Need some advice for my new lawn this fall.

[Jeffd1979]

My house was completed last aug and my lawn was seeded with fescue.. it was doing VERY well all fall and this spring.. after a long time without rain the beginning of this summer the lawn began to burn out.. about 30% of the lawn now is bare patches. I also now have alot of weeds starting to pop up.. I want to tackle this lawn right this fall and i need some advice on what do to.. I live in charlotte NC.. What steps should i take to get this lawn into shape and when should i start..
I have an areater that i can use so it will not be a problem getting that.. the lawn is .5 acres..
I want to start out by killing the weeds then plan on doing a re-seeding.. i have been using a contractors mix of fescue.. would i be better off going with the more expensive brands? this is about 40 bucks for a 50lb bag.

THanks for any advice you guys can give.

[pilotcoplawnboy]

Aerate your yard in about two-three weeks, when it starts getting a little cooler. I use Lesco transition blend grass seed. It can be purchased at Home Depot. The best fertilizer formula to use on fescue lawns during over seeding is ( Lesco 18-24-12 or equivalent product ) slow-release. The best seed type to use in the Charlotte NC area is a Hybrid Fescue. (If you use cheap seed, expect a cheap lawn.)

Good Luck!

[Jeffd1979]

Originally posted by pilotcoplawnboy
Aerate your yard in about two-three weeks, when it starts getting a little cooler. I use Lesco transition blend grass seed. It can be purchased at Home Depot. The best fertilizer formula to use on fescue lawns during over seeding is ( Lesco 18-24-12 or equivalent product ) slow-release. The best seed type to use in the Charlotte NC area is a Hybrid Fescue. (If you use cheap seed, expect a cheap lawn.)

Good Luck!

Ya i plan on getting the good stuff this year.. I see you live in Concord NC pilotcoplawnboy. I accually live in MT pleasant about 7 miles outside of concord..

[Jeffd1979]

What should i use to get rid of the weeds in the yard?

[pilotcoplawnboy]

Put down weed killer that applys to the type of weeds you have. Go to Lowes and you will see that they have a wide variety of weed killers. Wait the appropriate time for the weed killer to take effect and disappear, then get ready to plant some new grass. I personally wait atleast two weeks before I attempt to plant new grass after spraying roundup or a weed killer.

[pilotcoplawnboy]

This is what my yard currently looks like after roundup was applied. It is more dead than it appears. (The pic was taken right after the roundup was applied.) In two weeks I will aerate, seed and fertilize.

[Jeffd1979]

Originally posted by pilotcoplawnboy
This is what my yard currently looks like after roundup was applied. It is more dead than it appears. (The pic was taken right after the roundup was applied.) In two weeks I will aerate, seed and fertilize.

Where do you live? that looks like a house i almost bought in a neighborhood off of hwy 49 up by the cabarrus arena.. Don't think it is the same house though.. yours appears to be on a slab and this was a crawl space house.

[Jeffd1979]

here is what mine looked like this spring

http://infoave.net/~jeffd1979/lawn1.jpg
http://infoave.net/~jeffd1979/house2.jpg

here is what it looked like in July
http://infoave.net/~jeffd1979/lawn/lawn4.jpg


I don;t have any new pics now cuz it is raining but it is 20x worse now.. the yard has huge dead patches of nothing but dirt.. I want to get it back to what it was like last spring

[pilotcoplawnboy]

I actually live in Harrisburg.
Here's some pic of my old house that I sold in April. It was in Concord.

[Jeffd1979]

Originally posted by pilotcoplawnboy
I actually live in Harrisburg.
Here's some pic of my old house that I sold in April. It was in Concord.

Where in Harrisburg is that.. my wife works for a Lawyer that lives in Stallings farm.. it is about 2 miles behind the new lowes foods..

