My new lawn didn't do too well after the last drought. St Augustine grass. Lots of dead spots. Some neighbors told me it'll grow back, but I've been watering and fertilizing the yard and the dead spots… still dead. Do I need to put seeds or squares down? Online it said it'd be a good idea to get a soil test, but the ones I've found are like $1,000. Any advice?

I would google the lawn care nut and look at his videos and podcast. He will have answers to all your questions. Was turned on to him by this forum and now my lawn looks great.

If you want to do the soil test, we have been recommended to do the one out of the Texas A&M soil lab. Form linked below. I'd probably go with test no. 1 for a lawn. If you just want pH, you could probably get a home testing kit sold locally.

http://soiltesting.tamu.edu/files/urbansoil.pdf

Put down some peat moss.

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Grass hasn't really started going nuts yet.

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This is correct. We've had a really cool spring so far, night time temps still in the 50's in Central Texas.

Sod farms can't deliver some species of grass because the crop hasn't grown enough to harvest due to the temps.

Give it a few weeks

Yep, too early to really care about a few dead spots. Only way to improve at this time, if they are big areas, would be trying to find some sod squares to throw down. You can usually buy it by the square at some nurseries or Lowes/Home Depot.

But really just give it time, unless you just don't like looking at the dead spots. Depending on the size of the dead spots, they should fill in somewhat quickly as it continues warming up. St Augustine spreads via stolons above the surface, so you will see as the surrounding grass begins to creep into the dead areas.