Don't worry about the moths. And thank you for specifying La Mesa and not just San Diego. La Mesa is starting to get higher in altitude where the sea breeze air is dryer and temps are warmer, much warmer, than downtown San Diego. Once you make the big curve up the canyon toward El Cajon, you are officially out of the sea breeze influence (in my book). You still should have some. With that in mind, I would suggest cutting out the dead areas and replacing them. Did you use Marathon sod? Marathon comes in three varieties, so be sure you use the same one you used before. As you back off on watering frequency, are you watering longer? Actually I don't know how long you were watering before. The high frequency - short duration (10 to 15 minutes) watering should be only to get the sod established and knit into the underlying soil. Then you can back off on frequency and go up on duration. Ideally, and you live in Ideal-land, you should be watering no more than once per week but watering a full inch at a time. Measure an inch with cat food or tuna cans. This would be fore established grass. Yours is just getting established so you need it a little more frequently for now. By Thanksgiving you should be fully backed off and watering once every 3 to 4 weeks. Continue that all winter and come back to 3 weeks, then 2 weeks, and finally 1 week as the temps move up.

Bestlawn, no offense taken. I'm kind of playing it by ear. While at first I was out to prove that KBG can survive here, My big thing is that I believe in reasonable amounts of maintenance and not wasting money and not wasting time and not driving an hour away to get some professional product during business hours. There is a correlation between the performance of the grass and how much time/money I will spend on it. The minute performance goes down, the minute I leave it alone and go do something else. I don't have it in me to force the entire yard to stay green in full sun and heat in a drought when we get maybe one or two showers a month. Some people can. The golf course manage to do it. But I don't. I'm trying to simulate reasonable amounts of care to see if the grass will grow with average care. I basically follow the UGA lawn calendar for tall fescue on all the cool season grass that I have except the bentgrass which I mow much shorter. And the only reason I put so much effort into the bentgrass is because it performs. It's reasonable IMO. Auteck, please send me an email. Click on my page. I also grew up in So.Fl. and we seem to have the same tastes in flora. I can tell you about what I'm growing. It's apparent we are both allergic to tropical plants and swamp grasses. I can't stand palm trees and bananas. Some people here try to plant them. Douglas fir is a more out-westy tree. If you want to prove you're not in Miami anymore, get some balam firs, red spruce and fraser firs going. The latter two are native to the mts of western NC. I saw some this past saturday when I drove up there. I have a couple of balsam firs in my yard. also have 3 white pines. White pines are native to my area but not all that common this far to the south. You might also try out some of the cool climate birches, Betula lenta (sweet birch) and B. papyrifera (paper birch) Don't forget quaking aspen and lilac and blue spruce. These are just a handful of things people insist do not grow here. I say they're wrong. It's called reverse zone denial.

It depends on where you live in the bay area and your exposure. Best scenerio is you live away from right on the bay,south of the Golden Gate by 10 miles to downtown San Jose,and you can then plant it as Bahia said,up against a hot wall or courtyard where heat builds up AND that bay breeze is blocked. Without a doubt you dont want it to be shaded by structures or trees. Would also help to have a stone mulch under it. Stones tends to be warmer and drier. T.P.,IMO,doesnt have to be as large as the tropics to be a showpiece.Just that unique fan shaped growth of leaves stands out. And if you get any trunk in a decent period,that's just more bonus! I dont care what others say. The difference in tropicalia growth here in the bay area can be SouCal like in the most favored areas. No frost and mid 70's to near 80 all summer is not what most people think we have.Most think of frigid San Francisco and that blustery wind and dense fog. I havent had a single plant that grows in SouCal easily,not also grow here in the eastbay.Not as large or as fast as in S.C., maybe-but growing. Mangos,Pachypodiums,Ficus like benjamina to petiolaris,even the Bo tree. When we get those once a decade freeze's,spend some time to cover and protect and your plants WILL survive.Not a bad trade off for such a northerly climate and a hour's time throwing blankets on plants once a decade!

Barry I'm so glad you bumped this back up. Not sure how I missed it (repeatedly), but I disagree with much of what has been said. I don't mean to confuse you, but differing opinions usually do, so sorry in advance. St Aug should be very easy to grow in Houston. It will plow over under around and through any other grassy plants you might get including bermuda. All you have to do is mow it at the mower's highest setting every week or two. Currently it looks like you're mowing at the lowest setting. St Aug never needs to be mowed at anything lower than the highest setting. Some riding mowers will go up to 6 inches and some only go to 2-3 inches. If you're mowing at the mower's high setting now, you need a different mower. St Aug can grow up to 32 inches high and look fantastic (if you like the flowing wheat look). The taller it is the deeper the root system it gets and the (MUCH) better drought resistance you get. There is the occasional weed that will get into a thin spot, but usually you can spot spray those out with atrazine. How many thousand square feet do you have to mow? This looks below average for a new lawn, but when the lawn is so big, anything can happen. The big problem is mowing too low, but it does look like the sod went in with some bit of fungal disease. The 3rd to last picture shows some fungal lesions. I have been using ordinary corn meal to take care of fungal disease in St Aug for the past 13 years. It works for me every time. The application rate is 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. I get it at the local feed store. It takes 3 weeks to see an improvement, but since you've already applied a chemical fungicide, corn meal won't work. Chinch bugs? You absolutely cannot see them from a photo. However, you can wipe your hand across the surface then they will flick up in the air. Put a piece of paper down and see if you can flick them up on it. There are some good YouTube videos showing how to do that. They hit the hottest part of the soil first, so that's usually next to asphalt or concrete. Then almost never begin in the middle of the yard unless you have watering issues. The first place to check would be in your last photo. And just because you might have one insect pest does not automatically make you a candidate for the full catalog of insects. And don't apply insecticide because you see bugs. Insects are not only normal, they're required for healthy soil and turf. You do have watering issues. I assume for such a large lot you have a system in the ground. It needs to be tuned up, because it is missing spots. Place some tuna or cat food cans around in the dry spots and in the green spots. Then time how long it takes to fill the cans. Some high flow systems can fill them in 20 minutes, so keep an eye on them. But some of your cans are going to be pretty dry for a long time. Eventually you want them all to fill at about the same time. Then use the time it takes to fill them as your new watering time for every zone. That's 1 inch of water. The idea is to apply a full inch all at one time. Then wait until the grass is ready for the next drink. Generally speaking when the temps are in the 90s, water once per week. With temps in the 80s water once every 2 weeks, temps in the 70s water every 3 weeks, and once a month the rest of the year. This also promotes deep roots. You don't have clay soil. You might not have perfect soil, but clay is not the issue. Usually the problem is a salt imbalance that causes soil to act like clay. Even sand can act like clay. If you really want to know all about your soil, send a sample to Logan Labs (not TAMU). For $25 they will send you a detailed report. Post that report here and morpheuspa will read it for you telling you what you need to apply, where to find it, how much, when, and how. That's another $200 value for free. Fertilize in May, late September, and again in late November. Don't try to jump the gun in the spring. If you want info on organic lawn care, let me know. I think you should, but not everyone agrees. If you go to a full chemical program, then I would suggest at least once a year to use an organic fertilizer (ordinary corn meal, again) to keep your soil biology happy. So in the long run, taking care of St Aug is easy. You water it depending on the temperature, mow at the highest setting, and fertilize 3x per year. If you do these simple things, you should never need herbicide, insecticide, or fungicide. If you see weeds in the early spring, don't use a weed-n-feed. Use a herbicide with atrazine. Read the label 2x and follow the directions carefully. Photo tip: Take garden pictures on a cloudy day to minimize contrast between bright and shadow.