By Kyle Caldwell, Owner & Agronomist, Century Outdoor Services | Austin, TX
If you own a home in Georgetown, TX, you already know that keeping a lawn healthy in Central Texas can be challenging. Our combination of intense summer heat, periods of drought, watering restrictions, soil conditions, weeds, insects, and lawn diseases can put a tremendous amount of stress on turf throughout the year.
At Century Outdoor Services, we provide lawn fertilization and weed control throughout Georgetown, including the large Sun City Texas community. We work primarily with Bermuda, Zoysia, and St. Augustine lawns throughout Central Texas, and one thing I continually tell homeowners is that there isn’t a single treatment that creates a great lawn.
Fertilization and weed control are important, but they are only part of the equation. Irrigation, mowing, sunlight, soil depth, drainage, and the type of turf growing on the property all have a major impact on how a lawn performs.
As the owner and Director of Agronomy at Century Outdoor Services, my goal with this guide is to explain what Georgetown homeowners should know about caring for their lawns throughout the year, including some of the lawn care challenges we see in Sun City Georgetown.
Georgetown lawns face many of the same challenges we see throughout Central Texas, but conditions can vary considerably from one property to another.
Two lawns in the same Georgetown neighborhood can receive the exact same fertilization and weed control treatments and produce very different results. In many cases, the difference isn’t the fertilizer. It’s the growing environment.
A healthy lawn depends on several factors working together:
If one of these areas is significantly lacking, a professional fertilization and weed control program cannot always overcome it.
This is especially important during a Georgetown summer. When temperatures rise and rainfall becomes inconsistent, lawns with shallow roots, poor irrigation coverage, compacted or shallow soil, or improper mowing practices will usually show stress before healthier lawns.
That’s why our approach at Century isn’t simply about making an application every few weeks. We want homeowners to understand why their lawn is performing the way it is and what can realistically be done to improve it.
Sun City is an important part of the Georgetown area we service, and lawn care there deserves some additional attention.
One of the first things Sun City homeowners should understand is that the community has specific landscape guidelines. Approved lawn grasses include hybrid Bermuda, hybrid Zoysia, and hybrid buffalo grass, so choosing and maintaining the appropriate turf is especially important.
For our fertilization and weed control services, we commonly focus on helping Bermuda and Zoysia lawns develop a thicker, healthier turf canopy while reducing weed pressure throughout the year.
Regardless of the grass variety, the fundamentals don’t change.
A fertilization program cannot compensate for an irrigation system that is missing part of the lawn. Weed control cannot correct a turf area that receives too much shade. Fertilizer also cannot create deep roots if there is very little usable soil beneath the grass.
This is why we encourage Sun City homeowners to look at the entire growing environment when they’re trying to determine why an area of their lawn is struggling.
Sunlight, irrigation, soil, mowing, and our fertilization and weed control program all need to work together.
Water management is one of the biggest factors affecting lawns throughout Georgetown.
The goal shouldn’t necessarily be to water the lawn more often. The goal is to water deeply enough to encourage roots to grow farther into the soil while following the watering restrictions that apply to your property.
When possible, we want irrigation to soak beyond the immediate surface rather than providing frequent, shallow watering. Depending on the soil and slope of the property, this may require breaking the irrigation runtime into multiple cycles on the same watering day to reduce runoff.
Homeowners should also periodically run their irrigation system while they are outside watching it. Look for clogged nozzles, broken heads, heads that aren’t rotating correctly, areas blocked by plants, and sections of turf that simply aren’t receiving the same amount of water as the rest of the lawn.
Those irrigation problems often become much easier to identify once summer temperatures arrive and stressed areas begin turning off-color.
Sun City homeowners also have access to the community’s Water Matters resources for assistance with irrigation controller programming.
This is one of the most important points I can make as an agronomist.
If an area of your Sun City lawn repeatedly turns brown every summer, adding more fertilizer may not solve the problem.
The issue could be poor irrigation coverage, shallow soil, excessive heat, compacted soil, shade, disease, insects, or a combination of several factors.
Before trying to force additional growth with fertilizer, we want to understand why the turf is struggling in the first place.
That approach is an important part of how we care for lawns throughout Georgetown and Sun City.
Water is another major factor.
Central Texas summers can be extremely stressful on turfgrass. Heat, drought, watering restrictions and shallow soils can all contribute to dry areas in the lawn.
The goal isn’t necessarily to water more often. In most situations, we want to water deeply enough to move moisture through the root zone.
If you’re only applying a small amount of water that wets the surface, you’re encouraging a shallow root system. A deeper, healthier root system gives the lawn a better chance of handling our Austin summers.
