I live in Houston, Texas and my yard is composed of maybe 50% St. Augustine
grass, and 50% weeds that have over the last ten years. I have resolved that
I may have to start over and buy sod for my front lawn. I need to know what
is this going to cost? or maybe I should just continue to pick weeds

"bob callaway" wrote in
:

I live in Houston, Texas and my yard is composed of maybe 50% St.
Augustine grass, and 50% weeds that have over the last ten years. I
have resolved that I may have to start over and buy sod for my front
lawn. I need to know what is this going to cost? or maybe I should
just continue to pick weeds

Why not make a deck or patio and some flower beds? I live in Jersey, so no
experience with Texas, but it should be moist enough in Houston to do
something like that.

--
Best regards
Han
email address is invalid

bob callaway wrote:
I live in Houston, Texas and my yard is composed of maybe 50% St.
Augustine grass, and 50% weeds that have over the last ten years. I
have resolved that I may have to start over and buy sod for my front
lawn. I need to know what is this going to cost? or maybe I should
just continue to pick weeds

There's a couple of guys on Houston Craigslist that advertise St Augustine
sod for ~$120 per pallet. A pallet covers (according to them) 450 sq ft. The
price includes delivery and installation.

Here's an ad from just today (16 May)
http://houston.craigslist.org/for/1744261653.html

I have no personal knowledge of these folks, I've just seen their ad. Maybe
references?

On May 16, 5:38*pm, "bob callaway" wrote:
I live in Houston, Texas and my yard is composed of maybe 50% St. Augustine
grass, and 50% weeds that have over the last ten years. I have resolved that
I may have to start over and buy sod for my front lawn. I need to know what
is this going to cost? or maybe I should just continue to pick weeds

You live in a hot area where water is probably expensive ? Why not
consider
abandoning the conventional lawn and creating a xeriscapic landscape
instead. A LOT of information on Xeriscaping is available on-line.
Would
save water and look a lot more interesting than sod. Just my .02.

Hypatia

On May 17, 1:38�am, "bob callaway" wrote:
I live in Houston, Texas and my yard is composed of maybe 50% St. Augustine
grass, and 50% weeds that have over the last ten years. I have resolved that
I may have to start over and buy sod for my front lawn. I need to know what
is this going to cost? or maybe I should just continue to pick weeds

There are selective weedkillers that will kill the weeds but not the
grass. Your grass needs some encouragement & it will crowd out the
weeds. You can get special high nitrogen fertiilizers for this
purpose. It my well need aerating especially if you have a clay soil,
ie spiking with a tool/machine/hand fork. The problem is, every time
you mow the grass, you take away nutrients with the clippings. These
need to be replaced.
Lawns need lots of attention if you want a nice one.

bob callaway wrote:
I live in Houston, Texas and my yard is composed of maybe 50% St.
Augustine grass, and 50% weeds that have over the last ten years. I
have resolved that I may have to start over and buy sod for my front
lawn. I need to know what is this going to cost? or maybe I should
just continue to pick weeds

How often do you feed the lawn?

On May 17, 6:55�am, "Bob F" wrote:
bob callaway wrote:
I live in Houston, Texas and my yard is composed of maybe 50% St.
Augustine grass, and 50% weeds that have over the last ten years. I
have resolved that I may have to start over and buy sod for my front
lawn. I need to know what is this going to cost? or maybe I should
just continue to pick weeds

How often do you feed the lawn?

It depends on rainfall and your soil type. Sandy soils need more
often. Maybe once or twice a year. Do it in wet weather or water it
in. Prevents scorch marks appearing on the grass with the raw
fertilzer. In dry weather don't mow it as close. This keeps a little
more humidity on the ground.
I'm not familiar with your climate, weeds or grass types to much, I
'm from the UK.
The best grass type depends, of course, on your climate and how much
foot traffic you get on your lawn. Some coarse grasses grow much
faster than others and are better when you have kids etc running about.

On May 16, 7:38*pm, "bob callaway" wrote:
I live in Houston, Texas and my yard is composed of maybe 50% St. Augustine
grass, and 50% weeds that have over the last ten years. I have resolved that
I may have to start over and buy sod for my front lawn. I need to know what
is this going to cost? or maybe I should just continue to pick weeds

You need to know a cost but are to dam lazy to get a bid? Yea like you
even included sq ft. I say pick weeds this summer.

I would suggest that no matter what you do today, but the end
of the summer, you will be back to where you are now if you don't
correct the underlying problem.

