• St. Augustine is a warm weather grass. A St. Augustine lawn will lose color with colder temperatures in late December through March.
• St. Augustine requires irrigation to produce a good lawn.
• There are many varieties of St. Augustine grass. Some are shade tolerant such as palmetto, seville and bitter blue. Some require full sun like Floratam.
• Some varieties are susceptible to fungus in the spring and fall when temperatures are favorable for development.
• St. Augustine has a poor tolerance for walking, pets, and driving.

• Bahia grass is a POOR choice for a residential lawn.
• Bahia grass is the least expensive grass for sodding lawns.
• Bahia grass is very drought tolerant.
• Bahia grass has an open growth habit that allows weeds to fill in on a regular basis.
• Bahia grass has a low tolerance to weed controls.
• Bahia grass has a short life span - from 2 to 5 years, in most cases.
• Bahia grass can be seriously damaged by mole crickets.

Southern Care Lawns does not recommend bahia grass for residential lawns.

We also do not offer weed control on bahia grass because of its poor tolerance to weed controls, which could cause damage or injury to grass and speed its decline.

As we noted on your analysis or in person, your lawn has areas of wildgrasses present in your St. Augustine lawn.  These areas are much more noticeable after periods of cold or frost, which send them into varying stages of short-term dormancy.  They will typically stay brown until the temperatures are consistently warm, usually around mid April.  They will grow vigorously with warm temps, rainfall and fertilization. The fertilizer applications we apply, makes all things grow. This includes weeds and wildgrasses, too.

During active, heavy growth period from April to October, you may only notice wildgrasses if you spend a lot of time examining your yard (which we encourage), or if you have a trained eye, like us.  Depending upon the specific wildgrass you have, these may have a slight color or texture difference as compared to your St. Augustine lawn.  A small area of wildgrass may quickly enlarge during high growth periods.  It is important to keep the surrounding St. Augustine grass healthy and vigorous to help slow the infiltration.  Wildgrasses produce high quantities of seed and may spread to other areas via wind, water, animals or your lawn mower.

A few years ago, the State removed from use the only product that was available for control of one of the wildgrasses we encounter, crabgrass.  Businesses had you use up their inventory of the product – ASULOX.  It is no longer to be used on either residential or commercial lawns and is only available for sod farm use, golf courses and pine plantations.

This leaves really only two options.  Leave the wildgrasses alone, understand they will look brown and unsightly during cold periods (November to March), and gradually improve as temperatures warm.  Or, we are happy to apply roundup to kill off these areas entirely.  After two weeks, these areas need to be removed and re-sodded, while remembering that re-infestation is possible and probable to some extent down the line.

We will make you aware of these areas and offer a subcontractor to remove and resod these areas for you at a cost.  Just contact us and we will make arrangements for you to contact the subcontractor.