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jeremydallas

In need of some expert advice. Lawn in need!

Jeremydallas
10 years ago

Hi all! I am new here to the forum and I am also new to the home ownership club. My wife and I recently purchased our first home. The home was in limbo for a few years and in the interim the lawn was not maintained well. I would like to develop a plan of attack to take control of the yard and improve it's condition. From what I can tell with the limited knowledge I have the front yard and most of the back yard is some type of a Bermuda grass. Parts of the back yard and the west side look like either St. Augustine or Centipede grass. I think I also have an issue with what I believe is Crabgrass spots in the yard. I would like to get rid of all the weeds and seed the entire yard with the Bermuda grass. The St. Augustine looks nice, but all my neighbors have the Bermuda as well.

The front and majority of the back has this type of grass which I believe to be Bermuda grass.

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This is the grass that is on the west side of the house as well as a small portion of the back yard.

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Finally this is the weed that I believe to be Crabgrass that has taken over several spots.

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I also have several spots where the lawn is partially shaded and I would like to plant something here that grows.

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Please help me fix my lawn. I don't want to be the only guy on the block with a nasty lawn. Thanks.

Comment (1)

  • dchall_san_antonio
    10 years ago
    last modified: 9 years ago

    You can't know how much trouble you saved yourself by writing in here before doing anything else.

    Your worst problem is you have dallisgrass, not crabgrass. Crabgrass would die normally at the first frost, but not dallisgrass. It is a perennial and will take over quickly if you don't stop it. Since it is a grass, anything you use to kill it will also kill your bermuda. But since you have bermuda, it will grow back without doing anything else.

    Your second worst problem is the St Augustine weed. It, too, will take over under certain conditions. You don't have to do those, but unless you go the extra mile, a properly cared for bermuda lawn infested with St Aug will always look weedy. Possibly the easiest way to get rid of it is to make it sick. That's easy because all you have to do is cover it with some newspaper and wet it down every night. Leave the paper on for about a week and you should start to see lesions on the grass blades that look like the spots on this grass.

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    Once you see that you can peel the paper off and let Nature take its course. The disease will spread throughout the St Aug and wipe it out. Since it does not come back from seed, once it's gone, it's gone. Bermuda might get the disease, but St Aug gets it fast and furious. It will die out in a month or so. If you get a freeze before it all dies out this year, the disease will come back next spring to get the rest of it. The bermuda will fill in as fast as the St Augustine dies out.

    Now the problem you don't know you have, and the problem that could easily become your biggest problem, is seeding into your existing bermuda. DO NOT DO THAT. Bermuda needs no seed. Once you have it, you practically have it for life. The problem with seeding into it is that the seed is very nearly a different species of plant from the grass you already have. What you have is a very good hybrid called Tif 419. What you get in seed is a variety of common bermuda seeds. The two plants do not mix well together. And I happen to have a picture of that, too.

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    The fine bladed grass is Tif 419. The coarse bladed stuff running over top of the Tif is an invasion of common bermuda. As with St Augustine, once you have a mix of Tif with common, it always looks weedy.

    Find the Bermuda Bible online and memorize it. There are things you should be doing all the time. I can summarize:
    Every month: fertilize with a high nitrogen fertilizer
    Every week: water deeply
    2x per week: mow
    But get the BB, it will explain when not to do those things.

    For your shady area you do want St Augustine. If you get a dwarf variety you can mow at the same height as the bermuda. If you cannot get a dwarf, then it is best to mow St Aug at the mower's highest setting (4 inches). St Aug is much less intensive to care for:
    Memorial Day: fertilize with a regular fertilizer (not weed-n-feed)
    Every week after the temps get high: water once, deeply, and mulch mow high
    Labor Day: fertilize with a regular fertilizer
    Thanksgiving: fertilize with a regular fertilizer

    By the way, centipede grass is out of the question in Dallas' alkaline soils.