Do you own that landscaping company in your profile? It says you guys do retaining walls.. i am thinking about getting a retaining wall put in at my house in the left hand side all the way down.. you can see what i am talking about in the first pic.. in the second you can barely see the hill but thats the line i want take with the wall... it would be about a 75 foot long wall about 4-5 ft tall... what would you suggest?

http://web.infoave.net/~jeffd1979/house3.jpg
http://web.infoave.net/~jeffd1979/house1.jpg

[pilotcoplawnboy]

Send me a pm with a way to contact you. The Company in my profile belongs to a good friend of mine who I do some work with on the side.

[pilotcoplawnboy]

As far as building a wall, I would just dig about a foot in and then go up from there. then you would just backfill the rest.

[Jeffd1979]

Originally posted by pilotcoplawnboy
As far as building a wall, I would just dig about a foot in and then go up from there. then you would just backfill the rest.

How much do walls like that typically cost.. are we talking 3,000 or are we talking 13,000??

[pilotcoplawnboy]

The materials are what kick you in the a#@. Labor is pretty expenesive also. So what you need to figure out is how much the materials will be and then you are probably looking at 40-70 dollars an hour for labor.

[BigLouie]

Hey Jeff you live in Oldenburg :) . I live in Concord as well.

[Jeffd1979]

Hey Jeff you live in Oldenburg :) . I live in Concord as well.

No not in Oldernburg.. i acually live in a Neighborhood called mountain brook (small part).. if you are going on 49 north toward Hwy 73 i am the rd on the right, right before you get to the food lion. 2nd house on the left. empire drive.

I herd they are adding about 300 houses next to Oldenburg.. Gonna be a big development. Where in concord are you?

[muddstopper]

Jeff, your spring lawn looked to be mostly rye which would explain why such a complete brownout in july. Most likely your lawn was seeded with a contractors blend of seed that contained mostly annual rye seed. Since you have an areator, I would suggest that you use a good starter fert similar to what pilot suggested, probably will need to apply dolomitic limestone and a good turf fescue. I believe the NTEP rates highly, Tarheel, FalconIV, Wolfpack and SouthernChoice fescue for your area. Apply all fertilizer and lime and half your seed rate before areation with the remainder of your seed after areation. Any weeds in your lawn can be taken care of with roundup before seeding as I suspect that the only grass you have now is probably just crapgrass.. I wouldnot suggest using any other type of herbicide other than roundup, (or similar) prior to seeding unless you are willing to wait for a while before you apply seed.

[BigLouie]

No not in Oldernburg.. i acually live in a Neighborhood called mountain brook (small part).. if you are going on 49 north toward Hwy 73 i am the rd on the right, right before you get to the food lion. 2nd house on the left. empire drive.

I herd they are adding about 300 houses next to Oldenburg.. Gonna be a big development. Where in concord are you?

actually, I just moved into our new house in Midland in Bethel Glenn. I am starting a new yard and getting some quotes from irrigation companies right now. I kinda thought about doing the irrigation myself, but don't want to mess stuff up,lol.

[BigLouie]

Jeff, your spring lawn looked to be mostly rye which would explain why such a complete brownout in july. Most likely your lawn was seeded with a contractors blend of seed that contained mostly annual rye seed. Since you have an areator, I would suggest that you use a good starter fert similar to what pilot suggested, probably will need to apply dolomitic limestone and a good turf fescue. I believe the NTEP rates highly, Tarheel, FalconIV, Wolfpack and SouthernChoice fescue for your area. Apply all fertilizer and lime and half your seed rate before areation with the remainder of your seed after areation. Any weeds in your lawn can be taken care of with roundup before seeding as I suspect that the only grass you have now is probably just crapgrass.. I wouldnot suggest using any other type of herbicide other than roundup, (or similar) prior to seeding unless you are willing to wait for a while before you apply seed.

I am starting a new lawn from seed as well. It was planted 3 weeks ago with what the contractor used (fescue mix). I recently put down 400 lbs of pelletized lime (12,000 sqft yard) does that sounds about right? I also put down the Southern Gold grass seed (wolfpack,tarheel,etc..). Any other suggestions?