advice on first steps to trying to fix front yard lawn

10 years ago

currently rent a house in champaign, illinois. we will be here 5+ years, no plans to move before then. first time living in a home, before this it was always apartments.

would like some help trying to get the lawn back up to order. i know it will take some time and some effort. i am completely new to yard work.

first, the front yard has a lot of bald spots. some moss, even. because of the tree (i have not yet figured out what kind of tree is there, but thats another side project for this spring/summer when leaves come out) there is a bit of shade. so i think my first step should be to get the soil tested? or no? some other step?

i would just like some idea of what a first step might be. I'm sure that different people have different ideas, so ms x's first steps might be different from mr y's. any help would be greatly appreciated.

maybe even before soil testing, i need to figure out what kind of grass is here. or what kind of grass might be good for here. (again, champaign, illinois.)

thanks in advance for any help in establishing my first steps!

i guess i might also add that i am not opposed to chemical fertilizers down the line, or even at the start, but i would prefer organic methods but i wonder if im even getting ahead of myself. i need to have a lawn to fertilize.

the photos below were taken 2 days ago.

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the above is a photo of the front yard. not very large, in my opinion. i hope that this is a project that i can manage. i also hope to be successful.

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the above is a close up of a patch of the good lawn that is left. dont know what it is.

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this is right next to the front of the house. looking at the first photo, it would be towards the right edge of that first photo, closest to the garage.

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dont know if this is dead or dormant. and there is some moss there at the top edge of the photo.

{{gwi:85029}}the above is the strip of lawn between our rental and the house next door. its doing better, yet there is a lot of weed right along the edge. a photo is below:

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weed. not sure what to do here. i really am new to this. do i just pull it up by hand? hoe it in or something?

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the above is a close up of the grass growing in the strip. it looks like the same grass in the front yard.

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the above is a photo of the yard covering the area closest to the entire front of the house. dead or dormant patches of grass, some moss and a large bald spot. near the left edge you can see an exposed tree root.

thank you so much in advance for any advice you choose to give!

Comments (4)

gardenper
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The grass definitely will take some many community suggestions for what to do next, but at least for the tree, I could suggest that while it is still dormant, it is a good time to prune it. You can still prune throughout the year (especially to remove unwanted new growth) but even without knowing the type of tree yet, pruning it is still OK.

Just read up on the pruning procedures or methods and if you have any questions, feel free to ask again about that. For example, some things to consider when pruning: remove branches growing inwards to the center of the tree and downwards towards the ground. There are more "rules" about which branches are candidates for removal, so give it a try and enjoy the yard work!

You can use those rules for many plants, so not only the tree but any other bushes or twiggy plant in your yard are now able to be pruned with what you learned for the tree.
dchall_san_antonio
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
The good grass remaining is Kentucky bluegrass. The brown looking grass would be KBG that went dormant over the winter, but it should be coming back by now. Since it is not I'm guessing it was weakened by the shade from all those trees. KBG was a good choice until the trees started casting shade on it in the summer. It will never be nice as a strict KBG lawn. That leaves fescue and your only grass possibility unless you want to take down the trees.

Now is a bad time to plant new grass but a lot of people do it. Those are the people who complain in July that they have a full crabgrass lawn. That's what happens if you seed new grass in the spring. You get all the summer weeds. If you want to nurse this lawn through the summer, then late August is the best time to seed the fescue.

So what are your thoughts?
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melonpan
Original Author
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
" That leaves fescue and your only grass possibility unless you want to take down the trees."

that sounds simple. ill look into getting fescue seed.

"Now is a bad time to plant new grass but a lot of people do it. Those are the people who complain in July that they have a full crabgrass lawn. That's what happens if you seed new grass in the spring. You get all the summer weeds. If you want to nurse this lawn through the summer, then late August is the best time to seed the fescue."

okay. ill nurse this lawn through the summer and seed fescue in august.

so nursing means trying to keep on top of the weeds (really, the lawn isnt that large, so i think this is doable) and watering whatever i have that is green deeply and infrequently. correct?

ill plan on that. ill pull out those weeds in the strip as well and try to keep it bare over the summer till august.

im not in any rush. i just want to do my best to try to have the yard looking better than what it looks like now.
dchall_san_antonio
10 years ago
last modified: 9 years ago
Deep infrequent watering is just short of a miracle cure for a lot of people.

Mow it relatively high - at least half way up your mower's notches. I would go all the way to the top but others disagree.