Lawn Renovation Advice Needed

10 years ago

New to the forum, but have tried to search for an answer to my questions and haven't found someone else with my situation. A little background:

Bought a new construction home last February. Front yard was sodded with Bermuda but back was maybe seeded. Mostly weeds when I bought it though with traces of Bermuda. Went through last year just irritating and mowing. Back yard got worse and is terrible shape this year. it's about 9,0000 square feet with full irrigation installed.

Had a reputable landscaper come out to give an estimate on basically starting over. He recommended a full kill, clearing it, power rake and hydroseed with Bermuda. I thought his estimate was excessive so I priced out the hydroseed with another contractor and planned to do the prep work myself.

I had already done the first application of round up and then decided to do more research. I've learned that spring looks to be a bad time to seed, but since ive already got round up down, I have to keep things going. Sod is going to be too expensive so I am looking to you all for advice from here forward regarding prep work as well as taking care of the new seed.

I am planning to get a soil test this week. Round up has been down about six days and well definitely need to be re applied. my plan was to Round up, water, round up again and scalp it to the ground. then till or power rake with spot applications of round up then hydroseed. So, what would you all recommend? Any guidance will be very much appreciated.

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Comments (6)

iriasj2009
10 years ago
Do NOT til. im no expert but im doing a reno myself.
Your steps seem fine, just power rake and pick up as much as you can. You want to expose as much soil as you can. I am farther south than you are Houston, and not sure what your temps are, but wait until you highs are at least in the 80s and your lows are above 60s for best results. Hope this helps.
proplat919
Original Author
10 years ago
Understood. What is the general consensus on handling the unavoidable weeds I am going to have this summer. A lot of hand picking? Or just maintain good mowing and watering habits and handle them in the fall and put down a preemergent and wait til next spring?
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rager_w
10 years ago
TUPERSANÃÂ® is seed safe...
proplat919
Original Author
10 years ago
Agreed that is seed safe but I've read it shouldn't be used on Bermuda. Correct?
iriasj2009
10 years ago
I had "hand picking" in mind for my reno lol. Just practice good mowing and watering and all you can do is wait to build a thick turf and eventually rid of weeds (again, i speak from no experience just from what i have read) I will look into TUPERSAN or whatever that is.
dchall_san_antonio
10 years ago
I just searched this forum for "seeding bermuda" and got 16 pages of posts. Assuming you did the same search I'm surprised you couldn't find anything.

Never rototill in prep for a lawn.

If you read that spring is a bad time to seed, did you notice whether they were talking about northern grasses or bermuda? There are a lot of subtleties in the replies to the messages in gardening forums. Bermuda is always seeded in the summer. If you seed it now, you will watch and wonder until May or so.

Why do you think the back was seeded and not sod? What happened that the back did not do well? Do you have any shade in the back? Too much shade is about the only reason bermuda will not thrive. Can you post a picture of the back?

Find the Bermuda Bible online and memorize it.