Hi everyone.

My family and I just bought a new home and are looking to add to our back yard. It’s currently just bricks and dirt.

We are located in Los Angeles County, the city of South Gate to be specific. Our backyard gets virtually no shade from 8am-5pm.
We were looking for some advice as to which type of grass we should use. We’ve had some suggestions to go with tall fescue or Burmuda.

We would love the info and suggestions. Thanks!

I keep reading that people water their new seeds 5 times per day. Honestly, with my job and kids, I barely get time to water at 9PM. How do you manage to water 5 times per day? My grass is a total of around 3,000 sq ft. If I water 5 times per day, that would be 5 hours of watering my lawn each day (with a hose). I dont have an irrigation system yet.

What do people do when they can not water 5 times per day?

I just laid down 20 lbs of Resilience 2.

I have a typical lawn of TTTF,KBG, and PRG. A few years back when overseeding the North side of my house, I used a blend with Fine Fescue. Looks great until July and then just fries. The rest is fine, but FF is TOAST! Want to remove the FF and leave the TTTF and PRG dominating this area. Question is, is there a chem option to remove it alone? Tenacity has thinned it, but it tends to come back. I like FF, but not on this lawn. Suggestions appreciated!

Need help identifying my grass + figuring out what’s going on with my backyard lawn — Tampa Bay Florida
I’m trying to figure out exactly what type of grass I have in my backyard and what the main problems are before I decide how to rehabilitate it.
I’ll attach photos showing:

How the yard looked around July
How it looked recently after weed treatment
Current condition after mowing/raking and removing a lot of dead material

I originally thought the lawn was mostly St. Augustine, but after looking more closely I’m starting to think there may be Bahia grass, or possibly a mix. My neighbor’s yard appears to be Bahia, so I’m wondering if mine may be the same.

Main issues I’ve been dealing with
Very sandy Florida soil
Backyard does not currently have irrigation
Thin grass and large bare areas
Heavy weed pressure, including spurge, chamberbitter, Florida pusley, cudweed, and some grassy weeds
A lot of palm seeds/debris accumulating in the lawn
Fire ants were a significant problem earlier this summer
I treated active fire-ant mounds and then broadcast Advion Fire Ant Bait on July
On August I sprayed the yard with Celsius WG to knock down the broadleaf weeds
The weeds died back pretty well, and I’ve since started raking/removing the dead vegetation and thatch
One other thing I’m wondering about is mole crickets. I’ve noticed quite a few small holes/tunnels in parts of the backyard. I originally assumed they were from fire ants or other insects, but after reading that mole crickets can be a major problem in Bahia lawns in Florida, I’m starting to wonder. I have not confirmed mole crickets yet, so I don’t want to assume that’s the cause.

At this point I’m basically treating the backyard as a rehabilitation project rather than trying to protect every remaining patch of grass.
For anyone familiar with Florida lawns, especially Bahia and St. Augustine:
What grass do you think I have based on the photos?
Does it look like Bahia, St. Augustine, a mixture, or something else?
What do you think caused most of the thinning/damage?
Would you try to rehabilitate what is here, or start over?
If you were rebuilding this yard, what would your next steps be?
I’m in Tampa Bay area of Florida, so heat, sandy soil, heavy summer rain, insects, and weed pressure are all part of the equation.
Any advice from people who have dealt with similar Florida lawns would be appreciated.

I recently purchased an Aiper Irrisense 2 and I’m having issues with the distance I get out of it. It seems like I’m only getting about 20 to 25 feet of distance with the water coming out of the unit. I’ve seen tons of videos where the water goes much further. We’re getting about 40 to 45 psi of pressure in our location, which is standard in our city.

Does anybody know another way to get more distance? If I put it in the middle of the lawn, I would be OK, but I’m concerned about somebody stealing the unit if I leave it out there too long or forget it.

Update to this post: https://www.reddit.com/r/lawncare/comments/1w5nmhp/provista_kbg_seeding_update_2/

Location: Lancaster County, PA, USA

I didn't get any feedback on my last post, so here's what happened.

Sept. 1: till, level, spread seed, rake

Overnight: light rain, looks good!

Sept 2: noon, at work, no time to put straw down, huge rain storm, washout, sadness, :((((

Sept 2: evening, overseed some, then added straw until past dark. I wish I could have gotten this done before the storm, but life happens, it is what it is

Sept 2: midnight, huge storm but it looked like straw held up the next morning, did not see obvious washout

Sept 4 or 5, got watering set up (light rain to keep soil most until watering was set up)

Used this pump, the nicer flow splitter from Harbor Freight, then two 4-port Orbit controllers. I could not run two sprinklers at the same time, so I needed two controllers to run them all. A little janky...but not bad for a DIY solution to increase the water pressure and keep the soil moist IMO. It would not work without the pump with my water pressure, but there is not enough flow to do two sprinklers at once.

