lawn gurus: help needed

[hornimal]

so after about two years of neglect, I'm ready to really make my lawn the belle of the block.

the problem I have is that I have a big live oak in the middle of my front yard and I don't know if this is the culprit that is causing my lawn to have some bald spots. there are equally shaded lawns in my 'hood, but I've noticed that those shaded by live oaks have the same bare spots. are live oaks non-st. augustine friendly?

last weds. tilled the soil in the bare spots and spread thompson's turf builder to give it more nutrients. a week later I've noticed a few sprigs of grass creeping into the bare spots, but now I have weeds. which where never present before.

so my questions are: should I continue to water it and wait for new grass to grow now that there is fertilizer on the ground? or should I buy grass plugs to speed up the proccess? is my live oak causing the bare spots, or should I wait until the right time to have it thinned out again to let more sun shine through? or is there an insect (grubs) to blame? when I was tilling I didn't see any, but that doesn't mean they aren't there.

any tips are greatly appreciated.

 

[WooHorn]

A: Give it up. You can thin the tree, but it won't last. You can lay down sod (not plugst), but they will die. Live Oaks are beautiful, but you can't grow St. Augistine in shade, plain and simple. I am in the same boat and hate ivy, asain jasmine, etc., but have a boat load of it under my oaks because that is the only thing that will grow. It really isn't that bad, though and groundcover is better for the tree than grass.

 

[wolfman]

I have 5 live oaks in my fromt yard and the lawn looks great. You can grow St Augustine under live oaks, you just have to work at it a little. You are defeintly right that St Augustine needs sunlight so you have to thin the new shoots out of the live oaks every other year to let the light in.

Here is what i would do:
-I would fertilize in the fall to get your existing lawn as healthy as you can. But dont over do it with the fertilizer though. I would not fertilize for a few more weeks when it cools of a little.

- Then lay down a pre-emergent in the late fall to help prevent weeds from coming back in the spring. Once your st augustine gets thick and healthy it will tend to choke out weeds before they start.

- Water regularly. I have my sprinkler run every other day during the summer and a couple of days a week during the not so hot months.

- Thin out the Live Oak sometime in the late winter or early spring so that you can get enough light under the tree for the grass to grow. I usually get all of the small switch sized branches that are within the reach of my tree saw (10' pole saw)

- lay down some sod in the early spring in the really bare spots. If you re-sod, water that spot daily for a couple of weeks.

You may want to run this by someone at a local nursery to see what they think, but that is how I take care of my yard.

 

[hornimal]

thanks wolfman. I talked to a guy at lowe's. the suggested I go with the turf builder now as it wouldn't burn my grass. today was the first time I've watered since we got some good rain in houston over the weekend.

he said that plugs might be a better idea since most sod is dead by the time it hits the stores. but I'm going to go to another location to get a second opinion, or maybe call around to see if I can get some quality sod.

I'll going to rake it pretty well this weekend to rid it of all of the possible thatch that might be under the canopy. maybe I'll sprinkle some potting soil and run an areator to let some stuff in.

 

[wolfman]

I put some sod in a couple of years ago. I bought it from a grass company. I found it to be much cheaper and of better quality than the stuff that you get at Lowes or Home Depot. It was not dried out either. I found it was cheaper to buy it by the square yard (consisting of several pieces)instead of by the individual piece. You may want to wait until spring to get sod. That is when the grass companies have loads of it.

 

[Mrmyke709]

Excess "thinning" is not good for the tree.
Removing the shade provided by upper branches will sun-scald the lower trunk and stress the tree. Use the St. Augie, water the crap out of it, and leave the tree alone.

 

[the Saint]

There is a strain of St. Augustine that has been developed to grow better in the shade. there's a turf farm near dayton, texas that sells it. I'm waiting until october or november to go by a pallette and lay it down.

Update... this is the reply I received from my inquiry on the grass:

Thank you for your email and interest in Palmetto St. Augustine. Palmetto performs well in Texas. For information regarding pricing and availability, please contact the producer listed below:

Murff Turf Farms
Crosby, TX
800.892.6704The Link
About: 22 miles