I can't tell from here what that problem or problems may be,
but I suspect that you need to start with a sustainable plan, a plan
that fits your soil and weather conditions and your willingness and
ability to maintain it.

bob callaway wrote:
I live in Houston, Texas and my yard is composed of maybe 50% St.
Augustine grass, and 50% weeds that have over the last ten years. I have
resolved that I may have to start over and buy sod for my front lawn. I
need to know what is this going to cost? or maybe I should just continue
to pick weeds

Assuming it is not real hot and dry, St. Augustine is fairly easy to
rehab. We did so with our Florida lawn...had mostly broadleaf weeds,
like dollar weed. St. Aug. grows like a weed, so it fills in better
than a lot of lawn grasses. As weeds are killed, plugging can often
fill in quickly and is a lot easier to do than new sod. Fertilize 3x
year, cut high, water deeply 1x week if no rain. Weed B Gone for
southern lawns is good, if you don't have Floratam. There are lots of
mixtures, so check the label. One appl. took down most of our weeds,
and spot treatment for problem areas. Know that the present crop of
weeds has dropped seed, so those will germinate and require some care -
pulling one weed by hand might save hundreds or thousands of weeds from
dropping, so it is useful for the occasional weed. Proper mowing, esp.
in hot, dry weather can avoid lots of weed growth, as it helps avoid
water loss and keeps weed seed from getting as much sun.

On May 17, 6:55�am, "Bob F" wrote:
bob callaway wrote:
I live in Houston, Texas and my yard is composed of maybe 50% St.
Augustine grass, and 50% weeds that have over the last ten years. I
have resolved that I may have to start over and buy sod for my front
lawn. I need to know what is this going to cost? or maybe I should
just continue to pick weeds

How often do you feed the lawn?

BTW, It's pointless re-turfing. The underlying problem will still be
there, that is soil infertility and panning due to foot traffic.. You
would be back where you started from in a year.
Grass needs nitrogen. The weeds, some can fix nitrogen from the
atmosphere, others have deep tap roots go down and find it in the
subsoil.
The grass recycles nitrogen from dead grass rottimg on the surface in
the wild, but as I said previously, you take that away when you mow.

On May 17, 7:15*am, wrote:
* * * * I would suggest that no matter what you do today, but the end
of the summer, you will be back to where you are now if you don't
correct the underlying problem.

* * * * I can't tell from here what that problem or problems may be,
but I suspect that you need to start with a sustainable plan, a plan
that fits your soil and weather conditions and your willingness and
ability to maintain it.

I agree. A healthy lawn on decent soil that is properly fetilized,
watered, etc will grow dense and crowd out the weeds so that you just
have some each year that you can spot treat once or twice a year with
a tank sprayer. On the other hand, if you have gravel instead of
topsoil, PH way out of whack, etc, you'll have difficulty growing
grass. You can spend some $$ upfront to fix that, or spen a lot more
over a decade and still have a problem lawn.

If there is any agricultural extension service or similar that is
available, they usually offer free advice, you can take them soil
samples to test, turf sections to look at, etc. Try looking in county
pages of the phone book.

harry wrote:

The grass recycles nitrogen from dead grass rottimg on the surface in
the wild, but as I said previously, you take that away when you mow.

Not so much if you use a mulching mower.

.... or maybe I should just continue to pick weeds

That's been my solution. Pick the weeds and the grass takes over. Stay away
from herbicides.

harry wrote:
On May 17, 6:55�am, "Bob F" wrote:
bob callaway wrote:
I live in Houston, Texas and my yard is composed of maybe 50% St.
Augustine grass, and 50% weeds that have over the last ten years. I
have resolved that I may have to start over and buy sod for my front
lawn. I need to know what is this going to cost? or maybe I should
just continue to pick weeds
How often do you feed the lawn?

BTW, It's pointless re-turfing. The underlying problem will still be
there, that is soil infertility and panning due to foot traffic.. You
would be back where you started from in a year.
You know that how? S.A. grass is very different from others...it has
runners above surface of the soil. Putting in "plugs", which are whole
plants with about 4" square chunk of roots and soil, can fill in bare
areas fairly quickly. Can be bought by the tray here in FL. S.A. grass
will send runners up into hedges if not kept edges.
Grass needs nitrogen. The weeds, some can fix nitrogen from the
atmosphere, others have deep tap roots go down and find it in the
subsoil.

Slow release, 3 or 4x year, is best. S.A. grass gets pale looking
without regular feeding.

The grass recycles nitrogen from dead grass rottimg on the surface in
the wild, but as I said previously, you take that away when you mow.

Grass can build up a thick mat of thatch that will kill the grass. You
must have a mulching mower.