1/2 fill in of St. Aug is really good. Most St. Aug is pretty aggressive and fills in nicely. You can easily cater to it and get it to fill all the way in. Then you have to maintain it. Lots of shade in the front? What all have you done/thrown at it and it still looks like hell? The key is finding a program that works for you.

If you do have existing Bermuda, I would try and get it to spreading. A soil test is a must for getting the soil right.

However, if you do seed it, it is not that hard to do, just don’t shortcut it. I built a new house in 2019 and seeded a bare dirt yard (51,090 soft) with Maya Bermuda. It will have to be void of any weeds, tilled down 2” or so, rolled firm, seeded, dragged, and rolled again. When I say firm, I mean when you step on it your shoes leave about a 3/16” print. You will need to put about an inch of water on it, then water for 5 minutes every daylight hour for ten days, and fertilize appropriately. I installed my own sprinkler system in six zones, so I just set the timers and let it do its thing. With a hose and sprinkler, it will be more work than you might think. I don’t have any green pics of it after it was a few months old, but it looks like a green carpet.

I seeded mine on June 19th on bare dirt.

Here it is on July 8th


On July 18th



And Today

That’s the real kicker, I have NO shade in the front at all. Not a single tree, and the house is facing south, so it gets full sun. The St.Aug came from the neighbors i guess. They have a patchy front yard of it.

Really haven’t done much to the yard besides just a couple of treatments of weed and feed. Just the bag stuff from H.D. I like the St.Aug, but know its not really right for my yard, but I’m going to have to go one way or the other with it. I will say its done a good job of taking care of the crab grass issue i had last year. Chokes it right out. And have been spot treating the other crab grass with some O.G. MSMA

Have a professional come out and tell you what is best way ... might be worth it to let him do all the chemical/fertilizer work for half the year then handle it yourself once you have things looking good. I did that after half azzing it myself, not knowing when to do what or what I needed. Worked out too well and gave him walking papers after first year. Told him he did even better than I'd hoped but I couldn't cut my grass every 5 days as it was growing too fast.

Here is a simple program. 1350sq feet you’re looking at like 15 minutes of work once a month to make it look good. We’re going to target about 4lbs of actual N for the year. And this is not going to cost much.

First weekend of every month April-August. Apply 5lbs of Russels Feed Store over you 1350 – One bag will last you the whole year. Cost about $25.00

https://www.russellfeedandsupply.co...rtilizers/nutra-grow-fertilizer-15-5-10/

Stonewall Pre Emergent. At Lowes. St. Aug grow in I would do split apps. Feb 15th 1.75lbs and April 1.75lbs – Do the same Aug 15th and Oct 15th Tough to spread small amounts like that, but do the best you can. $34.00 – One bag is going to last you years.
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Lesco-LESC..._g8WEAQYASABEgKbNPD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

St. Aug you really want to stay ahead of the game on diseases. The main 2 sold at box stores is Scotts Disease Ex and Bayer
https://www.lowes.com/pd/Scotts-DISEASEEx-Lawn-Fungicide-5-m-6/1000617387
https://www.lowes.com/pd/BioAdvanced-Lawn-Fungus-Control-10-lb-Lawn-Fungus-Control/3353738

Those are 2 different active ingredients and you want to rotate them. April 1st apply 2lbs of the Scotts, May 1st apply 7oz of the hose end. And so on.

One of the main pest controls you want to get down is Scotts Grub Ex. It will also protect you if you get an army work breakout like last year. Apply it late April/early May

All above applications need to be watered in.

Weed killers. Be careful with the msma. It will kill St. Aug. St. Aug’s main weed killer is going to be Atrizine. You can get it at Depot/Lowes in a hose end spray. It’s works great on broadleafs. If you find a weed you can’t kill let me know. I’ll most likely have what will kill it and safe for St Aug.

Pretty simple program. Total yearly cost about. $150.00

This is actually a good idea. Not talking like Tru green. Real pros, like someone like Turf Dawg in that area. You could get a good local guy/company to come out. They can ID the dormant grass, if it is dormant that far south. And tell them to smoke every weed you got. They'll probably provide a pre emergent service too. I would pass on their fertilizer part of the service as that's too easy to do yourself. And be prepared to mow your azz off. Good Cultural Practices - Mowing, watering fertilizer. Those alone on a good schedule and you will see a big difference.

Like I said, it’s a mess.

It is a mess. But I don’t see anything that couldn’t be fixed with some work. I see what appears to be dormant Bermuda in a few pics. You have broadleaf weeds which is common this time of year, no big deal. You have what looks to be dormant King Ranch Blue, which is a PITA. And will probably have a few other greasy weeds come spring and summer specially if you don’t get down pre emergent now, but don’t do that if you plan to go the seed route. Labor and cost wise it will be cheaper to attack what you got. But it’s up to you which route you want to go. If you decide you want to fix what you have currently I can type out a basic program to help. Also keep in mind if you do go the seed route, even if you kill of the top growth best you can. You are still going to have a lot of weeds this year since you can't use pre emergent until at least the fall. And you need to be selective to what herbicides you use on new seeded grass. So either way don't be to discouraged about weeds this year.