Question
Hi!!
I am 26 years old and recently (Oct. 2006) just bought my first house. I have no knowledge on how much I should water my lawn? How often should I Fertilize? and  How tall or low should I cut my grass?  . I live in Puerto Rico and my grass type is zoysa ( I am not sure if that's spelled right) anyways that should give you a brief insight on what Iam dealing with. When I moved in my grass was yellowish green. Since then I have fertilized it 3 times. First time I used vigoro (didn't notice the numberation) second time I used organic and most recently I used vigoro wich started with 29 but can't remeber the rest. Since the 29 th of january 2007 I 've started to water my lawn every day (except those that rain). I have noticed that my lawn has grown much better and greener ( but not intense dark green). If you could help in advising me it would be alot of help. Thanks !!

Answer
Hi Kheila;
I will just tell you the basics of growing a lawn successfully.
You should be able to adapt it to the climate and rain conditions, and growing seasons in your area.
First, you can fertilize too much and burn your grass so that it kills it out completely, when you are using chemical fertilizers.
You CANNOT do chemical one tome and organic the next.
When you organics, and them apply ANY chemicals, you cancel out the benefits of the organics, so you just waste money.
You can over care as well as you can take too little care of a lawn.
Watering every day encourages a shallow root system, and leaves the grass roots susceptable to heat, cold and drought damage.
Watering deeply, to a depth of at least 6 inches, and rewatering when the top 3 or 4 inches of soil are dry, encourages a deep root system, and during periods of drought or extreme heat or cold, the roots are deeper, where there is still moisture, and there is more insulation from cold and heat.
Read some of my answers on using organics, and proper watering and feeding.
You will learn a lot more that way that my trying to repeat it all here.
Just go and read my past answers on organics.
There is a whole course on organic gardening in there.
Charlotte