Help me save my lawn!!

[knn9413]

This is a house that we recently bought. The lawn sucks. I have read so much about lawns that I am completely confused now. I am not sure what I should do to get a green lawn !! I am attaching the images of how my lawn looks at different spots right now. Weeds !! well they are everywhere and some of the spots are really dry. Can someone please help me? I really don't want to pay for those overpriced services. I am pretty handy and would love to do it on my own.

There are parts of my lawn which are much better than this is. They are not very green but they look ok nowhere being close to as bad as these look. Any and all help would be much appreciated. If you can tell me what to do, what chemicals / fertilizers to use, that would helpful as well.

[Algida]

Since you've got no answer so far, I'll try giving you some ideas. Here's what I'd do:
-applying firstly a herbicide. The method depends on the applied substance and the instructions regarding its usage. It might help:
-installing a watering/irrigation system (optional);
-wait till the end of summer, while keeping controlling the weeds;
-selecting the grass seeds. There are different types: shadow, sunny, sport, low maintenance...
-preparing the terrain;
-seeding;
-top-dressing
-watering.

[DerbyDale]

That's pretty bad. Mine looks almost that bad last year. Sometimes a lawn needs to be completely started over. I killed my entire lawn last September. Then in October I power seeded and watered every morning (if it wasn't supposed to rain) for 3-4 weeks until the grass was 2" high. Now I have a pretty good lawn with only a few weeds, which I'm trying to fight now. I live in KY so the months you have to kill and seed may be a little different.

[imafan26]

I think it is time to start over. As mentioned above. Kill the weeds with an herbicide like round up. There are other persistant weed killers so be careful because some of them will be active for a year and you won't be able to plant anything then. You will have to water and weed repeatedly to make sure you get the weed seeds as well.

After the weeds are taken care of and they are not coming back, amend the soil, it is probably compacted and has little or no organic matter. You will need to scrape off the old dead stuff and dump it, do not try to compost it. Amend the soil with compost. If you have a truck and have a composting facility near you it is cheaper to buy it by the truckload. They will deliver but the delivery charge costs more than the compost.

In the meantime check out the types of grass recommended for your area.

Your local master gardeners can assist you with choosing the kind of turf that is recommended for your area
https://cels.uri.edu/docslink/safewaterP ... hyLawn.pdf

Renovating a lawn is a lot of work. There are several landscape and turf companies that will do it for you but it will be costly if you don't learn to take care of it afterwards.

Install a sprinkler system. New lawns need to be watered up to 4 times a day until they are established. People who handwater usually don't stand in one spot long enough to deep water.

If you have the lawn installed get a maintenance contract for a year from the installer. Usually if you get a package deal the installation and maintenance contract together it comes out cheaper in the long run. Make sure you get instructions from the installer on how to take care of the grass and you follow his advice on watering. Learn more about how to care for your lawn and learn how to test if it needs water or if there are pests, how to take care of that.

The maintenance contract for the first year is important, especially if you think you are going to plant or install grass and it will take care of itself. Well, it doesn't. Home owners pay to have a lawn installed and blame the landscaper when it dies, but it is really the homeowner's fault for not doing the after care like watering 4 times a day because they opted out of the sprinkler because it cost too much. Weeds will still come through until the grass is established and can compete with the weeds better. Maintenance contracts should usually specify 75% weed free, a fertilizing schedule, and a mowing schedule.
The homeowner is responsible for making sure the grass gets watered.

[HoneyBerry]

I realize that lawns are popular and they do look nice when they are planted well and properly maintained. But since you don't have much grass at this point, I want to urge you to at least consider some sort of lawn alternative. It can be done and can look nice.