Question
I live in Florida and have a lawn of St. Augustine.  It is full of crabgrass/carpet grass and many broadleaf weeds.  How can I get rid of the weeds and unwanted grass organically without damaging the St. Augustine?

Answer
A healthy St Augustine Lawn will shove out pretty much every Weed that tries to settle in it.  Your Weed problem indicates your Lawn is not so healthy.  Two words:  Soil Test.

The groaning begins.  I know, I know.  Look at it this way: You would not bake a cake without measuring the ingredients.  You would not bake a cake with extra flour if you were out of eggs.  You would not put a cake in an oven without setting the temperature.  You NEED a Soil Test.  You, Jim, cannot make a GREAT CAKE without a Soil Test.

The point of this exercise is that you want your Weed-weary St Augustine Grass to sink its roots into delicious, juicy, Grade A American Soil.

Give me your zipcode, I'll tell you where to get that done.  This is the perfect time of year to do it, too.

One more thing.  St Augustine generally does not have Weed problems.  Thick healthy St Augustinegrass has very big feet, good for booting out uninvited Crabgrass, Creeping Charleie, Dandelions, etc.

Tell me, my friend, How did you mow your St Augustine Grass this Summer?  Weekly?  Daily?  Any fertilizer that went down there one day?  Any foot traffic?  What things did you do to it -- or not?  Just want to i.d. any damage that may have been done, in addition to the Soil question.

rsvp and thanks for writing.

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER