Getting grass back

[Suess]

When we bought our house we had St. Augustine front and back. The front is fine because as we worked on the house we could see it and we were constantly reminded to water. The backyard however, far away, and was often forgotten. Then small baby, backyard was left to the wayside (sorry my poor yard). We currently have a pop up pool out there. When it comes down I want to get the grass back. The reason I am waiting is because we also cut a tree down this year and much of it is still out there. Once the pool is down we can drag it out.
So, the question is....how can I get grass back in there without having to sod it all? I live in Southern California (9b), and something tells me we will have an interesting winter this year (have had a mild summer).

 

[Suess]

Could I just use turf builder?

 

[TanksHill]

You know, the last couple of summers my lawn has almost completly died. Not enough h20 etc.. My husband usually spreads a granular fertilizer and waters very well. It usually comes back. Not sure about this year though. I know if you have bald spots a mix of sand and seed fills in nicely. Do you have any grass left at all? Or does it just look dead? Gina

 

[beak]

I had a contractor do some work on the side of my house last spring with a skidsteer. He dug through all my sprinkler lines then covered them back up. When I turned the system on I had 2 out of 10 zones working. What a nightmare, had to find where the tears were. So my yard went all summer with little to no water and dogs on it.

I used a mini rototiller(Mantis) and tilled down about 3". then I spread seed with a spreader and raked to cover. I did this after I finally got the sprinklers fixed. We live on 8 acres and there is always plenty to do during the warmer months.

Then I fertilized with a starter fertilizer. I also fenced it off. Watered it heavy for the next 4 weeks. By the time winter came it was looking pretty good.

No I didn't sue the guy that tore it up. He was doing what I instructed. It would have been nice if he would have told me instead of covering it up. The actual repair wasn't that hard. Just finding the cuts was hard.