I’ve had st Agustine grass for 17 yrs.. I reel mow my lawn to 1 inch and it looks amazing..I’m in California.I guess I’ve trained it to b short never had it more than 2 inches..

@@SNuts-bu7pn i used to think my st Augustine looked good that low as well! I was fooling myself! The yard looked good but it was not healthy for the turf! I’d like to see a video of your yard!

@@SNuts-bu7pn How much physical activity is happening on your St. Augustine lawn? Any dogs regularly on the lawn?

Do you bag or mulch? Also do you dethatch it?

@@scgamerd I mulch mainly! I use liquid dethatch

Glad it was helpful and thank you for watching!

Thank you very much for adding this information here for everyone! I am glad you liked the video, thank you for watching!

@@thesecretgarden6948 quick question, what happens when you cut it too short?

If you have an area that is suspected to be not getting enough water during the sprinkling session, set out an empty tuna can and make sure it's being filled up .

Gotta love that HOA enforces St Augustine but also restricts watering to twice a week

lol thats awesome

What nitrogen do you use?

They use the bare minimum that's required.. cuts on coat on their end.

Awesome, good luck! I love Milo, by far my favorite. Thank you for watching, I’m really glad you liked it! :)

Glad it was helpful!

Every five days in the summer

@@thesecretgarden6948 Every third day in Tampa-St. Pete. 😎

@@ranger2316 oh man! Now that is a lot of work

@@thesecretgarden6948 Yeah ... but it would be knee-high if we didn't.

I don’t feel like my grass is even high enough to cut right now

Thank you very much!

I always do yard work in steel toe. Easy protection.

Thank you very much!

Disagree. My lawn would dead in the Aug. heat around Houston. Large oak trees will take 50 - 60 gal /day out of the ground. Daily morning water is the way to go.

@@johnblay379 If you have large trees around your grass then you will definitely have an issue regardless, there is nothing you can do about your trees leaching water and nutrients from your grass... BUT, if you water your grass daily, then your grass roots will be shallow because they are not having to go deeper to find water.. that will make your grass weaker and more likely to die or get disease.

That is awesome!!! I am really glad that you are deciding to do that. Also, thank you for watching my videos, I am glad you enjoy them. I am currently editing a video I made on putting down St Augustine sod, so if you are planning on doing that, hopefully that video will help you as well. As far as the mowing, it just depends on the weather and how fast it grows. I like to keep my Bermuda grass shorter so that it is easier for the St Augustine to take over and as a general rule, mowing more often is better than not enough. I mow my St Augustine on the highest setting and generally it is every 2 weeks but if you see weeds starting to grow taller than your grass then you need to mow quicker b/c you dont want weeds to start trying to take over your st augustine.

St. Augustine will not take over Bermuda grass. It is the other way around. You have to remove the Bermuda grass if you want to have St. Augustine. If you have an established area of Bermuda, that you want to cover with St. Augustine, the Bermuda needs manually removed. After removing, keep in mind that while St. Augustine can be aggressive, it isn't always, and it isn't In all scenarios. The environmental needs to be right. Bermuda, which is highly aggressive, highly durable, and highly invasive will normally win the battle hands down. It's just a matter of time. The only way I can think to avoid this is sodding with Scott's Pro Vista, and then treating the Bermuda (etc) with tolerated herbicides.

@@johnlong9494 Good info however in my case when we bought the house 20 years ago the sod that was placed by the builder was Bermuda BUT apparently St Augustine started to appear on one side and after all this years it took over the Bermuda and glad it did since I like St. Augustine better. I think possibly the builder accidentally mixed a small portion at the time and it took over from there.

I just measured my mower when at the 5 "setting" and it is at 3 inches. The 3 "setting" on my mower is 2 inches, so yes you are correct.

