Hi, just had my soil tested and found I'm high in Calcium, and the PH is high and low in phosphorus, and potassium, the magnesium is adequate. Now, I need to know where to go to find all the nutrients that I need! I'm putting this on a 5 yr. old lawn that looks really puny! I plan to aerate first, but need to know how to buy these products, organic is the way I want to go!

I would get a bag of Texas Tee and apply it to your lawn.

That soil analysis is the same one for about 1/2 of Texas. There is not very much you can do except proper care with water, mowing, and fertilizing. Howard would have you applying all kinds of rock dusts, molasses, and other potions. Those might be fine AFTER you get going with a basic program. I would wait on those and just focus on the freebies (watering and mowing) and basic fertilizing. Here are the basic guidelines.

1. Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an hour in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds and prevent new (weed) seeds from germinating.
   
2. Mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. Bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses are the most dense when mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. Dense grass shades out weeds and uses less water when tall. Dense grass feeds the deep roots you're developing in 1 above.
   
3. Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 4 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above.

If you fertilize with something like alfalfa pellets at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet every month, you will soon see the most amazing improvement.

For more discussion about lawns, visit the lawn forum.

I try to do my neighbors a favor by keeping it mowed so the weeds don't go to seed, but I have so many other things to do with my time and money than hunt down weeds. If you've ever seen the old one-panel "Pluggers" cartoon, you may have seen the one I clipped years ago with the caption "Pluggers know that mowed weeds look just like turf.

...and to a lot of people, unmowed grass looks like weeds. Here is a picture of part of my lawn that has not been mowed since September.



It is not quite knee high in that photo. It is uneven in height, but there are no seed heads or flowers to deal with. There are also no weeds in that part of the lawn. This is part of an experiment. The rest of my lawn will join in on the experiment when it starts growing again...which was last week actually. The test is to see how long the lawn can go without watering or fertilizing.

The mowed part of my lawn went dormant but the tall part never did. In this pic you can see the frost damage from two nights when the temps dropped. We had dew going on when it froze, so the grass shows that damage.



Except for being so tall, the grass looks great. This lawn is in George West.

David,

That is a gorgeous lawn! Can you tell us what all you did in the beginning? I assume what all you recommend on your FAQ!

I will be posting later in the lawn care forum- we have a true bonafide lawn disaster going on.

Easttexasproud

What I did in the beginning? I just bought the house in late September. It has 1/2 acre of St Augustine and 1/2 acre of King Ranch bluestem (weeds planted by the Texas highway department). As you may recall, we were at the end of a drought last September. In preparation to sell the house, the previous owner had set the water timer to water for 30 minutes, 3x per week. Knowing that the lawn had not had much water in a long time, I let that schedule ride for a few weeks. With that much water I could not keep up with mowing. I mowed the front, completely, twice. That where I took the picture is on the west side under some oak trees. It has not been mowed since a week before I took possession.

Since then I stopped watering completely in October. Obviously I have not mowed, either. Fertilizer will be a problem with the budget constraints. I'm sneaking some fertilizer down here from my house in San Antonio.

I used to think riding mowers were for sissies.