Moms with Green Thumbs..

Hi M. --- I'm in the same spot you are. We moved into a house where the previous owners weren't "outdoors" people either. My husband and I aren't but I'd like our yard to look nice. Can youlet me know what you find out?

My neighbor has a service that he pays 42.00 every three months and they come and check the pH of the yard and all that. They don't really take care of the yard but they make sure that the circumstances are right for growth. When he gives me that number, I'll try to remember passing it along to you.

My husband is in landscaping and says that it is late to seed but that would be the first step. You usually seed in early spring and fall. He suggests this upcoming summer to have the weeds sprayed and seed the yard. Get it through the summer and then in the Fall you will spray the weeds again and seed the yard again but you HAVE to water. It must be sprayed immed and seeded. You must water, water, water. If you are not going to water, don't worry about it until Fall. You have to have someone spray the weeds and then the type of seed varies depending on what type of yard you have. The best is Tall Fescue seed to spread. If you can aerate it is better b/c it pokes the holes before you seed. Do it right before a rain if you can so that it makes sure you get in. If you would like to let me know more about your yard, type of grass, what area you live in, I may be able to help you further. Tell you which service to use or what you should do depending on your yard. If you live in the Nashville area, my husband says to call Second Nature, they are a good company.

Good luck!

W. M. M'boro, TN

Go to lowes or home depot and get a bag of gypsum and lime. this will balance out the pH in your soil. Then try a weed and feed lawn soil or fertilizer and some basic blue Fescue/Bermuda (Fescue is tall and will be green all through summer and the Bermuda is drought and cold resistant and should last all winter not bright green but you'll have grass) grass seed. We have the same problem and are slowly bring our grass back from the dead. Hope this helps

Hey! I wish I could tell you some great advice. I know my husband and I used all kinds of stuff on our yard for two years. We finally gave in after I sat outside and filled a trash can full of weeds that returned in a week or so. We called Fairway lawns. It turns out they are pretty reasonable. We were spending lots of money on stuff from Wal-mart and Lowe's. I am not sure where you live but there # here is ###-###-####. They will come out and give you an estimate, of course. They had my yard looking much better after just one application. It was truly amazing.

I wish I had some better advice but that is my experience.

Good luck,
H.

Have a neighbor or someone use a rotatiller and till up your yard and tehn get your own seed! That will work.

I don't know where you live, but my suggestion would be to plant LOTS of plants in your yard that don't need lots of water. I have a friend who has a beautiful garden filled with lots of different plants and ground cover and mulch with paths between - they have benches and swings and it's beautiful. There is no guarantee that there won't be another drought, and with the water shortages we've been experiencing it seems wasteful to use water to keep grass green. That is just my opinion.

If you have a chance to try this, it is more more effective and faster than seed and really well priced...The best part is it gets rid of weeds as it fills in.....http://www1.zoysiafarms.com These are grass plugs!
Great company and nice quality....
Hope it helps, I know mine was a mess after the drought also...
Take care and good luck!

Typically if you want a great lawn, you put down preemergent, overseed, and lime in the spring, weedkiller and lots of water through the spring and summer (typically about four to six times), then overseed in the fall.

However, you can do this less expensively by hiring Chemlawn (TruGreen). I don't have them, I have never used them, I don't work for them, etc. BUT. We do do our lawn ourselves and trust me on this - it is less expensive to hire them (by about $15/month) than it is to do it yourself. I just wish my husband would agree with the numbers....

The other option is switch to an arid climate landscape (which we would love to do but our hoa prevents it). Put down lava rock, peebles, waterfalls, arid plants, etc....

Good luck!