Calling all "Garden Rebels"

[LakeMaryKid]

Well lately i have gotten all of our sprinklers working like gold. I have them set to perfection, now i just need the grass to water. Well this summer my Summer project is to get our front yard looking awsome. I will post some pictures of what our front yard looks like now. I plan to kill all the grass and then till it all and put down St. Augustine seed after tilled. Then water religiously. Reason for killing it and not just putting down fertilizer is we have countless types of weeds in there and id rather start fresh.  Now are there any tips for getting that awsome thick luscious green lawn?






Please post the tips and secrets to that awsome green lawn!

[Joedirt]

save the trouble and rake it out.......throw out fertalizer...then seed ...the St Augustine will take over in time....

[LakeMaryKid]

My dad wanted to just throw down some fertilizer that would just get rid of the weeds. So esentially the same as "raking it out". I dont want to do this half assed. I want this to turn out good not half assed.

[gery350]

in my house when rainy season come, that st. augustine will spread like wildfire and kill everything in its path.

what ive seen work is plenty of water.
you can never have enough water.

a litlle off subject but you guys have a big house.

[Joedirt]

Why dad wanted to just throw down some fertilizer that would just get rid of the weeds. So esentially the same as "raking it out". I dont want to do this half assed. I want this to turn out good not half assed.

.....to fertalize then seed......not half ass it...Rake it as in till it up with out using a tiller...a stiff rake...and Gery Makes a point....the sooner you get the seeds down before the rain the better

[LakeMaryKid]

Gery, not a big house just a long house. We have 3 acres.

I just sprayed round up today, so soon i will be tearing it all up not quite a summer project. I will start raking it all out in about a week. Then use a tiller possibly.

[Ida_Mann]

comeon face it, you just want to use the tiller ;-)

Id@

[MOTOCROSS MAVERICK]

round up the whole yard!!!! i would use sod instead of seed! but that is my opinion!   try and make a border around your yard because you dont want the neighbors weeds crawling over! when you grow the new grass let it grow really thick before you cut it the first time! that will cause the grass to grow and choke out any remaining weeds!   p.s. water the crap out of it too!

[LakeMaryKid]

round up the whole yard!!!! i would use sod instead of seed! but that is my opinion!  try and make a border around your yard because you dont want the neighbors weeds crawling over! when you grow the new grass let it grow really thick before you cut it the first time! that will cause the grass to grow and choke out any remaining weeds!  p.s. water the crap out of it too!

Id@ is one smart man LOL anything with power.

Maveric, i think any person with common sense would say put some sod down. Reason for seed is sod is frightfully expensive. Therefore we are going the cheap route that will work but only with time and work.

[jwscroll]

Obviously no pro landscaper has answered your question, so here goes.
I would recommend a good raking first to see what you've got to work with. A fertilizer weed control mix will burn up your yard this late in the spring. If you have more grass than weeds after raking, plug the yard with St, Augistine plugs, I recommend going to a sod farm for these not the local hardware store. Do Not Cut for at least two weeks. Water lightly for about 15 - 20 minutes twice a day for the first week, after that switch to every other day twice a day. The object is to keep the soil moist( not soaking wet), this give the root system something to search for and the roots spread out. Fertilize in 5 - 6 weeks with a low count fert such as 6-6-6 or 10-10-10 this will help to strenghten the grass without burning it up. During the late fall or early spring is when you want to throw weed & feed.
Chleated Iron is a trick chemlawn companies use to green up the grass, just don't get it on anything you don't want to have a rust colored stain on.
If you have more weeds than grass and you want to kill tha whole thing and start over, I would recommend a Professional Grade Roundup application. Let this sit for two weeks and kill, then all you have to do is rake the dead off the top and replant sod. When you order sod you need to know the square footage of the area you intend to cover( Lenght x Width = square footage).

[greenmachine]

Grass dont grow in the shade. You will need to prune the trees & get rid of so much shade or your are just paddling upstream.

[Alba450]

Get some round up spray on your lawn.  Wait 1-5 Days then call some of your budies and rake out all the dead grass!  after you take the old grass out get some fertilizer and sprinkle the DIRT.  then water it and put in the new SOD!!  Then once you put down the sod you need to water it fast and make sure the dirt is wet so that the sod can thrive once you put it on the ground!  Then get some Feed & Weed and throw that on your lawn about 3 Days after you put the sod down.  Then Water every morning!!!

[VForcedave]

Bulldoze the whole place and build a track. lol.. good luck

[LakeMaryKid]

Ok well, never knew that you couldnt get st augustine seed. What kind of grass that i can get in a seed form would be like St. Augustine or just be a nice grass?

[Mark Potter]

St Augustine does not grow from seed! you have to have a stolen or runner of the grass as in plugging or stolinazation, or sodding in strips...but not seed! the seed stalks that St Augustine produce never mature. when the feilds are put in first they are stolenized by shredding sod and planting the stollens or runners and letting it fill from there. When the turf has established it is harvested in the feilds by cutting with a sod cutter leaving about a 5-6 inch strip so that it will grow back and can be harvested again. NOT FROM SEED!

as far as shade you can grow St Augustine but it will need ot be a shade toloerant type like pursley suville or bitter blue and still you will need to have your trees thinned as well, but the thing to make sure is that the ground is not to hard, usally around the base of trees the roots can make the ground very hard making it hard to grow turf. One thing you can do if this is a problem is to add a few inches of top soil around the trees to give the new grass something to root in or you might want to consider extanding you landscaping around the trees...just a thought

[Moose]

I put the pursley suville plugs down a long time ago at my old house. It took over the place, but not until I installed a sprinkler system. Then all you need is water and weed & feed to have one of the best yards around.

It's funny the guy that sold me the plugs said when the yard got mature, I would only need to mow it once a month, but I would need to edge it every day. He was almost right.

[renmus]

Seville also has a good cold tolerance.  Palmetto is another alternative that is shade and cold tolerant.

[LakeMaryKid]

Going with Bahia Argentine Seed.

[Chuck_Norris]

You could cut half your work out by going to home depot and renting a sod cutter to rip up what you have, St Augustine ran me about $105 a pallet last time I did mine.

[FishaHallic]

Before you go to bahia I would try to salvage what you have.  Bahia sucks.

[Alba450]

Going with Bahia Argentine Seed.

Bahia!!!  Dude  that's Highway grass lol...........Have a fun time mowing

[LakeMaryKid]

Going with Bahia Argentine Seed.

Bahia!!!  Dude  that's Highway grass lol...........Have a fun time mowing

You obviously arent educated on what your talking about......like everything else.

Real highway grass

"Argentine has wide broad leaves with a good darker green color, making it more suitable for Lawns in Florida and other Coastal Southern states.  It's susceptibility to cold, results in winter kill of stands planted North of approximately Tifton, Georgia.   It is used extensively for lawns, because of its attractive look and the fact that it produces less "objectionable" seed heads than other Bahias."

[renmus]

Bahia yards can look good as any other lawn.  You just have to put the time and effort into them.   Bahia sod is generally cut from pastures, but you sound like you are going to seed.  Good luck.  Take some pictures once it grows.

[Nightbreed]

AHHHHHHHH, The heck with all the grass planting, sodding, watering, BAH hum bug.

  Now about this tiller, we could do some work to this tiller and get the yard done twice as fast. 

The way I see it, you could enjoy tilling the yard once or maybe even twice a week, but the key is to get the tiller running faster.  If you have a slow tiller, then you will easily get bored  and not even want to finish the yard the first time!