I was thinking the same thing. You can't get rid of bermudagrass without killing the St. Augustine. The good news is the St. Augustine stolons grow a half inch a day in the summer. So killing the yard and starting over wouldn't take long. You say the front yard is nearly perfect so in the perfect areas use some of your yard as a nursery and plug the back. The front will recover quickly and the back will soon be looking as good as the front. The key is using the top labeled amount which could range from 3 to 5 ounces per gallon. Then to use it as soon as you can then in about 2 weeks. You should have pretty much wiped out the back lawn. I would then cut the grass as low as possible then plug all you can. Keep it well moist and then wait. I would think by the end of next year you should have a solid back yard. Good luck.

I have a sloped back yard around my pool, which is much more steep than your slope in the pictures, covered in St. Augustine. I too detest lawns, but I have no money right now, so my St. Augustine is here to stay. I water my St. Augustine with an irrigation system on my allotted days and once yearly treat with weed/feed. Yes, my St. Aug is great on bare feet and very healthy looking. I have no problems with maintaining it on the slope. I'm not bragging, I'm just trying to explain that I have personal experience with this situation. I think your first problem is with the underlying sand. My underlying soil is a thick layer of decayed organic material, on top of a thin layer of sand, on top of a thick layer of loose clay. It's clear from your photos that the mower tires are disturbing the St. Aug's growth. That is very easy to do regardless of the underlying soil, but especially easy in sand such as you have. I think your second problem is with your lawn guy. Seriously. And, I mean absolutely no offense. Your lawn is covered in weeds. It didn't happen overnight, although sometimes it might seem that way. Your lawn guy should know (1) how to mow on a slope without destroying the roots, (2) how to point out a weed problem before it becomes a massive weed problem like you have. How convenient for him that you need sod replacement?!?! Isn't his job routine lawn care, not routine lawn destroying and replacement? That being said, I have a cheap temporary solution for you. I see in the first picture, to the left of the hose/brick path, you have a bush/tree surrounded by a small circle of mulch. And, in the second picture, you have another tree just down slope from the pool, surrounded by another small circle of mulch. I would take a sharp straight-edged shovel and cut away shovel sized squares of sod in a circular pattern around those trees. Making much, much larger circles around the trees. Take a section of the sandy/weedy area, cover thickly in newspaper, wet newspaper, then lay your homemade sod squares on top of the wet paper. Water daily until they take root and can survive on their own. Go back and extend the mulched area around the two trees, so your weed problem doesn't extend under the trees. This should really be done in stages, because the sod squares that you cut out and move need to be kept wet during the moving process. I say my solution is cheap, because you can buy mulch for $1.68 at the big box stores these days, and you would probably need 10 bags. Less than $20. Of course you will have a little extra water expense from having to water daily to establish the newly sodded sections. It is a little bit back breaking, but I'm sure you can either do it or find someone to help. I say my solution is temporary because, ideally, you could eventually plant some sort of hearty, Florida friendly ground cover over that entire area. In the long run it will not require as much water or care as St. Augustine, and you can get rid of the expensive lawn guy! Things to remember: Don't put any weed and feed down on the newly sodded sections either immediately before or after laying the sod. Don't forget to water daily until the new sections have taken hold. Especially during this, our driest time of year. If you choose to use RoundUp on the weedy areas before moving the grass squares, don't lay the grass squares directly on the area treated with RoundUp unless you put in a layer of newspaper or cardboard first. If you can get your hands on some liriope, you could make a border along the brick walk (at the top of the slope), to help hold it all together. Their roots tend to spread out rather than down, so it will keep slope erosion in better check. Lastly, don't let that man with the mower anywhere near the new section. Weed-whacker only until it's established. You probably won't need to mow this area for the next 6 weeks anyway. Maybe someone else will have a better/easier solution, but this is what I did and it works. I certainly welcome any criticism or comments on my suggestion.

Hi everyone, Adam here, a newbie to these forums, well I've been lurking awhile and this my first post. Hoping someone could answer a few concerns I have. I'll admit I don't know much about turfgrass or gardening but my wife and I bought a house about a year and half ago that had a beautiful St.Augustine lawn, not sure what variation. Anyways last years drought coupled with me messing up by putting weed and feed and fungicided on my lawn (been over a year since) destroyed about half of my front lawn. There is still good St.Augustine everywhere there was shade, so basically the slopes where there is full sun and side yard is dead. I just had a new irrigation system installed, and I'm determined to get my lawn back to looking how it was when we bought it. I've done a lot of research and have pretty much decided Floratam St.Augustine is what I'll go with. FYI I live in the San Antonio - Medical Center Area) I guess some questions I have are...... 1) How and where can I get a soil test? 2) Can anyone recommend a good company that installs sod? Are any sod producers favorable over another I've mostly seen King Ranch and Milbergers? 3) A big question I have as I am in the process of getting bids is what is the best method for extracting old sod and putting new sod in. I've read so many different things, not sure what is best but would be nice to have some info when deciding on a contractor. 4) Being that I have still have good grass in the shady areas and back yard where I have live oak canopies, is resodding even necessary? I've heard from some that I could get some really good quality compost and just top dress and my grass may come back on its own. 5) If I do resod, can I just resod the dead areas or will that look strange as I doubt I have Floratam now. Just curious how mixing different variations of St. Augustine works and what it would look like. I'm willing to fork out the money to completely resod my front lawn if necessary, just curious if people here that know much more than me think I should as I feel overwhelmed and confused honestly. The first bid I got was for $2000 7 pallets of sod to redo entire front. Ok sorry to ramble and for the long post, thanks to everyone for any info for those who have already provided very valuable info in my months of lurking here. It is appreciated.

My house was on the back of a 1-acre lot on the edge of town. The only tall grass was back by the house, so you had to stop and look kinda hard to see that the grass was that tall. If you were going to be offended, you had to stop and make a big deal out of it. When it's all the same height, it still looks manicured, especially at a distance. Well it turns out there was an ordinance against eyesore lots. The ordinance had words to the effect that you could not have piles of junk with weeds, grass, or plants growing 18 inches high. We all know what this ordinance is there for - so people will not toss their junk on the street and let grass and weeds grow up through it. I did not have piles of junk. I could walk down my street and find at least 5 other houses with piles of trash and weeds growing up through them for 6 months or more. The problem with my house is that it used to belong to a prominent lady in local politics and the church. She was one of those "GET OFF MY LAWN" people who took exceptional pride in the appearance of the yard. She passed away and it went to hell. A guy bought the house to rent the rooms and I bought from him. He let half the lawn die completely. All this happened so fast that the neighbors and friends of the original lady seriously resented my "letting the lawn go." So I was selected for one-time enforcement of the ordinance. I showed up at a city hall meeting and convinced them they needed to print a lot more signs and enforce the rules everywhere in town. They did that and quickly overwhelmed the enforcement employees. I also took issue with the word, plants, in the ordinance. Strict wording of the ordinance would prohibit any plants taller than 18 inches. Everyone has plants taller than that. I started mowing the lawn down to 17 inches to test my skills at passive aggression. A year later they rewrote the ordinance taking the plant/grass/weed height down to 12 inches. So I mowed at 11 inches. Mowing that high takes a string trimmer and actually goes pretty fast - much faster than mowing with a mower. So it was nice for awhile and then not so much fun, but I did learn a lot about lawn care.