St. Augustine Lawn Maintenance Plan

Summary

I try to use family and pet safe/organic solutions as much as possible with a focus on soil health over lawn health. Goal I’m shooting for is to get the soil health fixed as ours is just mostly sand and the nutrients just drain straight through into the ground as soon as you spray it.  I have about 2-3 inches of good soil now under the grass compared to just pretty much sand when I started. 

Implementation

Procedure

  1. Choose your path Gnome or Sunday and Yard Mastery
    1. Soil Test with Yard Mastery (Gnome or Sunday will provide as well, but I just use them to help boost a bit/supplement as needed).
    2. I soil test twice a year, before growing season in like February and in September so I can monitor the soil health before fall/winter comes
  1. After results Yard Mastery will provide the recommended products and application time for the fertilizers.  Gnome/Sunday will provide their recommendations as well for the liquid fertilizer.  IMPORTANT NOTE: If you choose to use Gnome/Sunday over getting Yard Mastery Bio-Stimulant apply the fertilizer at least 2-3 weeks after Yard Mastery to prevent over fertilizing.  The nitrogen levels of the Gnome/Sunday are not very high so won’t be a major issue, but the main use is the sea kelp and other micronutrients which will help the soil health.  
  2. General Application Example
    1. Fertilizer: Standard Fertilizer
    2. Soil Health: Refers to Bio-Stimulant or Gnome/Sunday
    3. Pre-Emergent: Corn Gluten based products either Simplygro or liquid from Gnome/Sunday
    4. Iron: It is already included in the weed control and in the granular fertilizer so I don’t use extra.  Last year I did use Doctor Iron (one bag) to help kickstart it.
    5. Weed Control: Iron based spray
    6. Pest Control: Composed of Lemongrass and Cedar Oils that repel insects (can also use cedar chips spread over lawn as well).
    7. January/February
      1. Pre-Emergent (Simply-gro)
    8. March
      1. Pre-Emergent Spray (Gnome/Sunday)
      2. Pest Spray (Cedarcide/Gnome/Sunday)
      3. Fertilizer and soil health/micronutrient solution
        1. Microgreene
    9. April
      1. Pest Spray (Cedarcide/Gnome/Sunday)
    10. May
      1. Pest Spray (Cedarcide/Gnome/Sunday)
    11. June
      1. Pest Spray (Cedarcide/Gnome/Sunday)
      2. Fertilizer and soil health/micronutrient solution
        1. Microgreene
    12. July
      1. Pest Spray (Cedarcide/Gnome/Sunday)
    13. August
      1. Pest Spray (Cedarcide/Gnome/Sunday)
      2. Fertilizer and soil health/micronutrient solution
        1. For Yard Mastery:
          1. RGS
          2. Humic12
          3. Microgreene
    14. September
      1. Pest Spray (Cedarcide/Gnome/Sunday)
      2. Fertilizer:
        1. Stress Blend
      3. Soil Health
        1. Humic12
        2. Air8
        3. RGS
        4. Microgreene
    15. October/November
      1. Pest Spray (Cedarcide/Gnome/Sunday)
      2. Fertilizer
        1. Freedom
      3. Soil Health
        1. RGS
        2. Microgreene
    16. December
      1. Pest Spray (Cedarcide/Gnome/Sunday)

