First you need to decide what kind of grass you want to have. I can decide that for you from 2,000 miles away if you like. Here it is. You want St Augustine. You probably want the variety called Floratam developed by the University of Florda and Texas A&M University (hence Floratam). The only way to grow new St Augustine grass is by sodding it. Since you are basically starting over, I would hire a landscaper with a tractor and a box blade (NOT a skid steer or a bobcat) to come in and scrape the surface of the entire yard. This will even out all the bumps and fill the holes to provide a perfectly draining surface ready for sodding. Then have the sod delivered. Gather all your friends so the sod can go down all at once on the day it is delivered (PIZZA party). Then roll the sod down with a rented, water fillable, roller. Water it morning, noon, and night for 3 weeks to knit the roots from the sod to the underlying soil. Set your mower for the highest setting and mow when the grass is at least 4 inches high. Eventually all the grass will grow up to that height and it will look excellent. Never lower your mower for any reason. St Aug needs 1 inch of water per week to stay alive. Ideally that inch will be applied on one day. The frequent watering is ONLY for establishing new roots. If it turns straw colored, it's dead. But if you have one living plant left in the yard, you can restore the entire lawn from that one strand of grass. It really takes weeks of full sun and no water to kill it off, so almost any care will keep the grass alive. But if you want it to look nice you need to water weekly and mow weekly. I fertilize with organic fertilizer 5 times per year on the federal holidays. If you use synthetic fertilizer you can skip the 4th of July app because it is really too hot. If, after this type of renovation, you still have weeds, we can talk about it. I think they will almost all be gone, though.

Might it be Mimosa pigra? Try doing a keyword/image search for that to check. You (& your page) don't say where you are, but your county extension service might be of help. I agree that manual removal is usually the least harmful to the environment - your back &/or body is another story... FWIW, there are some herbicides that are a lot less toxic than Roundup, et al. - try Planet Natural for some ideas: Here is a link that might be useful: Planet Natural - Weed Control

Jeff, With gardening, it is always something, isn't it? I want to know why the plants we WANT to grow can be so difficult sometimes, and the ones that we DON'T WANT just pop up everywhere. By the way, I am glad that your chamomile seedlings popped up. I would have been really, really shocked if you hadn't had seedlings. Do you remember when the unwanted grass sprouted? The earlier in the spring that it sprouted, I think the better the chance it might be crabgrass. But, there are many other wide-bladed weedy grasses, like Dallis Grass, so if you posted a pic, it probably would help you get a specific ID. And, do you remember seeing seedheads on any of this grass last year? And, if so, do you remember if the seeds were green or black? The problem with removing problem grasses is that, often, the weedkillers that will take them out will also remove desirable grasses. Also, some of the most effective grasskillers are arsenicals, and many people do not want to introduce arsenic into their home landscapes, even though certain levels of aresenic exist in nature anyway. (And you have the little guy to think about now, although he probably won't be crawling through the grass for a few more months yet.) I wish I could tell you that there is a good, safe, organic product that will work on a tough, thick-bladed weedy grass that has very fibrous roots, but there's really not one. There are some organic grasskillers but I just haven't found them to be really effective. Hand-digging doesn't work well, as you have found, because these grasses reseed with wild abandon. Just the act of digging up the existing clump of grass can expose grass seeds in the dirt to light which then induces them to germinate. You might want to google MSMA and DSMA. They are the two grassy weedkillers I used in Texas many years ago with very good results. That was back before I converted to organics, and I haven't used them in many years, but I assume they are still on the market. One key thing to remember, though, is that even if you dig it out, it will come back unless you get something else growing in that area that will be thick, healthy and vigorous enough to crowd it out. Do you have bermuda grass in the rest of the yard? Or, is the fescue your main lawn grass? I am thinking it may be too shady under that oak for any grass to thrive, and if the grass stays thin and patchy, then you might need to take out the grass and plant a really lovely, vigorous ground cover under the oak. What to you think? Dawn

They look like hackberry seedlings to me. The blog post I've linked has an excellent clickable picture of a hackberry seedling, it's the 9th picture down. Here is a link that might be useful: The Birth of Trees