You also need to make sure your irrigation system is actually providing even coverage.
We commonly see:
If an area of your lawn isn’t receiving enough water, adding more fertilizer isn’t going to fix it. In fact, actively growing turf needs adequate moisture to properly utilize the nutrients we’re applying.
One of the first things to understand about lawn care in Georgetown is that not every type of grass performs the same way. Bermuda, Zoysia, and St. Augustine are the three warm-season turfgrasses we commonly work with in the Central Texas area, but each has different requirements when it comes to sunlight, mowing, irrigation, and overall maintenance.
Choosing the right turf for the conditions on your property can make a tremendous difference. You can have a great fertilization and weed control program, but if the grass isn’t suited for the amount of sunlight or growing conditions in that area, treatments alone aren’t going to solve the problem.
Bermuda grass is one of my favorite turf types for a sunny Central Texas lawn. When it receives enough sunlight, proper irrigation, and regular mowing, Bermuda can develop a very thick and dense turf canopy.
One of Bermuda’s biggest advantages is its ability to recover. It spreads aggressively during the growing season, which allows healthy Bermuda to fill in thin or damaged areas much better than some other turf types.
The biggest limitation is shade.
Bermuda needs plenty of direct sunlight to perform well. If trees mature and begin shading an area that was once sunny, the Bermuda can gradually become thinner. Once that happens, weeds may begin taking advantage of the open areas.
This is important because homeowners sometimes assume the lawn needs more fertilizer when the real problem is that the Bermuda simply isn’t receiving enough sunlight.
For mowing, I generally recommend keeping residential Bermuda around 1 to 2 inches and mowing weekly during the active growing season. Consistent mowing at the proper height encourages a denser canopy and helps the lawn compete against weeds.
Zoysia has become increasingly popular throughout the Georgetown and Austin areas, and it can be an excellent option for residential lawns.
For home lawns, I prefer the wider-bladed varieties such as Palisades Zoysia. It creates a dense, attractive lawn and generally handles some shade better than Bermuda.
That doesn’t mean Zoysia is a shade grass.
Zoysia still needs adequate sunlight to remain healthy. When it is planted in areas with too much shade, it can thin just like other warm-season turfgrasses.
One characteristic homeowners should understand about Zoysia is that it tends to recover more slowly from damage than Bermuda. Maintaining good turf density through proper mowing, irrigation, fertilization, and pest management is therefore important.
When Zoysia is growing in the right environment and maintained correctly, it can be one of the best-looking turf options we have in Central Texas.
St. Augustine is another common Central Texas turfgrass and can tolerate more shade than Bermuda. Its wide blades create a completely different appearance from Bermuda and make it a popular choice for properties with mature trees.
However, St. Augustine comes with its own challenges.
It can be more susceptible to certain insect and disease problems, and proper irrigation becomes especially important during our hot Central Texas summers. Excessive watering can also create problems, particularly when warm temperatures and prolonged moisture create conditions favorable for lawn disease.
St. Augustine also shouldn’t be treated exactly like Bermuda. Mowing it too short can place unnecessary stress on the turf. In most situations, I prefer St. Augustine to be maintained higher than Bermuda.
Sun City homeowners should also be aware that St. Augustine is not currently an approved lawn grass under Sun City Texas landscape guidelines. Homeowners considering turf replacement should always verify the community’s current requirements before selecting a grass variety.
One of the most common lawn problems I see throughout Central Texas is a homeowner trying to grow grass where there simply isn’t enough sunlight.
This often happens gradually.
When a home is first built, the trees may be small and the lawn receives plenty of sun. Ten or fifteen years later, those trees are considerably larger and the amount of sunlight reaching the turf has changed.
The grass begins thinning, so the homeowner fertilizes it more, waters it more, or continues replacing sod in the same area.
But none of those things create sunlight.
If the turf isn’t receiving enough light for that particular grass variety, fertilization and weed control cannot fix the underlying problem.
This is why we sometimes have to tell homeowners that a struggling area isn’t really a lawn treatment problem. Tree pruning may improve sunlight in some situations, another turf variety may be better suited for the area, or the homeowner may eventually need to consider converting a heavily shaded area away from turf altogether.
Understanding the limitations of the site can save a homeowner a lot of money and frustration.
The grass you see above ground is only part of the lawn. What is happening underneath it can be even more important.
I generally like to see at least 6 inches of good soil for a lawn, and deeper is even better. If you have 10, 12, or more inches of quality soil, the turf has a much larger area available for root development and moisture storage.
A lawn growing over shallow soil has much less room for roots.
This becomes especially noticeable during a Georgetown summer. A lawn with a deeper, healthier root system has access to a larger reservoir of moisture than turf growing in only a few inches of soil.
