Your advice did get me to put off aerating until June. That way the spring rains should be over and the holes should help with water penetration when I start watering this summer.

As always - your advice is very much appreciated.

JR

Hey Derek why am I getting circles in my st Augustine ?

Because St. A is terrible and should not be grown in Texas.

How big are the circles? If pretty large then it's probably brown patch. If small like 4" or so it could be brown patch or dollar spot. Get some close pics where the brown meets the green and see what the lesions look like. Dollar spot will have a more hourglass look. At the bottom of these links it shows close up pics of each.

https://www.turffiles.ncsu.edu/diseases-in-turf/brown-patch-in-turf/

https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/dollar-spot-in-turf

Mine is filling in nicely. Decent for Mid April and will get better.

Mine is struggling this year. Here’s my current yard vs last year at the same time.

Question for Derek I have a neighbor with a St Augustine/Bermuda mix yard right now the Bermuda is dominant as everyone’s St Augustine seems to be slower this year so far. The point is he uses Scott’s Bonus S I always heard that would hurt Bermuda but that is all he has used for years and his Bermuda looks great. Does this seem odd to you?

I use it also
Everything loves it

Yup. I used it for years too. Same results.

...

A single app of Bonus S(Atrazine) isn't going to hurt bermuda too much in spring at labeled rates. Plus at label rate it's putting about 1lb of nitrogen down so if it did stunt the bermuda some it's going to be banging with growth shortly after. For a one and done late winter/early spring app for broadleaf cleanup it's not a bad product in a St Aug or mixed lawn. Scotts makes some good products. The 4-5 well maintained St Aug lawns I see daily on my drive to work look really good right now.

Divorce takes a toll on lawns.

2018 Hustler Fastrak reached the 200 hr. mark so I gave her a little love. Took the deck off completely and gave it a good cleaning. Removed all the spindles and pulleys and checked for bad bearings and all OK. Cleaned them and replaced. New set of blades,air filter, fuel filter and changed transaxle fluids and filters. No telling what a dealer would charge for that. Checked tire pressure and had to relevel deck (1/4" higher in the back). Had a few spot where the paint need touching up, so I sanded down and hit it with a few coats of some Rust-Oleom that matched really good. I took the spindle covers off when it was new, and I blow off after every use. Grass collected under it and hard to get it out, so I just removed them. Belt showed some wear but still had plenty of life left in it. Ready for another 200 now.