We're practically neighbors, rurally speaking. I'm in Bandera with a daughter in school in San Marcos.

Even when I was in George West and had a sprinkler system built in, it could not be programmed to water every other week, so I never used it. I used oscillator sprinklers on 7 hoses running at once to cover 20,000 square feet. In my water system in Bandera we have pretty harsh water restrictions - Tuesday morning and evening for a total of 4 hours. So far that's working very well with temps in the high 90s and humidity between 50 and 65%.

The St Augustine will dominate the back yard once you start watering it. If you want the bermuda to look nice, you'll have to water it, too. Bermuda needs frequent fertilizer and low mowing. St Aug needs infrequent fertilizer and high mowing. Opposites. As long as you're taking care of the front as St Aug, you may as well set everything up for the same settings and schedule. Water according to the schedule below. Set the mower to the highest setting and weld it in place. There is never any reason to lower the mower height for St Aug. Mow every week or 2 or 3. If it gets too high, take it down first with a string trimmer. Then a day later you can mow it down. Fertilize first on Memorial Day, then Labor Day, and again about Thanksgiving. If you want to use organic fertilizer, you can fertilize again on Washington's Birthday and 4th of July. If you do all this, the St Aug will spread about 15 feet per year and smother all the grass in the way. It will not smother any horse herb, dichondra, clover, oxalis, or other broadleaf plants. For those you would have to use an atrazine product to kill them out. Spray that in mid April, and if you really need to, September. Atrazine kills everything but the St Aug.

Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 1 inch all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps in the 90s, deep water once per week. With temps in the 80s, deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 70s, deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 70, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. This deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont, so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall.

Thanks for the reply dchall. I've received advice from you on my front yard and couldn't be happier with how it looks. All it really took was mowing high, a good amount of water, and a couple of applications of alfalfa pellets and it has looked wonderful this year. I guess I'm just being lazy and not putting forth the effort for the back like I do for the front. You can see the stuff I have taken care of in the front half of the back yard. That is mowed at the highest setting my mower will allow of 4 inches and has received about .75 inches a week when the rain hasn't been around.

If i wanted the process done quicker to cover the back yard, could I spray the weeds, lay sod, and keep it watered and fertilized like I do for the rest of the yard?