Please help a lawn noob

Discuss how to and whether you should renovate your lawn
Post Reply
ibChato
Posts: 6
Joined: September 24th, 2021, 4:10 am
Location: Southern California
Grass Type: Dirt, future Bermuda and st. augustine
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Please help a lawn noob

Post by ibChato » September 24th, 2021, 1:52 pm

Greetings everyone,

I've been lurking this forums or the past month and have gotten some good information thus far. There seems to be some really knowledgeable folks here and an all round great community. :good: I'm in a situation now that im not sure what to do, and I could really use some guidance. Here is the situation.

Southern California Zone 10a/b

I have a newly purchased home and the front and back yard were a complete mess of weeds and varying types of grass. My intention is to seed Bermuda grass in the back since it has direct sun exposure throughout the day and plug some St. Augustine in the front due to a large tree in the front that does produce some shade (just had it pruned so the shade has been greatly reduced)

I wound up tilling the backyard due to a variety of reasons, enormous amount of gopher holes, uneven landscape primarily. Based on my reading here so far that may have been a mistake. Anyways, I plan to have some soil delivered this weekend and level it out and grade it. I wanted to do all this earlier but I was finally able to get my irrigation installed in both front and back (2 zone front, 3 zone back) last week. So my concern now is if I am way past being able to seed bermuda and have it germinate? I am in Socal (10a/b zone I believe) and with our warm temps here I was hoping I would still be able to seed late into summer (now fall :| ) I understand that soil temps need to be above 67 degrees for the seed to germinate but currently our temps are going to range from mid 80s up to mid 90s for next week, with night temps ranging from low 60's to mid 60s. So, will it work?


Now let's say the consensus is that it will not, do I have an alternative? I really need some grass asap (rambunctious 3 year old loves to play outside) Is there any type of grass seed that I could sow now and when spring rolls around transition back to bermuda?

Thank you all for any feedback you may have, it will be greatly appreciated.

bpgreen
Posts: 3871
Joined: January 3rd, 2009, 2:28 am
Location: Utah (Wasatch Front)
Grass Type: Western, Streambank, Crested wheatgrass in front (with blue grama added in the heckstrips), sheep fescue in back; strawberry clovetr in both
Lawn Size: 3000-5000
Level: Experienced

Re: Please help a lawn noob

Post by bpgreen » September 25th, 2021, 1:26 am

I'm not really a warm season grass guy, but I think many people sow annual rye to have something green during winter,

ibChato
Posts: 6
Joined: September 24th, 2021, 4:10 am
Location: Southern California
Grass Type: Dirt, future Bermuda and st. augustine
Lawn Size: Not Specified
Level: Not Specified

Re: Please help a lawn noob

Post by ibChato » September 27th, 2021, 10:54 pm

Well, thank you for the suggestion. Appreciate it

User avatar
Dchall_San_Antonio
Posts: 3339
Joined: December 17th, 2008, 1:53 am
Location: San Antonio, Texas
Grass Type: St Augustine
Lawn Size: 5000-10000
Level: Advanced

Re: Please help a lawn noob

Post by Dchall_San_Antonio » December 11th, 2021, 2:03 pm

Again, ibChato, please consider giving us your real location on your profile. The USDA Zone system is used for one purpose - to determine winter cold hardiness. Each zone represents 10 degrees cooler in winter, but it says nothing about how warm it gets in the summer.
Having said that, even if you lived in Blythe or Heber, Sept was too late to seed bermuda.

Since you were considering seeding the back yard, you are probably sensitive to the cost of bermuda sod. Search these forums for sprigging bermuda. I believe the topic will be found in the Warm Season Grasses heading. Sprigging involves buying a few pieces of very expensive bermuda sod, rinsing the soil off the bottom of it, chopping the remaining tangle of grass and weeds with something like a machete, and scattering the chopped sprigs on the ground. You can cover a very large area with a small amount of original sod. The sprigs will take root and spread quickly to give a full, hybrid, bermuda lawn in a month or so. I would wait until late May or June to do it just so the soil is fairly warm.

If you still want to use seed instead, then wait until the soil is hot in mid June. You should get germination in 3-5 days if the soil is warm enough. If you listen to the TV advertising and put the seed down in February, you might not get 80% germination until June when the soil is warm enough.

Another topic to research here is lawn leveling. Since you rototilled, you need to get a start on stabilizing the soil structure. I would cover it with mulch and organic fertilizer for now, and do the leveling right before you do the seeding or sprigging. The mulch and organic fertilizer will create the perfect environment underground for the microbes and worms to get to work. Ideally you have not already brought in extra topsoil as you would be bringing in sand to do the leveling. You don't want to pile up the top dressings and raise the soil too high.

Post Reply

Who is online

Users browsing this forum: No registered users and 13 guests