That’s one reason two neighboring lawns can receive similar amounts of irrigation but react completely differently to summer heat.
Our goal is to encourage the turf to develop roots deeper into the soil profile rather than keeping most of the root system near the surface.
This is where deep irrigation becomes important.
When irrigation is applied correctly, we want the water to move through the root zone rather than only wetting the top inch or two of soil. Deeper watering encourages the turf to utilize more of the available soil profile.
On properties where water begins running off before enough has soaked into the soil, the irrigation may need to be divided into multiple shorter cycles on the same watering day. This gives the water time to soak into the soil between cycles.
The deeper the healthy soil profile and root system, the better equipped the lawn will generally be to handle periods of heat and drought stress.
This is another important limitation of any fertilization program.
If sod was originally installed over a very shallow layer of soil, fertilizer cannot add another six inches of soil underneath the lawn.
We can provide the nutrients the turf needs. We can control many of the weeds, insects, and diseases affecting it. We can help improve the growing environment with services such as liquid aeration.
But there are physical limitations to what lawn treatments can accomplish.
That’s why at Century Outdoor Services, we want to identify the cause of a lawn problem rather than simply applying more products.
Sometimes the answer is fertilizer. Sometimes it’s weed control. Other times, the lawn needs better irrigation, more sunlight, improved mowing practices, or a healthier growing environment.
The best Georgetown lawns are the result of all of these pieces working together.
If there is one thing that can make or break a lawn during a Central Texas summer, it is irrigation.
Even the best fertilization and weed control program cannot compensate for a lawn that isn’t receiving enough water. At the same time, watering too frequently or keeping the lawn constantly wet can create a completely different set of problems.
Our goal is to encourage deep, healthy roots by watering deeply enough to move moisture through the root zone.
There isn’t one irrigation runtime that works for every Georgetown lawn.
The amount of water your lawn needs depends on several factors, including the turf type, soil depth, slope, sunlight, irrigation system, temperature, rainfall, and current watering restrictions.
Rather than focusing only on the number of minutes programmed into the controller, homeowners should pay attention to how deeply the water is actually moving into the soil.
If your irrigation system runs for 10 minutes but only wets the top inch of soil, you may be encouraging a shallow root system. On the other hand, simply running a sprinkler zone for a long period of time isn’t necessarily the answer. Water may begin running down the street before it has a chance to soak deeply into the soil.
This is where cycle-and-soak irrigation can help.
Instead of running a zone continuously, you can divide the total watering time into multiple shorter cycles on the same watering day. Allowing time between cycles gives the water an opportunity to soak into the soil before the next cycle begins.
Always follow the current City of Georgetown watering restrictions and schedule that apply to your property.
One of the most common things we see is a homeowner who knows their irrigation system is running but hasn’t actually watched it operate.
A controller turning on doesn’t mean every part of the lawn is receiving the correct amount of water.
At least periodically, turn the system on and walk the property while each zone is operating.
Look for:
These problems often become very noticeable during the summer.
You may see a brown or off-color area appear in almost exactly the same location every year. Before assuming the lawn has an insect, disease, or fertilizer problem, check the irrigation coverage.
Sometimes the problem is as simple as a sprinkler head that isn’t reaching that part of the lawn.
Brown areas appearing during hot, dry weather are not automatically caused by a lack of fertilizer.
In many cases, the first thing I look at is water and soil.
A localized dry spot can develop because of poor sprinkler coverage, shallow soil, compacted or difficult-to-wet soil, excessive heat near concrete or stone, slope, or a combination of several conditions.
This is also why brown areas can sometimes become more noticeable after a summer rain.
The healthier parts of the lawn respond quickly to the moisture and begin growing and turning greener. Areas with poor soil, weak roots, irrigation problems, or previous drought stress may respond more slowly, making the difference between healthy and stressed turf much easier to see.
Of course, insects and diseases can also cause turf discoloration. That’s why diagnosing the cause before treating the lawn is important.
Not every brown spot needs more fertilizer, more water, or an insecticide.
It needs the correct diagnosis.
Mowing is one of the most overlooked parts of lawn care.
During the active growing season, I recommend mowing your lawn weekly. Depending on the turf type and growth rate, some lawns may need to be mowed even more frequently during periods of rapid growth.
Regular mowing encourages a denser turf canopy, improves the appearance of the lawn, and can help the grass compete more effectively against weeds.
Allowing the grass to become excessively tall and then cutting a large amount off at once can place unnecessary stress on the turf.
For residential Bermuda grass, I generally recommend a mowing height of approximately 1 to 2 inches.