Milorganite, it is what I use and works very well: amzn.to/3aABX54 Thank you very much for watching! I am glad you enjoy my videos :)

Honestly both would grow just fine there, they would both thrive. You just need to decide which one you like best. Bermuda is easier to grow than St Augustine but I think St Augustine prettier.. The grass blades are much larger on St Augustine and when grown correctly, it gets very thick and chokes out weeds. The issue people have with St Augustine is that it is more susceptible to diseases and needs to be maintained a lot more, it is less forgiving. Bermuda is a very forgiving grass and does not get very many diseases and is easy to grow and fast growing (but in my opinion not as pretty and definitely not as soft to walk on). If you can give your grass the attention it needs then I suggest St Augustine... if you dont think you can give it extra attention, then Bermuda is a better choice.

I use Milorganite which is a slow release fertilizer and had a good amount of iron in it.. I absolutely love it and is the only fertilizer I recommend for St Augustine. You can buy it at Lowes, Home Depot, or I also have a link to it on Amazon (cheaper at lowes and home depot). If you have thick thatch, you should dethatch or you need to aerate your lawn so that it can naturally break the thatch down quicker.

I'm a fan of bagging just about every other cutting. Especially in the summer. In central Florida we usually get those quick afternoon thunderstorms that provide enough water to cause the grass to grow almost a half inch/day. If you don't bag some of that the thatch layer becomes unmanageable. And we all know that cinch bugs and grubs (SA's biggest enemy) just love that environment.

I should have mentioned that in the video, thank you for bringing it up. You want to use a fertilizer low in nitrogen and high in potassium for the last fertilization before your first freeze. Something like Covington's "Power Grow" is a good option because it is 3-18-18. I am a big proponent of just using compost and cow manure for lawns (as well as gardens) but you definitely need to use something like this to winterize it.

Starter fertiliser

No, I am sorry I do not, I wish I could help

Actually it is the opposite for reel mowers. They don't cut HIGH enough for St Augustine. They are good for cutting non stolon grasses, like you'd find on a golf coarse. You may find some reel mowers that are "High Cut", but if you read the fine print, that HIGH cut is only 2-3 inches.(Golf coarse grass height"

Malorginite

The front yard is always our biggest issue in TX (mine too) b/c of our small yards and large trees. I made a video recently on this and I ended up cutting down one of my two large shade trees b/c of this. The issue is that the tree roots are going through your lawn and sapping all the nutrients from your grass (and larger roots are creating bare spots). I was fertilizing my front yard way more but that is not sustainable and it also still wasn't able to completely fix it. What you should do is aerate your front lawn really well, which will let your grass roots go deeper in the soil so that they will not be as affected by the tree roots. This will take time to see a difference, but it will help a lot in the long run. You can also use a liquid aerator after a core aeration. I have a video on it if you want to watch: kzfaq.info/get/bejne/aZalrJOq2NiuXas.html

You should call a local company who sells sod to ask them what grows the best in your area.

Honestly it does not matter.. The most important thing is that you keep your blade sharp so that it does not "tear" at the grass, but cuts it cleanly. St Augustine grass needs to be cut as cleanly as possible to avoid diseases and improper growth. If you use a mower w/ two blades, then generally you have a wider mowing pattern, so it takes you less time to mow.. but that is just personal preference and does not matter to the grass.

Thank you!

Yep

Thank you, that is very true!

Blindside or Celcius.

Hey! Thank you for subscribing and also for commenting. I do not have a Facebook page but I will gladly try to help you with your lawn issues. Is your lawn currently yellowing? If your grass is yellow but not dying, then it is low in either Iron or Nitrogen. If you fertilize your lawn then it would be a lack of Iron b/c that is not in most fertilizers; therefore you would need to buy and use Ironite (which you can buy from Amazon or any lawn store). If the grass is turning yellow and then dying, then you have a fungus and you need to apply a fungicide and/or cut out and remove the diseased portion so that it does not spread.

@@thesecretgarden6948 Thank You, I took a sample of my grass to my local nursery and it was a fungus😭 Today I put down a product they recommended that will fix my problem. I feel much more relieved.

@@spintowinslots7141 Good! Very smart taking it to the local nursery. I am glad you found out what it is, I know that makes you feel alot better and in control. Good luck, I really hope it fixes it quickly.

Im having the same problem with mine. I hope he sees our comment!

