St. Augustine. You can see where the neighbors nice green grass starts just after the small Magnolia tree. Our grass seems really dry and brown, although there are no large brown spots. It also doesn't seem to grow as much as the others around us. I'd wonder if it wasn't getting enough water - but it's been like this for a long time, evenw hen we get a ton of rain for weeks on end. Any opinions? (The bare spot on the right is a bed we're waiting to plant)

Fertilization and water schedule? How high do you cut it?

Side note: that magnolia isn't going to do you or your neighbors lawn any favors as it matures.

Ask what your neighbor is doing? Clearly something working well.

Full disclosure, I'd be quite happy if my front yard looked like yours at present as it's still struggling to recover from the freeze...

Fertilization schedule is whenever I see fertilizer being sold at HD/Lowes.

Cut height - no idea - the same guy has been doing my lawns for years. At my previous house and investment property, grass looks/looked great. It's never looked good at this house in the 1.5 years since we installed it.

On the magnolia - it's a dwarf variety and grows slowly.

Not a huge turf expert, but I do know that St. Augustine is susceptible to Gray Leaf Spot (fungal infection) this time of year, especially if you fertilized recently.

https://plantdiseasehandbook.tamu.edu/landscaping/lawn-turf/sorted-by-names-of-diseases/gray-leaf-spot/

You might consider applying an antifungal.

BSpencer00 - thans for the input.

ktownag08 - It looks worse than the photo. That neighbor whose grass you can see uses a high dollar landscape crew and I know they recently aerated it - which might be part of my problem/solution. The yard on the other side of me looks great too, though - and I know she doesn't do anything other than regularly mow. Ours stands out in between the two.

Got it. Too hot to aerate now but suggest doing that in Sept/Oct. It's on my list as well.

Otherwise, hop on the Randy Lemon fertilization schedule or hire a fertilization service. I'm finally doing the latter as seems to be a minor price premium to do DIY Randy Lemon option.

Someone on here once recommended "The Lawn Care Nut" on YouTube. I checked it out and jumped in fully committed to a great lawn. It has been nothing short of amazing the results I've seen in only three months.
He has a website where you can pay to get his guide and he sells his own fertilizer, etc. But you can watch his videos on YouTube for free and buy cheaper ferts from the box box.

21-0-0 and fungicide (chlorothalonil) is usually about all you need for good St Augustine.

Assuming you are located in Houston or Dallas area with heavy clay, alkaline soil

I dont know anything about St Augustine but I do know your neighbor sucks at applying fertilizer evenly. Yikes that looks bad.

It looks iron deficient to me. Also cut too short.

Apply decent 15-5-10 fertilizer and raise the mower all the way up.

NColoradoAG said:

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I dont know anything about St Augustine but I do know your neighbor sucks at applying fertilizer evenly. Yikes that looks bad.

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Was just going to post that.

it looks iron deficient. If it was lack of water, the grass would be wilting/curling. I get my lawn aerated every year and this year decided to to dress it too. Have heard perfect amount of rain this year and it hasn't been a scorcher summer and my lawn looks great. Yours just looks like it needs nutrients. My amateur opinion if it was a fungus it wouldn't look so even throughout the lawn. not an expert.