I've been lurking around on here for a while trying to figure out what to do with my miserable front lawn. It gets full sun, the pH is 6.1 w/ no recommendations for lime from the soil test. I've read most of texas_weed's posts and the bible, but I'm still struggling with deciding what to do for establishment, and what kind of Bermuda to use?? I can get Sahara pretty cheap here, but anything else worth while I would have to order online because I can't find any good seed distributors. Sodding is too expensive for me right now. Is Sahara as "common" as some make it sound, should I fork out the extra $$ and get yukon or something? My neighborhood has no stellar lawns, mostly weed infested fescue, mine is the only bare one though.

So far, I've burned through 2 32oz bottles of roundup concentrate with my 2gal sprayer (~4000sq.ft. in front). I've been told by many to till next, but after reading more on here and digging a bit deeper, I may just aerate, scalp, and fill in some lumpy areas with cheap topsoil. My soil is not very compacted here (as far as GA goes). But is that enough to get rid of the remaining fescue and weeds? The yard is pretty uneven and bumpy, is leveling with sand after establishment a better option?

I hope I'm not beating a dead horse here, but I found the threads on Bermuda establishment to be kind of all over the place on here... Any thoughts?

For me, it's just hard to justify putting $1k into sod when I can buy 10 lb of Sahara seed for I think $40? What I'm trying to get an idea of is how bad is the Sahara really in comparison to other cultivars?

All seeded varieties are common. They won't look like a sodded variety.

Only sodded varieties are Tif. And really there is only one sodded variety, Tif 419. If you have a golf course or baseball stadium you can buy other varieties of Tif.

Those people who told you to rototill: banish them from your life. They know nothing about preparing soil for turf. Rototilling is the single most important step to a life of lawn misery. You will literally regret tilling every single weekend.

If you are going to seed, then level it first. Have you searched the threads here about leveling?

I have searched leveling, and I saw some reassuring results using sand but that was already after establishment I believe, I haven't found consistent advice about leveling before establishment... But I do like the banishment suggestion!

I do need do something about leveling before I start mowing though, otherwise I'll have the patchy scalping effect for sure.

Why the sigh for aerating, is that not as beneficial as it seems in your opinion? Seems like it would help the ground stay moist...

Sahara is just fine for a forage grass to bail hay and feed livestock. That is why it is so inexpensive. A good quality seed like Yukon or Riviera will cost you around $20/lb

Btw I read the notes about leveling, and am laughing now at the image of someone taking a doormat and dragging it around the yard, ha! I'll use a ramp I built.

The notes section also says you want to keep the roots alive by mowing close. For new establishment aren't you always supposed to nuke the existing growth?

If you're cheap (like me) and not afraid of hard work, you can buy a pallet of 419 and chop it up and plant it in a checkerboard fashion. That's how I established my 419. The first thing I did was to till (yes, I said it!) to a depth of about an inch (see, it wasn't so bad after all). That gave me enough loose soil that I didn't have to dig a small hole for each and every chunk of cut up sod. I was able to get a fairly even lawn. You could probably just lay the sod chunks on the ground but then they'd be higher than everything else.

It took me a full weekend and the 2 inch squares that I originally thought I wanted to cut quickly became 6 to 8 inch chunks of sod that weren't exactly square. I was just trying to get done with it before it was all over.

I rolled it a few times as it was establishing and eventually top dressed with masonry sand for final leveling.

I didn't cover the whole lawn either. I went as far as the pallet of sod would go. Once it was well established, I bought a 4" plug cutter. Kind of like a bulb planter but 4" square and deep enough to cut sod but not as deep as a bulb planter. I spent a few weekends cutting plugs from one place and transplanting to other places that were bare dirt at the time.

Within a year's time, I was cutting 4000 sq ft of Tif419 at a half inch. So, for the price of one pallet of sod, I had a lawn.

I wouldn't recommend my method to just anyone. If you are 1)cheap, 2)not afraid of work, and 3)patient enough to wait on a lawn instead of having an instant lawn, my method works.

How did you like the Princess 77? What did you do for establishment of that one? Was it worth the extra expense? Do you have any pictures?

Samlawn, I do try to maintain the putting green look and P77 is almost as nice as the 419. Seeding was more expensive but way easier. I started in September and sprayed RU several times to kill the common Bermuda.

The following spring, I removed the dead grass down to bare dirt. The weeks leading up to planting seed, I hit it with RU another time or two. I have a Mantis tiller with a slit aerator attachment. It's not worth a flip as an aerator, but it did disturb the bare dirt for me and helped prepare a seed bed. Think of it as very minor tilling. It also dug a bunch of slits for me. It turned out a lot of the seed washed into the slits and I wound up with P77 growing in a bunch of straight lines in my yard.

I don't know if P77 is the right choice for you or not. There are several varieties of improved Bermuda and all will look better than Sahara. TW suggested Yukon or Riviera. He's the expert and would sure take his advice over mine.

I just happen to have an old pic of my front lawn stored at ImageShack. The picture below was taken in late summer after seeding in very late May. In the foreground of the picture, you can see that the lawn was still filling in.

To get the best seed buy online form either Hancock Seed or Bermudaseed.com

If you want to do plugs then just buy a pallet if 419 from a sod store distributor. There are a a lot of them in the Atlanta area.

That was from memory, do I have the process down yet?

Huge mistake, do not till.

That was from memory, do I have the process down yet?

You can level the area a little. The only dirt you need to bring in is that required to change the drainage to make it better. Usually NO topsoil is needed for that. Just rearranging the topsoil that's there is enough.

Sorry about the double post btw, was posting from my cell.