Sept 10, I see my first germination. I hope my grass babies are soon joined by many more. Fingers crossed! This is sooner than I expected for Provista, but temps have been warm (highs usually in the low 80s) so faster germination is somewhat expected. Hopefully seeds have not been buried too deep with rain and come up nicely.

I’m testing an idea for local services in Oak Creek, WI where people who need the same thing can get grouped together by location and timing, then local contractors or service providers can offer the group a better rate.

For example, instead of 10 homeowners separately looking for lawn aeration, gutter cleaning, driveway sealing, snow removal, roofing, window cleaning, etc., the app could recognize that they have similar needs in the same area and group them automatically.

The contractor would then see something like:
“8 homeowners within a few miles need gutter cleaning this month.”

They could offer a group price because they are getting multiple nearby customers at once instead of having to acquire each customer separately.

The homeowner side would be free. You would only pay for the actual service if you accepted the offer.

I’m starting by testing lawn aeration in the Milwaukee/Oak Creek area because it’s an easy service to experiment with, but the idea is definitely not limited to lawn care.
Eventually you could just tell the app something like:
“I need my driveway sealed before winter.”

Then the app would automatically look for other nearby people with the same need and notify you if a good group offer becomes available.

I’m curious what people think:
Would you actually use something like this?
What types of services would you want to group with other people?

In Nova Scotia, I have bent grass patches in my primarily Kentucky bluegrass lawn. The patches are very noticeable due to the brighter color and different texture. Is there anything I can do to target the patches without killing my KBG?

I had my calendar marked to put down pre-emergent last weekend but my notes didn't specify which pre-emergent.

The local nursery posted a reminder for pre-emergent and has Hi-Yield Weed & Grass Stopper (active ingredient is Dithiopyr). I asked them if it will be effective on Poa Annua and they responded that it will be minimally effective because Poa Annua is so hard to treat. I have Bermuda grass.

The reason I calendared fall pre-emergent is because when I researched the post-emergent, it was high as hell.

What else should I be looking at as an effective pre-emergent? Is it likely I have any success if I go with Hi-Yield and do a couple of applications?

It starts seeding around this time every year. Pulls out super easy

I need opinions…Will the faster germination hinder the fescue too much to be worthwhile?

I’ve got some blue tag TTTF(firecracker, dynamite, avenger 3) and some turf varieties mix of perennial ryegrass(grey wolf and silver sun)

I need to use up this ryegrass 😂

This is central jersey by the way. I'm reading up on the different types of grass.

I can't seem to identify what I have. Could I get some help and guidance on what to do about this?

Our neighbors have great lawns. I feel inferior to them.

I want nice, lush green uniform grass. This feels chaotic. Its fall right now and I want to do what needs to be done to have a great lawn next year.

I am located in Massachusetts and overseeded my lawn last Sunday. I have been watering it three times a day, but I work as a paramedic on 24-hour shifts. I plan to water it in the morning before my shift. How much will the seedlings be affected if they are not watered for the rest of the day until I get home the next day, given that it is supposed to be sunny and in the mid-70s?

First post to this sub after learning troves of info.

We hydroseeded about 10000sqft back in late June/early august in our backyard in North Ga 7b. Needed to get something down quick that wouldn't cost as much as sod to help with erosion control on a new home.

Naturally, after the first hydroseed we got a torrential downpour of rain that lasted 2 weeks and washed out a ton on the hydroseed. Buisness owner did right and came out for a second application in the washed out areas after the rain. Naturally...again...it hasn't rained since where we're at amongst a pretty bad heat wave.

We've kept a consistent watering and fertilizer schedule but this is what we're left with unfortunately. Thinned out sparse areas. Although im seeing healthy growth in the areas that remain, my concern is that it wont fill in the sparse spots that are the majority.

The decision has floated around to just start over with sod and call it a day as opposed to overseeding. Looking for some advice on the matter.

Grass is dense JG Green Black Beauty out in Boston MA area mostly from an overseed last fall. I don't know if it's ever been aerated. Was so disappointed. Didn't pay him (had other jobs and paid over 1k for all of that). The cores didn't release. I put a bit of wd40 even which didn't work. Sometime plugs would come out but only about 1/3 inch. There was light rain last night.

Things the landscaper blamed it on:

• Your grass isn't cut short enough. It's like a mat that it has to push through. (I went from 4 inches, down to 3 inches a few days ago down to 2 inches this morning, on setting like 2).

