DIYbanter - View Single Post - I want to kill the weeds in my St. Augustine grass

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wrote:
On Tue, 16 Mar 2010 21:00:00 -0700 (PDT), JIMMIE
wrote:

On Mar 16, 11:35 pm, Ron wrote:
On Mar 16, 11:05 pm, "
wrote:

Steve B wrote:
My experience with living where St. Augustine flourishes: A climate where
everything else grows as well. One MUST mow their St. Augustine every week,
or if you don't, you have to do more than one mowing to cut it down a little
at a time. Where St. Augustine flourishes, people don't know what an
irrigation system is, as there is plenty of moisture and rainfall to keep it
going.
Whaaaaaat? Florida? Don't know anyone with S.A. grass who doesn't have
an irrigation system....too much water in summer, none in winter. Last
year, Tampa was so dry they got down to forbidding lawn watering. But,
then, during the recent freeze the strawberry farms had to water to
protect their crops and caused a rash of sink-hole collapses. Ah,
paradise...pythons, fire ants, monitor lizards, poisonous toads, walking
catfish, tourists.
Home 1 that I mentioned in this thread didn't have a sprinkler
system.

When it needed watering I used the spikes.

One thing about that lawn though, it was lake front (back of house to
the lake) and that part of the lawn looked awesome! Never had to do
anything to it. And I'm talking about a LOT of St Augustine. Back yard
was about 200' W by 150' D (depending on how high the lake was).

First thing I did after buying that home was go to Sears and buy a 42"
riding mower.
How far down in Fl do you have to be for SA to stay green all year
round?

Tampa will be green all year but like Norminn says, for about 3-4
month of that year you will be putting about 27,000 gallons of water
per acre per week on it minimum to keep it green (1" of water per
week). If it turns brown you will probably lose it.

Hell's bells! By the time you put 1" of water on a Florida lawn, half
of it will be back in the aquifier. You can saturate the root zone with
a lot less than 1". This is where proper mowing and feeding come in -
cut it high, at least 3" and preferably 4", and keep it healthy so it
doesn't dry out. The city waters during the day, when homeowners are
forbidden....nice afternoon wind and the water blows across the
street

) We converted a good deal of lawn to islands with hardy
plants, and difficult areas to river rock.
Building code forbids "all stone" lawns, allowing stone for just areas
that won't grow green stuff.

We got a real good chance to see that here in Ft Myers when the
foreclosures stopped getting watered. The yards were deserts in less
than a month and when the rains came there were just weeds.
I will stick with my Bahia. It comes back just fine from a drought.
They already restrict when and how much water you can put on the lawn.
I guarantee it is just a matter of time here in Florida before they
just ban watering your lawn completely. It is pretty short sighted to
be putting your drinking water on the grass. The problem will probably
just be cured with the price they will have to pay for it.

We are again talking about putting reclaimed water into the aquifiers.
Might save on medical expenses, given the levels of pharmaceuticals
found in ground water

) Drink your Prozac daily and nothing will
bother you, even lumpy water

)