I have scheduled a company to come out and aerate the lawn in mid september. After they do this should I also hire someone to place compost, or topsoil througout the yard in order to level it out? And would this be a good time to put out CGM? I just took over the lawn after 9 years of hiring someone to cut it and it is in terrible shape. It is compacted, and full of weeds including some goat heads. The neighbors St. Augustine is coming in very nicely into my yard and I welcome it because it cost me nothing. One more thing, Should I bag the St. Augustine clippings and place them on the other side of the yard to encourage the growth on there as well. I only use a mulching mower, but can bag in order to get this done.
Thanks for everyones help.

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Going organic is the way to go.

If you are putting in new sod I think it would be best to avoid putting clippings or other possible contaminants that could promote weeds. If what you meant is your waiting for your neighbors grass to creep over to your side and give you a beautiful looking lawn... don't hold your breath. Wait til they fall asleep and go out there with a plug cutter and yank out some 3"x3" plugs and stick one about every 12".

Check out some of the interesting organic treatments mention in recent posts, I'm definately learning new things here to try.

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September 24, 2004 : Preparing for the second deadly hurricane to hit this area this month! I can't take much more of this.

I'm not sure but you may have exceeded the legal limit for questions asked in one sentence

I'm not a fan of aeration nor am I a huge fan of composting unless you have had a chemical spill or used chemical -icides on the lawn. In your case, you've got compaction - indicating water mismanagement, and you have goat heads - indicating low fertility. Neither one of those necessarily means you need to aerate or top dress.

Here's my 123 for proper lawn care. If you are not doing these things, you should change what you need to change. When you start doing these three things, your compaction should go away along with the weeds. If you mow the grass high, the St Augustine should fill in nicely.

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.

2. 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.

Mid to late September would be a good time for CGM. You could fertilize now with corn meal or alfalfa and do the CGM in Sept. With the low fertility, you could use all the fertilizer you can get for awhile. Apply CGM again next spring about 3 weeks before your "last frost date."

Don't bag your clippings. Moving the clipped St Aug around won't change anything. It doesn't spread by seed.

If you decide to top dress or compost, the upper limit to apply is 1 cubic yard per 1,000 square feet. This is an almost invisible layer, but if you use more, you risk smothering your St Aug...which might give you an idea as to how to set back the grass elsewhere in your lawn so the St Augustine can move in. After you apply, use a push broom to sweep the compost off the leaves of grass and down to the soil. Using a rake is way overkill and too much work. I just drag the pushbroom around behind me at a quick pace.

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David Hall
Moderator
Dirt Doctor Lawns Forum

do not water for an hour at each station, water for 1" or slightly more if it is hot per week. if thats an hour its an hour, if its 10 minutes its 10 minutes. go by depth not time. dense grass does not shade out weeds, the dense roots choke out the weeds even getting a chance to get started. fertilize based on your grass type, for bermuda (hybrid) that means it needs 4-6 lbs./1000 sq. ft. per year. mowing at the lowes setting will result in scalping unless you have a putting green flat lawn. mow at your grass' height, for hybrid bermuda that is .5-1.5" tall. mow at the lowest you can for the grass without scalping. Never take off more than 1/3 the grass blade at a time either. I will add more but I cannot see the previous posters statements.

Edit. the first frost is in the winter as it signals the start of winter and the last is before spring, with that in mind winterizing your yard is a good idea. dont just add nitrogen to the mix, you need higher levels of phosphate and potash to make sure the roots are good and strong but enough nitrogen to keep the lawn green for as long as possible and for it to store it so it greens up quickly in the spring. I dont know how long organic fertilizers take to work into the ground, but if you were to use chemical urea nitrogen or even a slow release polymer coated one you would want to apply it at the latest 2 weeks before the first expected frost, best bet about a month out.

Aerating with a core aerator may be all some people can do. For instance my builder decided to strip the topsoil off of the lot, after a year the only real "soil" that was placed was from the sod, so not very thick. In order for our lawn to really make it, aerating was necessary, we top dressed with organic matter and sand after that to loosen up the rock hard clay not but 6" down. for some, aerating is the only way to really save the grass or plants as topdressing can take forever to build up a good supply of topsoil and organic matter to the yard, sometimes too long before you run into big problems.

rballow-
Welcome to the Dirt Doctor forum. I have a hard time making you feel welcome with my next statement, but I want to assure you your opinions and experiences are most welcome, EXCEPT...
This is a 100% organic website. Your suggestion to use chemical fertilizer is not welcome. If you are a chemical user and have no experience with organics, I would suggest you read the FAQ above and as many of the older messages as you can stand. This will be quite a learning experience for you. I remember my biggest hurdle in changing over to organics was how much of what I formerly believed was wrong. Again, you are most welcome here Oh, also, you can read the earlier comments by scrolling your window up and then scrolling the inner window up. You don't need to leave the input screen.

When I suggest watering for at least an hour per week, that is a starting point. I am not at all concerned with the number of inches of water. I'm concerned with going a full week without watering again in the summer. If you need to water for two hours to get the grass to last a full week between watering, then go for it. If you can water for 10 minutes and go for a full week in July, I'd be pretty surprised.

Scalping bermuda due to uneven underlying soil is a major drawback with that grass as a turf. This is a bigger subject than I'd like to cover right now.

When you say it can take forever to build up a good supply of topsoil, that's what we're about here. If you're in a hurry, we have some suggestions, but most of us are willing to watch our turf improve over the years with diligent organic care. Rock hard clay is not considered an obstacle at all. Just don't expect it to fill up with organic material by core aerating. The techniques and materials I suggest work together and are focused to growing roots deep into it. Big problems with weeds, insects, or disease just don't happen in organic lawns if you control your watering and mowing as we suggest here.

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David Hall
Moderator
Dirt Doctor Lawns Forum