In March, I applied Bonus S to my St. Augustine lawn. I mow every other week, blade height set to medium (not low, not high - right in the middle)... ... and if I go two days without watering, my lawn is visibly unhappy and clearly thirsty.
I water 3 times a week overnight and still my yard is browning up, some of the St. Augustine has no shade, and just bakes here in Austin, and I am not being forced to cut back to 2 days a week as they put in water restrictions.....not to mention a $600 water bill last month. RAIN RAIN PLEASE COME BACK ! DD
Well I guess you guys can choose to believe me or not but with better habits you could have a much better lawn. St. Aug needs to be cut high. Medium is too low.
Getting a lot of good things in this thread. My parents went out of town so I have been looking after their house and lawn for the past week. My father wanted me to mow the lawn this past weekend but I decided not too because there is no point in sacrificing the extra water. If the grass gets cut it uses water to grow right, so by not cutting it I am saving some water and helping the grass, correct?. It is St. Augustine and I am now think about raising the blade height and mowing the lawn tomorrow morning. FYI, my brother had suggested to me on Sunday that we water the lawn. It was 1 o'clock in the afternoon. C'mon man!
Yes, but if it has no cover and you are in a drought it is not going to grow or stay green. Most of my grass is great, but I have a large back yard where there is no cover and it is in the sun from sunrise to sunset, and without any water, it will die. I am going to have to cut back to 2 days a week though.....as per restrictions. DD
Listen to Casey, he knows what he's talking about. I live in sw Austin also and only water once a week. I cut at the next to highest setting once a week and my yard is very thick and green your doing it wrong, trust me also, go organic slow release fertilizer- don't use that weed and feed, Scotts etc. Your yard will benefit and you live near acquifers also try to top dress and aerate. It's probably too late this year to do anything but aerate but switch in the fall. The natual gardener has a good website this summer is going to be brutal also, go orga
Well that's just f***in great. At least I'll have my ribs from the Castell General Store. If you've never had these, you've never had ribs.
Castell is just west of Llano, off of 2768. It's a small town with a pop. of 23. There's some cabins there that my family stays in once a year that are really nice. Guess we'll have to find other activities for the kids since we won't be going in the water. The General Store only cooks on Saturday's. The ribs and brisket are just amazing. Drought could dry Llano River by week's end
Never said I was, are you saying you are an expert? At this point, there is not much help in mowing higher as it is not really growing...lol. DD
i saw some apartment complex watering their grass during my lunch break. Thats crazy to hear about Castell though. We have a ranch in west texas that had a river until i was around 13. It wasnt a huge river, but it flowed and had pretty good fishing. Anyways, since then it's nothing more than a few puddles here or there...and that's with decent rain. It's just incredible, and depressing, to have a river dry up before your eyes.
It should be. I'm having to mow mine every week the same as if it were raining all the time. Trust me caseys advice is the way to go as well as Going all organic. And if you really have a $600 water bill that's insane
I like his advice, but honestly, there is not much I can do at this point to mow higher, it never grows in the middle of the yard during the summer due to lack of water....I will not have to mow at all in the next month or so.... As for the $600 bill, yeah, it was a bit of a sticker shock but Austin penalizes the more water you use. DD
Now that you mention it, the lawn across the street from me is so perfect and green that it almost has a blue tint to it. Yesterday they mowed it (it's an inventory home) and it still looks pretty long. It's a lot thicker than mine and the sod was put in a month after mine. I think I've been mowing too short. I'm going to try raising my mower level to maybe the 2nd highest setting this weekend. Uh...what does aerate mean? Sounds like what I do in the elevator before I get off...
Oyster Creek? Lost Creek? Haven't been there in awhile. Went there months ago for a walk with my wife. The water level was already low and when it gets that way the stink from what's left of the creek is bad (plus, the water was already choked off by some very aggressively-growing plants).
I always seem to have areas in the lawn that don't do well and dry up faster than others. Is that due to the grass not taking as well, or that the builder didn't put any decent sediment down before laying the st augustine. I mean, it's just one big chunck of lawn with the same sun exposure, but the same 3-4 areas just don't do well and always look pale green/yellowish.
Yeah Oyster Creek. The Sprinklers were running right in the middle of the day. I was over at Fort Bend Memorial Park near UH Fort Bend last week. The little pond there is all but dried up now....and that's in just about a month because it was pretty full at the beginning of May. Crazy.
