Not that kind!!!!
I want grass in my front yard!!!!
currently I have patches of crab grass.
I've always wanted a nice full lawn


How do I do it? Where do I start???

 

Sod or seed?

 

Patch Perfect.




What moog asked. Sod will probably be easier with an "instant" lawn, but more expensive than seed.

 

You can over seed, and then use some crabgrass preventer next spring. Crabgrass dies in the winter, but grows from the seeds left behind in the spring.

I'm not sure what the optimum growing season in Socal is, but spring and fall is where we can grow grass pretty easily up here... just don't put down grass seed after you've used crabgrass killer (pre-emergence). Crabgrass preventer will also stop normal grass seed from growing...

For whatever reason, we got hit hard with grabgrass this year. My step-dad who is a fanatic about his lawn even got hit pretty good with the crabgrass... I had just though it was just me

12 bucks worth of Scotts grass seed from walmart, a good dose of compost, and daily watering got me from this:



To this:



So anything is possible even on a cheap budget...

Oh, here's the story... Grubs killed my lawn, but dylox (bayer grub control) and merit (grubx) took care of those critters... I had to rake out the bad dead grass, and seed in the new... It's only halfway filled in in the 2nd picture, looks alot better now (except for the damn crabgrass).

 

I am SUPER anal about my yard. Green grass is a must.

You have to be diligent in your watering and fertilizing. An irrigation system helps tremendously.

I went with sod and would recommend it over seed only because there is instant gratification with sod. However, you have to keep it well watered in its initial stages. There are people that feel that seed does better than sod, in terms of thick healthy lawns, but I don't necessarily agree.

This picture was taken a couple of years ago, my yard is thick and green. But I feed it with water every other day and fertilize every 4-6 weeks. If you REALLY want a nice yard, it does take some work.

 

I second the above.

When I used to live in Kentucky, one of the biggest mistakes people made was cutting their lawn too short. I think they just didn't want to cut their grass every week. Anyways, it seems that a longer cut lawn resists weeds and such much better. I don't know what the ideal height is, but I just set my lawn mower to its highest setting.

 

guys, thanks for the tips!!!

I dont even want to post a pic of the current status of my lawn!
I seriously need to overhaul the entire yard...


I prefer Seed to Sod because of Price....grass in socal doesnt really die at any point.

Can someone give me a step by step?
like,
1. dig up old dirt
2. lay compost
3. add seed
4. fertilize
5. water daily

can someone confirm or deny that?

thanks!!!!

also what kind of Seed should I go with? I noticed there was quite a bit of variety.

 

You need to be careful when you start screwing around with dirt. If by "dig up old dirt" you really mean that you are rototilling it you need to make sure that you don't screw up the slope. You don't want water running towards your house.

IMO you want to have bare soil in the area you plan to have seed. If you can't have bare soil than scalp what grass is there. If your ground is covered with moss you need to rake that out first. Spread the seed and cover it with something like peat moss. The peat moss keeps the seed in place and retains moisture. Water every 12 hours until the grass is at a height that it's ready to be cut. While you are watering it twice a day it doesn't need a lot of water. Just use the hose and wet the peat moss until it changes color. Once you cut it then you can start a normal watering schedule.
Get whatever grows well in your area. The amount of sun the area gets will also determine what is best. Home Depot/Lowes/etc will have it. Get a name brand bag of seed.

 

If you have weeds (crabgrass), you should kill everything with Roundup or some other weedkiller before digging anything up a couple weeks later. I read that some weeds spread from the roots, and that rototilling will actually spread the weeds out.

That's why you sometimes see people who have sheet plastic draped over their lawns- they used the Roundup and are waiting until everything is dead so they can then plant/install new grass.

 

^^ thanks!
I'm going to post pix and stuff

 

Wether you do decice to till or not, I would highly recommend covering the said area with a layer of nice topsoil. You can get it delivered by yoru local nursery for pretty cheap. Raking it is the easiest way to spread it. Next just spread your seed followed by fertilizer. If it is larger area I would suggest renting a seed spreader. It makes it soooo much easier and spreads it evenly. Just make sure you keep it well watered but not to much because you do not want the seed floating elsewhere.

If you dont want to drop the loot for sod, and dont have much of a green thumb, you might want to consider having someone come and hydroseeding for you. It's not as cheap as doing it yourself but it is about 1/3 the cost of sod.

 

^^^ thanks for all the comments guys!
I went out bought a bag of seed and grass fertilizer dug up all the crab grass, cleared a section of the yard (test area) and have planted my seeds!

the new seed says to water 3x/day??? WTF? I'm @ work alll day!
Wish me luck!

 

Timed sprinklers FTW...

Oh, and if you're in the City of LA, no watering the grass between 9 am and 4 pm, so you should do watering around those hours.
I don't know the watering restrictions of other cities in SoCal; you had better look it up before coming home to a citation on your doorway!
G/L.