Thank you for the comment! I am glad you enjoyed the video. The brown spot in the video is where I was not able to kill the fungus quick enough and it sadly killed a small portion of the grass before I was able to properly treat it. All the rest of the grass is healthy now and is recovering. Sadly, if the grass turns brown, then that spot is already dead and the only thing you can do is remove it and either put a piece of sod down, plant some grass runners, or let the grass naturally grow back in that area. What you need to watch out for is if the brown spot gets larger. If that happens then you have not killed the fungus or issue with your grass. If that is the case and adding iron or manure (or other rich compost) is not helping it, then the only way to fix it is to cut out the infected area so that it does not keep spreading and then put sod down.. I have had to do that once and it is unfortunate but sadly not every disease that St Augustine grass gets, is treatable. I hope this helps and if you have another question or need clarification, please ask.

The Secret Garden thank you very much for the detail, I drop ironite , bioadvanced fungus control ( liquid) + dieseasx.. looked to get better then the constant rain turned it around it seems in one month..

The Secret Garden tested ph too and it’s at 7.5.. think this is it?

For my comment above - after triple treatment it turned bad after constant heavy rain

Not the height, I am currently mowing mine at 2.5 inches and it is doing great. Just make sure your reel mower is cutting it cleanly enough and not ripping the grass

@@thesecretgarden6948 thanks. I use the reel where I can and carefully use the weed water for spots that it can’t get to

Lol, yes... I think you are right, next time!

😅

Where do you live? If you are in a hotter climate like Texas, then you should go with either St Augustine or Bermuda.. I personally like St Augustine b/c if you treat it well, it can be very pretty.

@@thesecretgarden6948 California.

Raleigh St Augustine

I haven't had any issue with that at all, it has been the opposite, slowly the St Augustine invades the Bermuda (which is what I want). St Augustine grows so thick that if you take care of it properly, it will choke out all weeds and other grasses. Have you had any issues with your Bermuda invading St Augustine?

@@thesecretgarden6948 Is it just a matter of letting the St. Augustine grow taller?

@@rollthers3157 Sort of. I cut the Bermuda grass alot shorter which makes it easier for the St Augustine to slowly take over. It will send runners out and take over.

@@thesecretgarden6948 Thank you!

That’s true if you water too much and the water is sitting and no longer being soaked into the ground. But of course, watering only in the morning would prevent that. Good comment, thank you!

😂😂😂not really watering at night worked well for me

Why do golf courses water at night

20 min each section. You can start with less and see how long it is able to last before needing to water again. I have most my zones at 15 min currently but 1 at 20. It depends on how much shade there is and if there are trees

@@thesecretgarden6948 Thank you for the response! I wasn't really expecting it since it's been posted months ago. It is pretty much no shade except for the side of the house. I just bought a house in a new neighborhood.

@@lostkid3156 You are very welcome, I try to respond to every comment. Congratulations on your new house, that is very exciting! One thing I will add is that because it is currently the spring, it will rain a lot more and so you don’t need a water as often or as much. You will be doing a lot more watering on a regular basis in the summer months when it never rains. My advice would be to set your sprinklers initially for 15 minutes per zone in the early morning, only water in the early morning, and then just see how long it is until your broad leaves start curling and you know you need to water again. Theoretically you would like to be able to water the day before the leaves curl but you need to find out how long that will take. Again though it will take less time in the summer when it is really hot and never rains. Hopefully this isn’t too overwhelming but I want to make sure you have all the information you need, I promise it is easier than it might seem.

What about March 1?

I'm in Houston and most of March has been raining thus I've only watered 2x the entire month of March. On March 1st you should be getting dead leaves and dead grass out of the yard. If you,ve got fungus issues put down propiconazole after the leaves are raked.. The next week you're putting down Prodiamine weed killer or weed and feed to prevent weeds from getting started. That's when you water...only when you've completed the prep work. All this before you see one green blade of grass.

