I am about to move into a house with a backyard that has no green grass. It is either all dead or just yellowish and very dry looking. The backyard also has a ton of stickers and weeds. If I want a good lawn with good grass, where do I begin? It's pretty late in the year for this but I want to do something. I thought about tearing it all up and putting down 1500 sq ft of sod but I don't think I want to spend that much.

The biggest issue is with the weeds and stickers. I sprayed the whole yard with ortho weed b gon last week. Come on ags, help me out! I guess it would help to say that I'm in brownwood tx so I have to deal with the drought .

Spray with RoundUp and start over.

Scalp it and let the Texas heat fry it. Re-seed or sod in early spring.

Water it regularly and mow it frequently. There's still a lot of warm weather left. You could have a decent yard in short order.

[This message has been edited by Lungblood (edited 7/13/2014 12:50p).]

I have dogs and want grass for them. I don't want a yard full of dirt

You can water through that sort of thing if there is some gras alive. What type of grass is there? Most Texas yard grasses like StAugustine will squeeze out weeds well if watered.


I have experience with blue grama and buffalo grass if anybody has questions about those.

Is there any Bermuda left even if it's brown? If so keep cutting the yard low, water heavily once a week so the water reaches the roots. Mowing low will start to thin the weeds. Do not use anymore weed b gon or other weed killer until your Bermuda gets a little more established. I went through the same thing you did a few years back when the drought hit hard. Now I have a lush green yard, if my reel mower would not have broke a belt it would still look like a golf course fairway.

I'm fairly certain it's Bermuda. So mow short and water once a week or more if possible? Or just water once a week?

Is there such thing as watering too often?

Water multiple x per week for now. My advice on mowing would be to mow regularly rather than low, but there may be subtleties in turf management that I don't know.

[This message has been edited by vanzandt92 (edited 7/13/2014 2:16p).]

Watering for a longer period of time so the water can soak down to the roots is better than often barely soaking in. If you water correctly, you can mow at lower heights, but if you forget then let the grass grow longer to help shade the roots so it doesn't burn up. The key is allowing the water to soak down to the roots that's why when it rains your grass grows better.