    Specialized Instruction

    1. Mowing
      1. Special Note: St. Augustine Grass should be kept at a length of 3-4 inches for optimal health.  Cutting shorter will result in the grass getting exposed and can be burned/allow weeds and pests to infest.
    2. Weed Control:
      1. Use the Weed control as needed throughout the year.  By using the more natural approach of just iron vs herbicide it is safer, but requires more oversight.  
        1. The way that the iron spray works is by attaching onto the flowering part of the weed and killing it that way. If you mow first it doesn’t let the weed killer latch on as good and isn’t as effective.
      2. Procedure that I found useful in August 2023 was 
        1. To let the grass and weeds grow for a week.  
        2. Spray either the Gnome or Sunday (Sunday I found to be more effective for weed control for some reason) over the entire lawn with a focu on problem areas.
        3. Leave it for another week
        4. Then mow at 4 inches and bag do not mulch the grass (or it will spread the weeds)
        5. Spray on either the Gnome or Sunday all in one fertilizer and the pre-emergent weed killer/preventer.  
          1. Goal is to boost up the health of the grass while inhibiting the weed growth. St. Augustine grass will choke out anything else if it is kept healthy.
          2. Pre-emergent will help prevent seeding

    Materials & Resources

    1. Application
      1. Rotary Granular Spreader - I use the Scotts Edgeguard so I can control where it goes
      2. Sprayer: included with gnome/sunday, but if you use the others I use the ryobi 2-gallon, but I recommend getting the backpack. I regret it because it would save a lot of time and be easier on the back instead of lugging around a 20lb pack (not much weight but after 30-60 minutes it's annoying)..  I use ryobi because I have the batteries, but there are better ones out there as well.
      3. mower/edger: i use Ryobi as well.
    2. Fleas, Ticks, Mosquitos, pest prevention:  
      1. Cedarcide Outdoor Bug Control (requires a sprayer or buy the venturi attachment for the hose):
        1. https://cedarcide.com/collections/bundles-kits/products/pco-choice-cedarcide-original-bundle?_pos=5&_fid=97169eb20&_ss=c&variant=43849475522780 
      2. Sunday and Gnome have their own solutions as well which work great, but I’m trying Cedarcide because it is cheaper and I think it's pretty much the same stuff just in bulk.  They provide the sprayer and it just attaches to the garden hose
    3. Grub Control and Weed Pre-emergent
      1. Gnome Pre-emergent weed Control:
        1. https://trygnome.com/products/lawn-guard?variant=42387744424131
      2. Purely Organic Grub and Feed
        1. https://simplygro.com/products/purely-organic-products-grub-and-feed-lawn-food?currency=USD&utm_medium=product_sync&utm_source=google&utm_content=sag_organic&utm_campaign=sag_organic&gad=1&variant=45639233765684 
    4. Weed Treatment
      1. Gnome Weed Wizard:
        1. https://trygnome.com/collections/all/products/weed-wizard?variant=42465188905155
      2. Sunday Dandelion Doom Herbicide Starter Set
        1. https://www.getsunday.com/shop/lawn-care/weed-control/dandelion-doom-starter-pack
    5. Fertilizer:
      1. Main:
        1. Yard Mastery:
          1. Soil Test to find out what you need, but probably similar to me:
          2. Started with Starter Fertilizer with Bio-Nite for one year
            1. https://yardmastery.com/collections/best-selling/products/12-12-12-starter-fertilizer-with-3-iron-and-bio-nite%E2%84%A2 
          3. Then moved to Flagship:
            1. https://yardmastery.com/collections/best-selling/products/24-0-6-flagship-granular-lawn-fertilizer-with-iron 
          4. And Stress Blend I will be applying in the fall in preparation for winter:
            1. https://yardmastery.com/collections/best-selling/products/7-0-20-stress-blend-with-bio-nite%E2%84%A2 
    6. Soil Health:
      1. All in One Solutions (more expensive but easier just applied with a garden hose):
        1. Gnome Magic Lawn:
          1. www.trygnome.com 
          2. Helps to boost the other nutrients and can provide an easier solution as they just mail you the items
        2. Sunday Lawn Care
          1. www.getsunday.com 
          2. Another Solution as well and I’m comparing it to Gnome this year
      2. More cost effective, but requires mixing the chemicals and applying with a backpack or handheld sprayer:
        1. Yard Mastery Bio-Stimulant Pack:
          1. https://yardmastery.com/collections/best-selling/products/bio-stimulant 
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