Bermuda responds very well to frequent mowing. When it is maintained at an appropriate height and mowed consistently, it develops a tighter, denser canopy.
That’s one reason I don’t recommend letting Bermuda grow tall simply because you want the lawn to look thicker. In many cases, the opposite happens.
A properly maintained Bermuda lawn should be encouraged to grow dense horizontally, not simply tall vertically.
Zoysia mowing height can vary depending on the particular variety, but the same basic principle applies: mow consistently and avoid removing too much of the leaf blade at one time.
St. Augustine should generally be maintained higher than Bermuda. Cutting St. Augustine too short can reduce the amount of leaf surface available for photosynthesis and place additional stress on the turf.
Regardless of turf type, keep your mower blades sharp.
A dull mower blade tears the grass instead of producing a clean cut. If the tips of the grass look shredded or brown shortly after mowing, a dull blade may be part of the problem.
When we fertilize a lawn, we’re providing nutrients that encourage healthy turf growth.
That growth still has to be managed.
One issue we occasionally see is a lawn receiving regular fertilization while only being mowed every two or three weeks during the growing season. The homeowner may then remove a significant amount of the grass blade each time they mow.
That’s not the environment we’re trying to create.
Fertilization encourages growth, and proper mowing manages that growth.
The two practices work together.
The same is true for irrigation. We can provide nutrients, weed control, insect treatments, and disease management, but we don’t control the homeowner’s sprinkler system or mowing schedule.
That’s why I consider irrigation and mowing two of the homeowner’s most important responsibilities in a professional lawn care program.
When proper irrigation, weekly mowing, adequate sunlight, healthy soil, and a consistent fertilization and weed control program all work together, we have a much better opportunity to develop the thick, healthy lawn homeowners are looking for.
A healthy Georgetown lawn needs different things at different times of the year.
One of the mistakes homeowners can make is assuming lawn fertilization is simply a matter of applying the same fertilizer every few months. That’s not how we approach turf management at Century Outdoor Services.
Soil temperatures, turf growth, weather conditions, weed pressure, insects, and disease activity all change throughout the year. Our treatments need to change with them.
That’s why our lawn fertilization and weed control program consists of 9 rounds throughout the year, with visits approximately every six weeks. Each round is designed around what Central Texas lawns typically need during that part of the season.
Our goal isn’t simply to make an application. It’s to provide the right treatment at the right time.
The best fertilization schedule for a Georgetown lawn should follow the turf’s growth cycle rather than simply following the calendar.
Bermuda, Zoysia, and St. Augustine are warm-season grasses. As soil temperatures warm in the spring, these grasses begin coming out of winter dormancy and eventually enter their active growing season.
This is when fertilization becomes increasingly important.
During the growing season, we use fertilizer to provide nutrients that support healthy growth, turf density, color, and root development. The exact treatment can change throughout the season based on what the lawn needs and the conditions we’re experiencing.
As we move toward winter and warm-season turf begins entering dormancy, our approach changes.
We don’t believe in applying fertilizer simply because a service visit is scheduled.
If the turf isn’t actively growing and doesn’t need fertilizer, there is no reason to force unnecessary growth. During our winter rounds, the focus shifts more toward weed control and monitoring the lawn for potential problems.
That’s an important part of what I mean when I talk about a seasonally adjusted lawn care program.
One of the best ways to control weeds is to prevent as many of them as possible from becoming established in the first place.
That’s where pre-emergent weed control comes in.
A pre-emergent creates a chemical barrier in the soil that targets susceptible weeds as they begin the germination and establishment process. Timing is extremely important because the treatment needs to be in place before the targeted weeds become established.
At Century, pre-emergent applications are an important part of our year-round program.
We use them strategically during the year to help reduce both warm-season and cool-season weed pressure.
This is particularly important in the fall.
While your Bermuda or Zoysia lawn may be preparing to enter dormancy, winter weeds are preparing for their growing season. A properly timed fall pre-emergent application can significantly reduce the number of winter weeds that become established in the lawn.
This is a question we hear frequently.
Pre-emergent does not mean that you will never see another weed.
No pre-emergent product controls every weed species, and there are several reasons weeds can still appear after an application.
Some weeds may have already germinated before the pre-emergent was applied. Others may not be controlled by the particular active ingredient being used. Soil disturbance can also affect the pre-emergent barrier, and environmental conditions can influence performance.
There are also difficult weeds that require a completely different management strategy.
Dallisgrass and nutsedge, for example, aren’t problems that we expect a standard pre-emergent program to completely eliminate.
This is why a complete weed-control strategy uses both pre-emergent and post-emergent treatments.
