St Augustine Lawn Renovation: Takes More TIme Than Money

by Rick Orr

A beautiful St Augustine lawn can fail and become an ugly mess. Often the first response is to replace the lawn - costing $3000 to $4000 for a small lawn. But for free you could renovate the lawn, yes free!

How? Once St Augustine has been established and then fails, a small amount of St Augustine will survive. Renovation is the process of pampering the surviving St Augustine until it becomes a beautiful lawn once again.

Case Study

I was approached by a homeowners association in regards to their common areas. There were many areas damaged, dead and some barren. They were considering an estimate from one company to replace $10,000 worth of St Augustine. I suggested that they allow me to renovate the lawn for a year and then reevaluate. After 10 months of renovation the lawn had fully recovered and even reclaimed the barren areas. Savings for the homeowners association: $10,000; cost of renovation: $0.00 – just normal maintenance costs, irrigation repairs and lawn spraying.

Not as Easy as it Sounds

However to take a small sprig of St Augustine and nurse it into a beautiful lawn is not for the novice, it requires knowledge of soils, fertility, irrigation, weeds and pests. Once you have all of that knowledge, you can pamper the St Augustine, reduce and eliminate weeds and protect it from pests. Renovation requires that you perfectly coordinate the mower, the irrigation and lawn spraying to succeed.

It also takes time – usually a full growing season from March until September to see the impact of renovation. Whereas sodding provides an instant lawn – renovation requires patience. Therefore if you need a better lawn today, spend the $4000. But if you got more time than money, renovate!

Best Plan of Action to Renovate a St Augustine Lawn

For the novice there is a steep learning curve to renovate a lawn. You may get the fertility and mowing right only to lose the lawn to chinch bugs or a fungus. Each set back or failure increases the time to renovate and often after years of struggling, the novice often installs sod. The end result is the effort and money spent on renovation is lost.

The best plan of action is hire a professional to renovate.

My company offers an “Elite” service that provides lawn renovation. Elite services provide everything for the lawn – mowing, irrigation, fertility and pest control under my careful management. From that position I can control water, fertility, pest control and mowing to pamper the lawn back to a beautiful lawn – without the costly mistakes.

The end result is a beautiful St Augustine lawn for the price of your normal lawn maintenance fees for mowing, irrigation repair and lawn spraying. For a more information feel free to contact Rick Orr at 727-423-7967 or fill out the request for proposal form here.