Many homeowners want beautiful landscaping and a green lawn. If you live along the Gulf Coast or in a hot climate, there’s a good chance you have some vibrant St. Augustine grass on your property. This turfgrass species is most common in Florida and Texas. It’s known for its bright blueish-green color, thick appearance, and resistance to drought stress — but only with the right care. While this species might be tolerant to high heat and intense sun, it requires some dedicated maintenance.
Keeping your St. Augustine grass in tip-top shape is possible as a DIY lawn project. However, many homeowners turn to professionals for the best and fastest results. TruGreen is one of the best lawn care companies in the industry, and the company’s technicians have the local knowledge and experience required to make your St. Augustine grass the envy of the neighborhood.
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Can I Revive Dead St. Augustine Grass?
Like with other grass species, if your St. Augustine grass is dead, you won’t be able to restore the thick, vibrant lawn you used to have without growing new grass. If your lawn is dormant, unhealthy, dried out, or browning but not quite dead, there’s still hope for a healthy lawn.
Four DIY Steps to Reviving St. Augustine’s Grass
Bringing your St. Augustine grass back to its deep blue-green color and thick appearance will require time and effort. If you follow the four steps below, your yard should begin to look beautiful once again in just a few weeks.
1. Limit Activity on the Grass
The first order of business is to reduce the negative effect on your lawn. Foot and vehicle traffic makes your grass very stressed, so limit movement on your grass while you’re working to make it grow again.
2. Improve the Soil
Your grass will only be as healthy as the soil, so paying attention to what’s under your grass can help your lawn stay healthy. The steps below will help you improve your soil quality manifold.
Begin by completing a soil test on your property. St. Augustine grass needs a special balance of nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium to grow well. A soil test will help you find any missing nutrients on your property. Your lawn can take in nutrients from the soil based on its pH. The test will also tell you if you need to add soil amendments. Don’t know how to test the soil pH? Refer to our article that provides detailed instructions on checking soil pH.
Thatch is the layer of decomposing organic matter — dead grass clippings, leaf litter, etc. — that builds up between your grass and the soil below. Over time, the thatch layer can prevent your St. Augustine grass from getting the required nutrients and amount of water from the ground. It’s crucial to understand what dethatching entails. This process removes the thatch layer and significantly improves the overall health of your lawn. Coupling aeration with dethatching can give your lawn the best opportunity to thrive.
3. Water Your Lawn
All grass species need adequate water to thrive, and this is especially true for St. Augustine grass, which commonly exists in warm climates that experience intense sunlight. Consistently watering your lawn can help reduce heat stress on your grass, avoid brown spots, and improve the color of your lawn.
You should aim for a stable lawn care schedule that enables you to water your St. Augustine lawn around twice a week for a year-round schedule and three times in the summer. Use your sprinkler to give your yard about an inch of water each time you water it. This will keep the soil wet but not soggy, which is the best way for your grass to grow.
4. Mow Lawn on High Setting
Finally, make sure to mow your lawn no lower than three inches in the summer and about two inches in all other seasons. A low lawnmower blade setting not only makes your yard work harder, but also lets in weeds like dandelions, crabgrass, and clover (see how to get rid of clover naturally), and insects like grub worms, that can hurt your yard.
After applying all the methods listed above, you might want to explore additional techniques for achieving quick grass growth, as outlined in our article. These methods can help you successfully revive your St. Augustine grass.
What Kills St. Augustine Grass?
One of the best ways to find the solution that will make your yard grow again is to figure out what killed your grass. Many things can stress St. Augustine grass, so it’s often worthwhile to figure out the underlying issue before deciding what treatment is right for your property.
Diseases
All grass species can fall victim to several lawn diseases. The most common fungal and bacterial infections that affect St. Augustine grass develop because of high heat and humidity. Some diseases to look out for that might require a fungicide or other treatment include:
- Brown patch disease is characterized by spreading brown spots on your lawn.
- Gray leaf spot disease is characterized by brown spots on the property or gray-brown discoloration on individual grass blades.
- Pythium root rot is characterized by bald patches or gradual browning.
- Take-all root rot is characterized by a thinning lawn, brown or dead patches, and grass that is easily pulled out along with the root system.
Over-Fertilizing
Many homeowners understand the value of fertilizing, but some take it too far and end up over-treating their lawns. Nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium are all needed for your lawn to grow well. But too much fertilizer can make the levels too high and can burn your grass and kill it. This is especially an issue for St. Augustine grass, which is also commonly stressed by hot temperatures and extreme sun.
For the health of your St. Augustine grass, make sure to use the services of a reputable lawn fertilizer company.
