Weeds overtook my yard - please help (Austin, Cedar Park: to rent, mover)

[weedremover]

I am sick of grass weeds. Seems like I have all sorts of weeds. My lawn is full of weeds. You can barely find grass. I need your help. I am going on a mission to resolve it or atleast try my best to resolve the issue.

Every year I get 3-4 notifications from HOA. I have tried different weed controls, tried to remove by hand, dillo dirt but nothing has worked. I will agree that I was never dedicated enough. I would give up really quickly and never took time to understand the problem.

So this time I really need your help. Please suggest where should I start. What are my options? How much money I am looking at to spend?

Lawn size - 3000 sq ft

[Eastcoasting]

Call three landscapers and get quotes on tearing out your current lawn and replacing it with Zoysia sod.

Additionally try to increase the size of existing beds and planting areas around trees to reduce the amount of grass that you'll be keeping alive.

[scm53]

1. What kind of grass do you have now? How much shade, how much sun? Do you have a sprinkler system?

2. How much are you willing to spend to fix it? The reason I ask is, you may be looking at nuking the whole thing with Round Up and resodding. The best defense against weeds is a thick turf and you will be frustrated until you have that. It isn't so much getting rid of the weeds as much as it is getting a thick turf, as counterintuitive as that sounds.

[weedremover]

Thanks @eastcosting.

@scm53, Thanks so much.
Grass is St. Augustine. No shade at all. Too much sun. Yes sprinkler system is there.
How much to spend? Not sure. I have no clue are we talking hundreds or thousands?

So for nuking the whole thing with Round Up, I can buy a sprayer and RoundUp concentrate and do it now (in Feb). Does that seems the right first step? Do I mow the weeds first before spraying roundup so it can go to the roots?

[scm53]

Originally Posted by weedremover

So for nuking the whole thing with Round Up, I can buy a sprayer and RoundUp concentrate and do it now (in Feb). Does that seems the right first step? Do I mow the weeds first before spraying roundup so it can go to the roots?

There isn't a higher water usage grass than St. Augustine, so nuking the whole thing is the right step. You want surface area to catch the RoundUp, so leave it long. You might spray what you have now, just to knock the weeds down. But you are going to have to do it again when everything greens up to make sure you didn't miss anything.

Then the fun starts. You will want to rent a rototiller and get after it. Then you will have to rake out the old vegetation - grass and weeds. Take a look at your soil coverage. Most builders don't put down enough soil, and that might be the "root" of your problem. Could get by with four inches. Six to be safe.

So after you've rototilled and raked, you can start laying grass. A pallet of anything covers 450 sq. ft, so you'll need at least 6, maybe 7 pallets. Try grass4sale.com or any of the King Ranch Turfgrass places. No matter what you get, count on $150-200/pallet, delivered. What kind? It will set off a firestorm of opinions, but I'd say, given your circumstances, that hybrid Bemuda, either Tifway or Celebration, is your best bet. Some folks have great success with zoysia, but it won't get as thick with as little water as a hybrid Bermuda. And with your weed history, you need thick. Also, about $75/pallet cheaper than zoysia.

Of course, you can also hire somebody to do all of that. But I'd count on about $200/pallet in labor. Any grass yard can get you a quote, or you can ask around your neighborhood.

OK - fun spring project ahead of you.

[weedremover]

@scm53, I really really appreciate. This is very helpful and will get me going. Thanks for taking the time and thoroughly explaining me the whole process and the choices. You are awesome!

[Sunnydee]

My neighbor's had St. Augustine that was getting very weedy. They hired a lawn service to treat their lawn each month and it really looks good now. They somehow saved the grass and got rid of most of the weeds. It might be something to consider before killing everything and starting over.

[weedremover]

Any recommendations for Lawn Service in Cedar Park area?

[CptnRn]

The Grow Green resources offered by the City of Austin have a lot of helpful information. Check out the "Installation and Maintenance Overview" here Grow Green Resources | Watershed Protection | AustinTexas.gov - The Official Website of the City of Austin for advice on how to Solarize an old weed filled lawn, to kill it off in preparation for replacing it with other lower water use landscaping. Solarizing uses the sun's heat to kill off the remaining grass and weeds, instead of chemicals that may harm other landscaping in the area.

There is additional good advice here on lawn care: http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/def...n/lawncare.pdf

It really is in your best interest in the long run to get rid of a high water consumption lawn such as St. Augustine and convert to something that will require less water in the future. It may cost a couple of thousand dollars to do it initially, but it will pay you back many times over in water savings in the future.

St. Augustine requires so much water to stay alive during the incredibly hot summers we have had here recently, I think a lot of people have perhaps unintentionally killed off most of their St. Augustine lawns by not watering them enough. Which then results in the weed filled lawns that are left. A St. Augustine lawn will go dormant in the summer if not watered much, but if you stop watering it entirely the grass roots will die and will not grow back when temperatures cool off.

[weedremover]

Do you all know if/where I can find goats to rent for weeding? Is it feasible option to consider?