Home  /  Austin, TX  /  Services  /  Lawn Care & Maintenance

Lawn Care & Maintenance in Austin, TX

Quick answer

Lawn care in Austin depends on your warm-season grass, your soil depth and your watering day. St. Augustine needs more water and tolerates shade, Bermuda and buffalograss handle drought in full sun, and zoysia sits in between. Feed during active growth based on a soil test, mow at the right height, and water deeply on your allowed day.

Last updated

Lawn care around Austin is mostly about getting a warm-season grass through a long, hot summer with limited watering days. The right mowing height, feeding schedule and watering pattern depend on which grass you have and how much soil is under it. A thin layer of soil over limestone dries out much faster than deep blackland clay, so two lawns on the same street can need very different care.

Know your grass first

  • St. Augustinegrass: the most shade-tolerant warm-season grass, according to Texas A&M AgriLife, and very common in Austin yards with trees. It is less drought tolerant than Bermuda or zoysia and needs more water to stay green.
  • Bermudagrass: tough, fast to recover from wear, and drought tolerant, but it needs full sun and creeps into beds.
  • Zoysiagrass: dense, with light to moderate shade tolerance depending on variety. It may brown sooner than Bermuda in extended drought.
  • Buffalograss: a native that does well with very little water in full sun. It does not handle shade or heavy traffic.

Seasonal rhythm

All of these grasses grow from spring into fall and slow or go dormant in winter. Feeding is generally done during active growth, after green-up, rather than in late winter. Many Austin lawns get fertilizer they don't need: AgriLife notes local soils are often already high in phosphorus and potassium, so a soil test is a better guide than a standard bag. Iron deficiency, which shows as yellowing between leaf veins, is common on high-pH limestone soils.

Mowing and watering

  • Remove no more than about a third of the blade at a time.
  • Keep St. Augustine and shaded lawns taller; Bermuda and zoysia are cut lower.
  • Water deeply on your allowed day rather than lightly and often, and run cycles back to back with a pause so water soaks in instead of running off.
  • Expect some summer browning during drought. Dormant Bermuda and buffalograss often recover when rain returns.

Watering rules affect your lawn plan

Austin Water, Round Rock, Cedar Park, Georgetown, Leander and other utilities each set their own watering days and hours, usually by address, and tighten them in drought stages. Austin's automatic sprinklers have been limited to one assigned day a week. A lawn program that assumes frequent watering is a poor fit. Check your utility's current schedule before buying into any plan.

Pesticide licensing in Texas

Mowing and fertilizer-only applications do not require a state license. However, the Texas Department of Agriculture says anyone who applies any pesticide, including weed killers bought over the counter, to lawns, trees or ornamentals for hire must be licensed by TDA, either as an agricultural applicator in the landscape maintenance category or through the Structural Pest Control Service in the lawn and ornamental or weed control categories. If your program includes weed or insect control, ask which license the company holds.

What to ask before signing up

  • Is the program built for my grass type and a soil test, or the same for every yard?
  • How do you adjust in drought stages when watering is cut back?
  • What is applied at each visit, and when is it safe for kids and pets?
  • Can I pause or cancel, and how is billing handled?

Ready for help? Request a lawn care company and tell us your grass type if you know it. Not sure? Our Austin grass guide can help.

See how it works

How a sprinkler zone waters a lawn. Press the buttons to run each step and see what happens inside. Made with Colorfigures ·
Embed this figure

Frequently asked questions

Does a lawn care company need a license in Texas?

Mowing and fertilizer-only work don't need a state license. The Texas Department of Agriculture requires anyone who applies pesticides, including weed killers, to lawns, trees or ornamentals for hire to be licensed by TDA.

Why is my St. Augustine lawn turning yellow?

On Austin's high-pH soils, yellowing between the leaf veins is often iron deficiency. Drought stress, shallow soil over rock, insects and disease can also cause yellowing, so a diagnosis beats guessing.

How often should I water my lawn in Austin?

Follow your utility's current schedule, which in Austin has limited automatic sprinklers to one assigned day a week. Water deeply on that day using short back-to-back cycles so the water soaks in.

Sources and further reading

Request help now

Get help now