Central Texas Lawn Leveling Resource Guide

Central Texas has several warm-season grasses, including Bermuda, St. Augustine, and Zoysia. Each type thrives in this region’s unique climate, but maintaining a healthy, resilient lawn requires a thoughtful approach tailored to your specific conditions.

In this guide, we’ll cover the four essential pillars of lawn care to help you keep your lawn looking its best year-round.

1: Fertilizer & Weed ControlSoil Testing

A healthy lawn starts with healthy soil. Soil testing provides valuable insights into the nutrient levels, pH balance, and overall condition of your lawn’s foundation. Applying fertilizers or treatments can be a guessing game without this baseline information.

Why Soil Testing is Essential

Soil testing reveals key factors that impact your lawn’s health, such as nutrient deficiencies and organic matter content. These insights allow for more precise, effective lawn care decisions tailored to your soil’s needs.

How to Test Your Soil

To get an accurate soil analysis, collect samples from several areas of your lawn, focusing on spots that may show differences in growth or color. Combine these samples into one representative mix and send them to a local agricultural extension office or mail them to our office for testing.

Understanding Organic Matter (OG%)

The organic matter percentage (OG%) in your soil is a key indicator of its ability to retain water and nutrients. Higher organic matter improves soil structure, promotes root growth, and reduces the need for frequent watering. Ideally, we aim for an OG% in the 3-5% range, which supports healthier, more resilient lawns.

Soil testing is a simple but crucial first step to achieving a thriving lawn that can withstand Central Texas conditions.

Fertilizer

The right fertilizer can make a significant difference in the health and longevity of your lawn, but it’s essential to choose products that address Central Texas soil conditions. Low organic matter (OG%) and phosphorus deficiencies are two common challenges in this region. Fortunately, both can be managed with thoughtful fertilization strategies.

Why Slow-Release Fertilizers Matter

Slow-release fertilizers offer several benefits to homeowners over fast-release options like urea or ammonium sulfate. By delivering nutrients gradually over time, they:

• Promote steady growth without the risk of fertilizer burn. This limits the number of applications needed per year and reduces flushes of growth followed by lulls in growth that can happen when quick-release sources are not applied at the correct intervals. We often recommend Polyon (44-0-0) Depending on temperature, it can feed the lawn for over 60-90 days.

• Improve nutrient efficiency, reducing the risk of losing nutrients to the atmosphere through volatilization or leaching through the soil profile.

Addressing Organic Matter and Phosphorus Deficiencies

The two most common issues with central Texas soils are low organic matter and phosphorus deficiencies.

Organic matter is essential for improving soil structure, water retention, and nutrient availability. The organic matter percentage gradually increases as the grass undergoes natural growth and death cycles. Old leaves and roots die and are replaced by new ones. Old decaying roots and leaves contribute to natural soil organic matter accumulation.

Boosting organic matter in the soil can be incredibly beneficial to lawn health. This can be achieved through topdressing with compost, lawn leveling, or incorporating organic materials like humic substances and sea kelp. Boosting organic matter enhances the soil’s ability to retain nutrients, reducing the need for frequent fertilizer applications.

Phosphorus is another key nutrient often lacking in Central Texas soils. Phosphorus is a critical nutrient in plant health. While not used in high amounts like Nitrogen, it is used in almost all plant functions. It serves as one of the plant's primary energy currencies.

Addressing phosphorus deficiencies early is critical for promoting long-term lawn health. We often recommend a simple application or two of an 11-52-0 fertilizer to correct deficiencies. Regular applications of phosphorus-containing fertilizers like 25-5-10 are also viable options for correcting deficiencies.

Using a combination of slow-release fertilizers and organic amendments, you can create a lawn care program that delivers consistent results without the risks associated with fast-release products.

Weed Control

Weed control is critical to a beautiful and healthy lawn. It is made up of two crucial components. Pre-emergent herbicides prevent weeds from coming up, and post-emergent herbicides are used to treat existing weeds.

Pre-emergent Herbicides

Soil temps are critical for accurate timing of applications you can monitor soil temps in your area here or use a simple meat thermometer to measure soil temps in the top 3-4" of your lawn.

SPRING - Apply in February or March before soils reach 55 degrees.

• Product recommendations: Prodiamine (Barricade, Halts) or Dithiopyr (Dimension). These products are generally available in liquid or granular form to meet your needs.

FALL - Apply September-November before soil temps reach 70 degrees.

• Product recommendations: SpecticleFlo (liquid) or SpecticleG (granular) are fantastic options for fall pre-emergents. They are more expensive than all other products but have a 6-month residual. Prodiamine (Barricade, Halts) or Dithiopyr (Dimension) can also be used in the fall.

Post-emergent Herbicides

Use as needed in accordance with label restrictions to help prevent injury to the lawn.

• Certanity: nutsedge, johnson grass, broadleaf weeds

• Sedgehammer: nutsedge, broadleaf weeds

• Spectracide Weed Stop for Lawns: Easiest for homeowners

• Quinclorac- Crabgrass, Barnyardgrass, Foxtail, Clover Broadleaf

• 2,4-D - Dandelion, Clover, Thistle, Ragweed, Spurge

• Sulfentrazone - Nutsedge

• Dicamba - Dandelion, Clover, Thistle, Chickweed

Insect Control

• Product recommendations: Duocide by the Andersons (granular), Bifen I/T (liquid)