Has anyone had their lawn scraped off & replaced with lots of soil & then seed? (Dallas: rentals, how much)

[ChessPie]

Has anyone had their lawn scraped off & replaced with lots of soil & then seed? Any luck? The front half of our lawn is just crap. Sod costs more than double so unfortunately that's not an option. Thanks.

[rdub1968]

I did it all myslef this year, and installed an irrigation system. I killed it with roundup, rented a power rake from Home Depot to churn it all up, added topsoil, then put bermuda sod down. My lawn looks more beautiful than the one I had in Michigan. It is the nicest looking lawn on my street, even the kids down the block asked me if it was fake. My kids don't play on our neighbor's lawn any more since ours is so soft.

If you are going to do it, grow the grass that is meant to be grown here - bermuda, zoysia or another warm weather grass. If you plant fescue or tall fescue you will be in the same place in a couple years unless you water it all the time. Even then they aren't as soft as bermuda. More and more people in my sub are starting to wise up and grow the warm weather grasses. The cool weather grasses will look good in the winter, but when do you really use your yard?

I looked into the cost of having someone clear my lot of grass, and it was like $650 for a .25 acre lot.

[flyingscotsman]

Originally Posted by rdub1968

I did it all myslef this year, and installed an irrigation system. I killed it with roundup, rented a power rake from Home Depot to churn it all up, added topsoil, then put bermuda sod down. My lawn looks more beautiful than the one I had in Michigan. It is the nicest looking lawn on my street, even the kids down the block asked me if it was fake. My kids don't play on our neighbor's lawn any more since ours is so soft.

If you are going to do it, grow the grass that is meant to be grown here - bermuda, zoysia or another warm weather grass. If you plant fescue or tall fescue you will be in the same place in a couple years unless you water it all the time. Even then they aren't as soft as bermuda. More and more people in my sub are starting to wise up and grow the warm weather grasses. The cool weather grasses will look good in the winter, but when do you really use your yard?

I looked into the cost of having someone clear my lot of grass, and it was like $650 for a .25 acre lot.

Cuirous how much did you spend doing it all yourself?

[rdub1968]

I would estimate a little over $2500 - after figuring in the topsoil delivery, rentals for the trencher and power rake, sprinkler parts and sod from Supersod.
I uploaded my yard measurements to Rainbird's web site and they designed my system. I was able to order everything from their site and saved a lot of money and time that way.

It took me a lot of nights and weekends, so I know I won't be moving anytime soon! I also had to put edging around all my flower beds so the bermuda would stay out of them.

But to see how nice it looks compared to what it looked like makes it worth every penny and minute I spent on it. But unless someone is really handy and energetic, I wouldn't recommend taking on such a large project unless you had a lot of sons to help
Mine are 8 and 7, and I keep telling them they are lucky they aren't 14 and 13 or they would have been out there with me!

[theroc5156]

Zoysia looks terrible in the winter but it is easier to maintain. Personally, I think people tend to over-water their lawns. In Union County, I see people watering their lawns a lot (and on days they shouldn't be).

I have tall fescue and my lawn has won awards in our development. Unfortunately, I let it get to my head and now have more weeds growing than I ever have had before and am playing catch-up. It's been a very bad year for weeds (Dallasgrass, nutsedge). Keeping a green lawn with little weeds takes a lot of work. You get out of it what you put into it.

[rdub1968]

Originally Posted by theroc5156

Zoysia looks terrible in the winter but it is easier to maintain.

I agree, it does look nice in the summer. We went with bermuda because we have 3 kids, a dog, and a play structure that the neighborhood kids like to play on - so we needed something that repaired itself quickly. Zoysia is a little slower to repair.

And eventually I want to overseed the front yard with winter rye so it is green in the winter, and from what I read it is not recommended to do with zoysia.

[theroc5156]

Originally Posted by rdub1968

I agree, it does look nice in the summer. We went with bermuda because we have 3 kids, a dog, and a play structure that the neighborhood kids like to play on - so we needed something that repaired itself quickly. Zoysia is a little slower to repair.

And eventually I want to overseed the front yard with winter rye so it is green in the winter, and from what I read it is not recommended to do with zoysia.

My neighbor put in Zoysia last year and it took a while for it to green up in the Spring. Not sure if this is normal. It looks nice now though. He doesn't have nearly the Dallisgrass issue I have. Funny thing is, I have a lot of Dallisgrass where my yard meets his yard.

[southbound_295]

My aim is to convert my lawn to short fescue & rye. I have had minimal success with Scotts, but, on a lark, I brought back a bag of Pennington 1 Step Complete from DE last fall. It held up perfectly over the summer with minimal watering. True Value carries the full line of Pennington, so you can have your local store order a bag in to give it a try.

Short fescue & rye mixes always have bluegrass in the mix. That won't hold up worth a crap, but I didn't expect it to. My mother tried to get bluegrass overseeded into their lawn for many years, in South Jersey, & it fried every summer, without fail. Once I can get short fecue & rye established, I'll order some fine fescue to overseed it.

[theroc5156]

Originally Posted by southbound_295

My aim is to convert my lawn to short fescue & rye. I have had minimal success with Scotts, but, on a lark, I brought back a bag of Pennington 1 Step Complete from DE last fall. It held up perfectly over the summer with minimal watering. True Value carries the full line of Pennington, so you can have your local store order a bag in to give it a try.

Short fescue & rye mixes always have bluegrass in the mix. That won't hold up worth a crap, but I didn't expect it to. My mother tried to get bluegrass overseeded into their lawn for many years, in South Jersey, & it fried every summer, without fail. Once I can get short fecue & rye established, I'll order some fine fescue to overseed it.

I think Pennington seed is better than Scott's seed as well. At least, I've had better results with it.

[joanchris2000]

I had my front lawn scraped off and sodded with fescue this past spring, after adding some topsoil. While they were here with the equipment I had them scrape off the minimal grass/weeds from my back yard (aside from the small area of bermuda sod I had laid a few years ago). I seeded with bermuda over the bare clay, just raked a bit that I could scrape up to cover the seed. The backyard looks absolutely fabulous now. The front yard sod has taken a bit of a beating this summer, questioning whether I made the right choice with Fescue vs Bermuda in the front now.