I live in Central Florida and my St. Augustine turned completely brown with the hard freezes we had. I have someone who treats my grass and prior to this freeze my grass was really thick and dark green.

Most of the grass has come back but it's thin and not as dark as prior years. Am I just being impatient?

The weather now is hitting the low 80's by 8:00 AM and I have no shade so the grass is exposed to direct sunlight and heat. I am cutting on the second highest setting and watering twice a week via irrigation system and if it looks dry I am hand watering when necessary. How can I get the luster back?

Also, I have a few dead spot (very small areas) it was recommended to use play sand for the good grass to grab. Does this work?

Thanks in advance!

I'm by no means an expert, but I don't believe play sand really adds any benefit to the soil. I would suggest using a combination of Texas Green Sand and Lava Sand instead.

Go ahead and rule out the common culprits... grubs, root fungus, poor watering habits, etc. There's plenty on this forum about that. You might want to consider working in a 1/4 inch of high quality compost top dressing, but that might be jumping the gun as most here prefer patience, it's still early in the St Augustine season.

And let me be the first to point out, "if you had been on the organic problem all along you wouldn't have this problem" Ugh... that line still kills me!

EANTON,

Thanks for the good advice. The positive is I am still told I have one of the nicest yard in the neighborhood. Everything I am reading tells me that St. Augustine should have one deep watering. I wondered if I was over watering but it's been so dry here.

Is it recommended that I fertilize myself. I have a great guy who's been doing it for 3-years but he uses chemicals.

Thanks

I would assume most on the organic program are DIY-ers.

I would suggest reading this before firing Dr. Evil.

http://www.amazon.com/Organic-Manual-Natural-Gardening-Living/dp/1930819579/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1273240693&sr=8-7