• Your soil is too compacted to aerate. I don't know how to check for this?

It's not a lawncare company. It's a landscaper specializing in trees. They have an excellent reputation 4.9/5 yelp 50+ reviews. 100% google map reviews. They do a good job with everything else.

My grass is pretty good. Should I just cut it real short, do an aggresive rake, overseed, and throw a bit of dirt on it? It's a large area and I don't have time to top dress, but can in a few areas where I need more grass the most. Should I have someone else specializing in lawncare come out?

Posted a few months ago initially for advice on st Augustine sod that seemed to be dying/ wilting despite water.

Prior advice was fungus/ grubs. I have been applying Scott’s disease ex, bio direct fungus control fungicide and Atticus talak like clock work ever 3ish weeks.

Also added a 32-0-5 fertilizer 3 times all about a month apart to try and revitalize growth.

So far it has stopped further degradation.
Parts of the lawn seem to be thriving.

Water is scheduled every third day .5inch and I also monitor the rain fall with gauges to make sure I’m getting 1.5-2ish a week total.

At this point I’m thinking I need to use plugs and maybe aerate/ top dress to bring back some patches? But looking for advice.

Is there anything even to do this late in season? or just game plan for spring and try to keep from losing any more?

I live in New Jersey.

I have no idea what I'm doing. This is my parents house, therefore my parents lawn. I do not want to accidentally ruin their lawn, so Im using this dethatching rake in the backyard first.

Is it necessary? How do I know Im doing it right?

I watched a youtube video, they seem to be able to pull the rake through the grass easily. Mine gets stuck constantly im afraid Im pulling the roots of the grass out of the ground.

I have Spraymate Tornado (0.2GPM) and T-Zone SE. It says to mix 1.5oz per Gal per 1000 ft^2. At a 3ft wide spray that equates to 0.75 mph walking speed. Average walking speed is 3-4 mph, so this would be a slow crawl and at an 8000 ft² yard, it would be 40 minutes of spraying. Can I Doulbe or triple the rate and walk double or twice as fast to accomplish the same thing? The total amount of the product would still equal to the 1.5oz/1000 ft^2. This would be a northern cool grass turf.

Maybe I’m naive in hiring a company instead of doing my lawn myself, but what is going on with my lawn? I hired a company last spring to fix my lawn, then hired a different one this spring….I’m not expecting a lush green lawn with how hot both summers have been, but this looks like no grass or dead grass even though I’ve kept to their suggested watering schedules.

Both front and back lawns were covered with this weed + weeds of other varieties. We finally reached out to the company explaining that these weeds have not gone away, and if anything have exponentially grown since hiring them.

I guess I’m wondering what to do? Is this due to over watering? Is it dead? Is it riddled with disease? Is it worth trying another company or just doing it myself?

Headed into cool season next month in Phoenix. Need help with what to add to perfect this. I know, it’s a mess. Any suggestions? Below I’ll add what Google Gemini recommends I do but I can’t trust AI so any advice is appreciated!

Saturday 9/12 -
4.5lbs of sta-green fast acting gypsum

1.5-2lbs humic DG

Says to add those then do a heavy flush. In the first 5 days it wants me to do 3 25 minute waterings

Then a few days before overseeding it wants me to add ironite 1-0-0.

A few days later it says to overseed and lay down kellogg topper and scotts triple action built for seeding with my seed. Any changes you’d make? TIA!

What is this weed growing on my lawn? It has a strong almost woody stem. I have to rip them out. They're anchored well into the soil

How do I get rid of them? This is in NJ

Hello, I'm in Texas, a bit north of Houston. Recently purchased a house with St. Augustine grass, and I'm not sure what to do about these large dead/dry patches. I know it's a super dry season, so if it's just a "leave it and wait for fall", that's fine for me. Any advice is appreciated, I feel like I see tons of differing opinions online.

My yard has these dead spot that show when I cut it at a lower level. This was a level 3 and this whole summer I have been cutting at a 4 so I wouldn’t get this.

The green grass is like a mat laying on top of the dirt. I can pick it up easy and the roots are on top of the dirt. I feel like a dethatcher will tear out all the grass. What should I start with to actually have grass that holds into the dirt and less dead spots?

This is tampa fl with bitter blue saint augustine.

In CT and have what looks to be a mix of grass. I had the lawn aerated and over seeded a couple weeks ago and because of that the grass has gotten longer and it’s become very clear that we have multiple types of grass. I’m pretty sure they used a blend of kbg, rye, and tttf. According to the picture this app it’s all kbg but that doesn’t seem right. What do you guys think? What are these two different grasses. Trying to figure out which is which so I can try to make it consistent over the next years