Pest Infestation
Where there is grass, there will be lawn insects. Lawn grubs are a prevalent issue for St. Augustine lawns. They feed on the grassroots and destroy your yard from underneath. Chinch bugs are another common issue in areas where St. Augustine grass is standard. These insects eat the water that moves through grass blades and kill the grass by taking away the nutrients it needs.
Poor Soil pH
St. Augustine grass needs nutrients in the soil to grow well. It also needs a good soil pH to take in nitrogen, phosphorus, and potassium. If the pH is too low or too high, or if the soil is not good, your grass won’t get these nutrients. You will also get weeds that can fight your lawn for these nutrients. When this happens, I suggest you check out Today’s Homeowner’s comprehensive guide on ways to restore a weed-filled lawn.
Best Professional Lawn Care: TruGreen
Maintaining a lawn can be challenging enough, but bringing it back from the brink of death seems near impossible for many homeowners. Most people can find professional lawn care companies to help them fix their lawns. These companies have years of experience and know the area well.
If you’re looking to toss in the towel and resort to professional help for your lawn, TruGreen is one of the best options. This company has decades of experience and success stories. The technicians are highly trained and understand the needs of local grass species like St. Augustine. It has a variety of lawn care plans to choose from for customized services. TruGreen also offers a guarantee that you won’t be disappointed. You can be sure that they will treat your St. Augustine grass well.
Final Thoughts: You Can Revive St. Augustine Grass
Taking care of any grass species is essential, but St. Augustine grass — commonly subjected to the stress of high heat and intense sunlight — requires a special amount of care and maintenance. Improving soil pH, nutrients, and moisture levels is essential for maintaining your St. Augustine yard. Selecting the ideal lawn mower for your specific grass type and needs is also crucial.
Many homeowners struggle to keep their St. Augustine grass as beautiful as it can be, and they end up envying their neighbor’s lawns that have that lush, blue-green appearance. You can hire a professional lawn care provider for help and guidance to reduce stress and get the best and fastest results possible. TruGreen is one of the best companies for the job. They have many lawn care services, cheap prices, and a guarantee that you’ll be happy. You can browse TruGreen’s plans today to find one that suits your needs and fits into your budget.
FAQs About St. Augustine Grass
There are several reasons why your St. Augustine grass could be dying. Common causes of bare spots can include a lack of water, or conversely, overwatering your grass lawn. Cutting the grass too short can also damage it, leaving your once green grass looking lack-luster.
Other issues could be pests, fungal diseases, soil issues, or cold damage. If you spray insecticides, make sure they won’t damage your lawn.
If your lawn looks less green than you’d like, there are steps you can take to improve the overall health of your lawn. During warm seasons, mow with the blades set to 2.5 to 4 inches, remembering to not remove more than one-third of the grass at a time. Water deeply in the early morning about once a week.
Fertilize your St. Augustine grass in the early spring, monitor for pests, and spray herbicides that are safe for your grass.
If you notice that your St. Augustine grass is browning, or notice dead areas in your grass, there can be several causes. Drought stress can cause browning grass, as well as overwatering, nutrient deficiencies, pest infestations, fungal diseases, and cold damage.
St. Augustine grass needs 4 to 5 hours of sun a day and about one inch of watering per week. Be sure to fertilize your grass to make sure it’s getting all the nutrients it needs as well.
Today’s Homeowner Rating & Methodology
At Today’s Homeowner, transparency and trust are our most important values for the reader. That’s why we took the time to create an objective rating system and score each lawn company/service according to our methodology.
Our research team dug deep into the fine print of contracts, combed through more than one hundred customer reviews, and thoroughly investigated all of each lawn care service’s services, costs, and products. We’ve done the homework for you by researching nearly all of the lawn care companies on the market so you can have the information you need to make the best choice for your home.
We developed a formula to objectively determine the best lawn care companies and give each a score out of 100 based on the following criteria:
- Plan Options (30): Do they provide a variety of plan options? We looked at the number of plans each company offered and the flexibility of adjusting the plan.
- Services offered (20): How many services are offered in each plan? We looked at the number of lawn care coverages, including weed control, seeding, irrigation, aeration, dethatching, and more.
- Trust (10): What do customers say after their lawn has been serviced? Does this company offer a guarantee? We considered how satisfied customers are post-service if the company does what it says it will, BBB accreditation, and service guarantees.
- Prices (10): How reasonable are the costs of the plan or service in comparison to the industry average? We compared the costs of each company to competitors that offer the same lawn services.
- Unique perks (10): Does the company offer discounts or special services such as organic treatments, pest control, or a mobile app? We looked for the perks each company offers that set them apart from the competition.
- Customer Service (10): How is the customer experience when contacting the company? We considered the speed of response, weekend/holiday availability, and ease of communication through phone calls, email, and online chat functions.
- Nationwide availability (10): How many states does the company offer its services? Companies that operate nationally and in all zip codes are favored over those with limited availability.