@@saquist I’m in Beaumont, and new to this and I didnt do everything you said. There’s plenty of dead grass still in my yard and that’s how I ended up on this video trying to figure out what to do. I’ve seen some areas in my lawn where I’m guessing it’s fungus where it’s green and and some black spots mainly where sand was at. I put weed killer down and some fertilizer already, but that’s about it , but I may need more water.

@@Dizzinator2114 I was where you are now last year. The good news is spring is a booster for grass growth. What I didn't know last year is that by watering too much I was accelerating fungus growth so Spring was good but the fungus' began overpowering the grass. Remember both Grass and Fungus feed off of Nitrogen and water so over-fertilization and over watering will help Fungus when the heat hits. Grass doesn't like heat over 100° F Now I'd rather let the grass die than feed the fungus because its hell-difficult to get rid of...and expensive.

No, I do not see any large benefit from that. I use Epsom salt for my garden because it helps the plants on nutrient absorption and helps them deal with the heat of the summer, but the grass doesn't need that. If you want to make your grass greener then you want to buy Ironite to give it an iron boost, which will make it nice and green.

Thank you so much for responding to my question. Good video and information.

@@jwill9223 No worries! If you have any more questions don’t hesitate to ask

Let me guess... you have one or two large shade trees in your front lawn? If so, then those trees are sapping all the nutrients out of your front lawn and the trees are getting the benefit of the fertilizer that you put on your lawn. If thats not the case, let me know..

@@thesecretgarden6948 I have two oak trees but they are small. Only 4 years old.

OK so yellow in St Augustine grass is usually only two things, lack of nutrients or a fungus. You can try to buy disease X and apply it or use a fungicide.

@@thesecretgarden6948 I’ll give it a try. Thanks for responding! Love your channel. Very informative.

@@stephanied1028 You are welcome, thank you very much for watching!

If it’s fresh sod then you water heavy initially after you lay it and then check the grass daily by sticking those fingers into the grass and if the sod dirt under the grass in dry and hard, water again.

@@thesecretgarden6948 thanks

Love them! I have a video on how I do it. I use core aeration and also liquid aeration.

Can you ask him what height he is cutting it at? If you have him skip a few weeks, then when he cuts again he will be cutting off more than 50% of the grass which is bad.. You want to mow St Augustine more often, not less often; so the most important thing will be to get him to mow higher, not less often. What weed killer are you using for your weeds? Or have you started using one yet?

I just got rid of my lawn guy, the St. Augustine is hardly growing. Been 3 weeks and it's grown about 1/4-1/2 ". I'm watering 3x per week for 30 minutes. I did add some compost and the lawn was treated with fertilizer by company I used about a week ago. If this doesn't work I'm thinking about tearing it up and starting over.

Yes, I will make one after the video I am currently editing for this week. Is there anything specific you want me to show or talk about? Or just an update?

@@thesecretgarden6948 i actually wanted to see the growth rate. It would be great if you compare the plants size with the last videos. Thanks for your efforts!

Shambhavi Tiwari Okay, will do!

The Secret Garden Mmm.

I just uploaded an elephant ear update video! :)

Sorry I did not respond to this yet, I didn't see it. Are you still having this issue? It means that your grass is stressed and probably started going to seed at the same time. Usually this is caused by a combination of not enough water and freezing conditions.. The grass is just stressed.

@@teamjatakeshwara4369 Make sure you are watering enough. If any of your grass blades are folded into themselves and not flat and broad, then you need to water more. If you have had alot of frost and cold weather, then you just have to wait for that to go away but most likely you had cold weather and another issue that stressed it; either not enough water or fertilizer. If you are going to continue to have cold weather for a while, then you can buy a "winterization fertilizer" blend but if the cold is gone then you want to do normal fertilization to help it get out of this issue. Also make sure you are mowing enough to remove any of the seed pods that started growing (you dont want the grass putting energy in the seed pods).

I have a video that I put out recently talking about how I fixed my yellowing lawn.

I’ve done all except the Revive treatment I do have a oak tree it has been getting better but still a lot of yellow air raiding and iron nite liquid and none liquid

I don’t know, it gets crazy hot and dry here. Over 100 last year for 60 days in a row