Twice a day is correct, but not for a month. I would say 2 weeks. I have the timer set up to water at 5:00 am and 8:00 pm. Does this sound like an OK schedule? Yes and No. The 5:00am is perfect. The 8pm setting is too late. With the Florida heat/sun, your lawn would benefit from being watered in the afternoon, say between 2 and 4pm. Your main goal is to not let the sod/soil completely dry out between waterings until your lawn becomes established. Here is a general guideline to follow. (this has worked for me) Week 1 and 2: Water twice a day. 5am and around 2 or 4pm (don't let the sod get crispy) Week 3 and 4: Water Once daily, around 10 or 11am. Week 5: Water every other day around 10 or 11am. Week 6 and ongoing: water early between 4 and 6am when lawn starts to wilt with 3/4 to 1 inch of water. About once or twice a week at most. About the yellow spots. This is from lack of sun while sitting on the pallet. It will go away soon. The link below has a ton of great info about watering, mowing, fertilizing and maintaining a FL lawn. I would suggest reading the Dealing with Drought section and Fertilization section now. Then bookmark this site and refer to later if problems arise. Here is a link that might be useful: Your Florida Lawn

Since you're in Cumming Ga, I thought you might want to check out one of the better landscaping companies in the State, who just happens to be right down the road from you. I'm not affiliated, but just wanted to pass them on as they do excellent work. As for your soil, it is typical of GA soil in that it has a very low exchange capacity. This means that it won't hold nutrients very well, which can be offset by using slow-release fertilizers, or by improving the soil with the addition of compost. My soil supplier is on the south side of Atlanta, but I'm sure SEL could recommend someone local if you're doing the work yourself. Also, it's been a closely held belief for years that Centipede doesn't perform well in a pH above 6 (I shared this opinion for 15 years). Texas A&M shed some new light on this a few years back with a mass-cultivar study in which they grew every cultivar of Centipede at a pH of 8.0. The trick was that they supplemented with chelated iron, otherwise the grass would have lost all color. The study proved that the issue was that iron tends to be less exchangeable as the pH increases, this leads to chlorosis (iron loss), which Centipede is very sensitive to. However the root systems in the higher pH levels grew much deeper. The lessen there was that with a pH that's just slightly acidic, like yours, you can actually have a more drought tolerant stand, but you will need to supplement with iron during the growing season (part of a normal centipede program anyway). The ideal pH recommended by most extension agents (Texas A&M included) is still 5 to 6, but again that is based on iron uptake. Here is a link that might be useful: South Eastern Landscape Contractors

I'm in Pensacola, Fl (though I'm not really new anymore!!). We had 36 pallets (yep! ..a lot!) of El Toro installed in the Spring of 2010, and it is/was INCREDIBlY beautiful. But I've had my ups & downs. The ups are that I treated it organically only, so far, by not using any chemicals, but I did fertilize it 3 times over the spring and summer with rabbit food pellets (alfalfa pellets). The alfalfa pellets helped the roots take exceptionally fast, except along the house where there's shade, and under 2 large oak trees, where there's only about 4 hours of sun/day. So, where I had a lot of sun, and had put down alfalfa, it grew TOO well!! I was mowing twice per week, and (are you sitting down?) I was doing all this all summer long with a Fiskars Reel mower, the new orange one that came out that throws the grass forward, with NO catcher!!) Let's just say I was always mowing!! Every day, I would mow for about 1-2 hours, and use that as my exercise. After the large $$$ investment in the grass, I didn't see fit to buy a riding mower....just yet anyway. Actually, I LOVE the Fiskars mower, but I have almost an acre, and if the grass would grow more slowly, I think I'd be ok with it. So, although it greened up and took root, and was LUSH and THICK and quite possibly the prettiest grass in all of Pensacola, the down-side is that I don't think I can possibly repeat all that work again this coming summer. And the 1 other main problem I had was my own fault. On July 1st, with family/friends coming over for the July 4th weekend, I decided to cut the grass short so I wouldn't have to mow for the whole upcoming week. MAJOR MISTAKE!! I cut the 3" grass down to about 1". It looked FANTASTIC for the next week...and then, boom! It all turned brown! It took about 3 weeks for all of it to come back green again, but meanwhile, the weeds crept in, especially in the shaded areas under my 2 oak trees in the front yard. The side yards and back are in full sun, and though some weeds did get in, there aren't too many that I probably couldn't go in and hand-pull. But the weeds in the shaded area in the front yard (for all my inquisitive neighbors to gawk at) are getting worse throughout the winter and have pretty much taken over the zoysia. My question would be, when and what should I do, for either/or a pre-emergent, and/or post-emergent, even though I hate using chemicals. The alfalfa pellets were so amazing and even my roses and flowers on side beds were phenomenal, once I used alfalfa. I do have very sandy soil, and have been warned that if I ever go to using chemicals, I will kill off the GOOD nematodes, and will end up helping the BAD nematodes, and once I have the bad nematodes, this grass is pretty much a permanent bye-bye!! (Another neighbor about 10 yrs ago lost all his zoysia to bad nematodes) The only other problem I've had over the last 6 months or so, are mole hills and tunnels, and I've heard that I can use dishwashing soap in the water-sprayer to get rid of the bugs that attract the moles in the first place. I still have a bunch of mole hills/tunnels in the front yard, where there's shade and weeds. I've not really had any mole tunnels in the super sunny areas. So my questions are: 1. should I use chemicals for the weeds, and if so, what and when? 2. When should I scalp the grass this spring? And how short should I scalp it? 3. Should I keep using alfalfa, and when, and what else would help as far as fertilizer? 4. Any other thoughts?

I would pull up the layer of plastic under the rock. They put that stuff down thinking weeds won't grow through it, but the dust blows in and the weeds grow on top of it. Unfortunately grass will not grow on top, at least not very well, and not in most of AZ. Need to know where you live, name the town, because it makes a difference if you live in the high desert, low desert, or the mountains. Whether you need soil depends much more on your drainage than anything else. Assuming once you get the plastic up there is some sort of soil substance, that can be fixed without bringing in more unknown soil (that likely needs to be fixed). So if your soil drains from the house away from the house toward the street or other low spots off the property, then you don't need more soil. If the previous owner removed soil to bring in the rock, then you might need more soil. Drainage is the only important factor. If you bring in more soil have it done and leveled by a landscaper with a tractor and box blade. A bobcat or skid steer won't work nearly as well as a tractor. Be sure the soil is perfectly prepped (level) before the sod is delivered. Sod sitting on pallets will either dry out or get a disease on the pallet. As for putting it down, YouTube is your friend. When you put the sod down, you need to have every piece butt up against the next piece so there are no holes or gaps. Use a machete or other large cutting blade to fit the edges or corners. Overlap the pieces of sod so they do not fit like a checkerboard. They should overlap from row to row like the slats of a wooden floor. Then when it's all down, roll it all with a rented, water fillable, roller. The idea is to push the bottom of the sod down to touch the top of the soil. Roots will not grow through the air to reach the soil. When you water the new sod, all you need is enough to keep the top of the soil moist - don't saturate it every day. Need to know where you live.