Pre-emergent helps reduce future weed populations. Post-emergent products target susceptible weeds that are already growing.
Another common misconception is that a weed should be dead a day or two after it has been treated.
Depending on the weed, product, temperature, and growing conditions, post-emergent weed control can take approximately two to four weeks to produce its full results.
Some weeds begin showing symptoms relatively quickly. Others decline much more slowly.
During certain times of the year, our product choices can also be limited by temperature.
In the middle of a Georgetown summer, for example, we have to be careful with certain herbicides because products that work very well under cooler conditions can potentially injure desirable turf when temperatures are extremely high.
Our first responsibility is protecting the lawn.
Sometimes that means using a different product, changing the application method, or waiting for conditions that allow us to treat a difficult weed more safely.
Not every weed can be treated the same way.
Dallisgrass is one of the weeds I consider particularly difficult in Central Texas lawns. There are limited selective herbicide options available for controlling it without damaging desirable turf, and treatment may require patience and repeated applications.
Nutsedge is another weed that homeowners often struggle with. It can grow quickly and doesn’t respond to the same herbicides used for many common broadleaf weeds.
Then we have aggressive summer annual weeds such as spurge, which can appear and spread rapidly during hot weather.
This is another reason I don’t like the idea of a one-product-fits-all approach to weed control.
We need to identify the weed first and then determine the appropriate treatment.
Homeowners sometimes wait until weeds become severe before thinking about lawn care.
At that point, we’re already playing catch-up.
I prefer a preventative approach.
A consistent program allows us to apply pre-emergent before major weed seasons, provide fertilizer when the turf is actively growing, treat existing weeds as conditions allow, and continually monitor the lawn for insects and diseases.
It also allows us to see the property throughout different seasons.
A lawn can look completely different in April than it does in August or December.
By visiting approximately every six weeks, we’re able to adjust treatments based on the season rather than seeing the lawn only when something has already gone wrong.
Our 9-round fertilization and weed control program is designed specifically around the needs of Central Texas lawns.
Depending on the season and conditions, our visits can include:
Fire ant control is available separately.
We also back our program with a 100% satisfaction guarantee and free callbacks. If a covered lawn issue needs additional attention between scheduled visits, we want our clients to contact us rather than waiting another six weeks for their next service.
Herbicides are an important tool, but one of the best defenses against weeds is still thick, healthy turf.
Weeds take advantage of opportunities.
When turf becomes thin because of shade, drought stress, poor irrigation, improper mowing, insects, disease, or other problems, sunlight reaches the soil and creates opportunities for weeds to become established.
A dense turf canopy occupies that space and makes it more difficult for many weeds to compete.
That’s why our goal isn’t simply to kill weeds.
Our goal is to help create an environment where the desirable turf can become as healthy and dense as the property allows.
For Georgetown and Sun City homeowners, that means combining professional fertilization and weed control with proper irrigation, regular mowing, adequate sunlight, and good soil conditions.
When all of those pieces work together, we have a much better opportunity to produce a healthy Central Texas lawn.
There is no single product or treatment that creates a great lawn.
After working with Central Texas lawns for years, I’ve found that the best results come when fertilization, weed control, irrigation, mowing, sunlight, and soil conditions all work together.
At Century Outdoor Services, our job is to provide the professional side of that equation. Our 9-round fertilization and weed control program is designed around Central Texas growing conditions and changes throughout the year based on what the turf needs.
But the homeowner plays an important role as well.
Proper irrigation, consistent mowing, and paying attention to changes in the lawn can make a tremendous difference in how the turf responds to our treatments.
This is true throughout Georgetown, including Sun City Texas. Every property is a little different, which is why we believe it’s important to look beyond simply applying fertilizer or spraying weeds. We want to understand what is happening with the lawn and help our clients set realistic expectations for what their property can achieve.
If you’re looking for professional lawn care in Georgetown, TX, Century Outdoor Services provides year-round fertilization and weed control for Bermuda, Zoysia, and St. Augustine lawns throughout the Georgetown area.
We’re locally owned and operated, and our program is backed by our 100% satisfaction guarantee and free callbacks.
For Weed Control and Fertilization, Aeration, and Moisture Manager, the price is calculated by every 1,000 ft². Click here to see how we determine our prices.
If you’d like to receive an estimate, you can call us at (512) 786-1694 or send us a quick message.
No, Century does not require contracts for residential services. We set up a Service Agreement for your property based on the services accepted. This agreement requests at least a 24-hour notice of cancellation of service.
We’ve provided the most reliable weed control & fertilization to customers in Austin, Bee Cave, Dripping Springs, and nearby areas in Texas since 2013.
