Not every bad lawn needs new sod. Thin grass that is still rooted usually comes back with the right watering, mowing height, and feeding, and a soil test will often explain a lawn that looks tired no matter what you do. The five signs below are the ones that mean the turf itself is the problem.
1. The Grass Is Always Brown
A lawn that browns in a dry week and greens after rain is thirsty, not dead; fix the irrigation coverage. A lawn that stays brown through the rainy season is a different case. Do the tug test: pull a handful of grass, and if it lifts with no resistance the roots are gone. Brown, rooted, spreading patches in St. Augustine in summer are usually chinch bugs or sod webworms, which are treatable; brown everywhere, with no roots, is a replacement.
2. Dead Patches All Over the Lawn
Scattered dead patches point at a cause worth naming before re-sodding, because the new sod meets the same cause. Round patches that spread in cool weather are large patch; irregular patches in full sun in summer are chinch bugs; patches that follow a sprinkler head’s arc are dry spots. Once the cause is fixed, patches under about a third of the lawn can be cut out and re-sodded by the piece. When the patches are more than half the lawn, replacing all of it is cheaper than patching and matches better.
3. Weeds Are Taking Over
A few weeds are a maintenance problem. A lawn that is more weed than grass has lost the competition, and no herbicide program turns dollarweed and crabgrass back into St. Augustine. The test is what remains after the weeds are gone: if there is not enough grass left to fill in over a season, replace the lawn. Our guide to the most common lawn weeds covers the ones that mean the lawn is thin underneath.
4. The Grass Does Not Grow the Way It Used To
Grass that stays thin after a season of correct care, or that has been the same lawn for fifteen or twenty years, may be worn out. Old St. Augustine builds thatch and loses vigor, compaction under it stops roots, and the variety may be one that is no longer sold or no longer suited to a yard whose trees have grown. If a soil test comes back fine and the lawn still will not thicken, the grass is the variable left.
5. A Neighbor’s Grass or Weeds Have Moved In
Bermuda from a neighbor’s yard running through a St. Augustine lawn, or a different St. Augustine with a different color and texture, does not go away. Neither does a lawn that was planted with a shade grass in what is now full sun, or the reverse. When the lawn is a patchwork of varieties, the only way back to one lawn is to remove all of it and lay one grass, chosen for the yard as it is today.
What Replacing a Lawn Involves
Remove the old grass with a sod cutter so the roots and runners come out with it; spraying the old lawn a week or two ahead with a non-selective herbicide keeps runners from coming back through the new sod. Then prepare the soil, which is most of the job: test it, work compost into the top few inches, grade it to drain, and firm it. Our guide to soil preparation for sod installation walks through it.
Choose the grass for the yard you have now: Floratam for a sunny, irrigated yard, Bitterblue or ProVista under trees, Bimini Bermuda for heavy traffic in full sun, EMPIRE Zoysia for a dense, fine lawn, and Bahia where there is no irrigation. Then water it in every day for 30 days, which both Manatee and Sarasota counties allow under the current restrictions with a registered establishment variance.
Bayside Sod’s installation crews do the whole sequence, from cutting out the old lawn to the last piece, and you make the final payment only when you are satisfied. If you are in Bradenton, Sarasota, Lakewood Ranch, or anywhere on the Gulf Coast between St. Pete and North Port, request a quote or call (941) 702-1746, and send a photo of the lawn; we can usually tell you from the picture whether it is a repair or a replacement.