I plan this month to start a new St. Augustine front lawn from scratch as it
seems to grow well in my Atlanta neighborhood. After killing what's there
now (mainly weeds) with Roundup I will till it, fertilize, and plant plugs.
Because the soil is not great I figured I would till all the dead weeds,
leaves, etc., into the soil rather than raking first. But I'm concerned
about the large number of prickly Sweetgum seeds that cover the lawn now and
whether it's a good idea to till them into the soil (I hate those damned
things!) Should I rake & remove these first? If I had my way I'd cut the
tree down but it's my neighbor's :-(

W.D.

On Sat, 04 Mar 2006 10:32:55 -0500, W.D. wrote:

I plan this month to start a new St. Augustine front lawn from scratch as
it seems to grow well in my Atlanta neighborhood. After killing what's
there now (mainly weeds) with Roundup I will till it, fertilize, and plant
plugs. Because the soil is not great I figured I would till all the dead
weeds, leaves, etc., into the soil rather than raking first. But I'm
concerned about the large number of prickly Sweetgum seeds that cover the
lawn now and whether it's a good idea to till them into the soil (I hate
those damned things!) Should I rake & remove these first? If I had my way
I'd cut the tree down but it's my neighbor's :-(

W.D.

I would recommend raking just to get rid the lawn of the weed seeds or
debris that could be harboring disease. Raking shouldn't take that much
time.

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