us about your watering.

Do you change your watering in cooler weather? What is your watering schedule? How often and for how long do you water? Also where in Alabama? As you know the climate and soil is quite different from south to north.