What are my odds?

[fl-landscapes]

Originally Posted by superintendent

No bg just go bermuda and overseed with Rye and you'll have the best looking grass all yr round between bermuda and rye. It does look like you let the bermuda go into dormant dry.

Was going to suggest the same thing. Overseed with rye when your bermuda goes dormant and you will have a great lawn year round.

[avguy]

Originally Posted by superintendent

No bg just go bermuda and overseed with Rye and you'll have the best looking grass all yr round between bermuda and rye. It does look like you let the bermuda go into dormant dry.

What do you mean by go into dormant dry?

The winter rye idea might just be enough to push me to the bermuda. Also, I already have several stands of bermuda in the back scattered between the weeds & crabgrass. If I go with the BG I feel like it'll be a fight to keep the bermuda already there from coming back eventually.

Do you plant the rye at the same time as the bermuda? Scott

[Barefoot James]

You would need to over seed the bermuda with rye every fall - Oct in your case with annual rye.

[bigslick7878]

Originally Posted by superintendent

No bg just go bermuda and overseed with Rye and you'll have the best looking grass all yr round between bermuda and rye. It does look like you let the bermuda go into dormant dry.

I second that, with the way that bermuda came in no sense in messing with a good thing. That type of grass really thrived in your area after you planted it.

In your part of the country bluegrass could be very problematic when it gets hot during the summer.

Stick with the bermuda, if it is flat land like you say it will be much easier to establish as well compared to planting on that mountain in the front of the house.

[avguy]

Here's a couple of pics of the area I'm talking about.
I guess bermuda does make the most sense in my situation + my wife likes it..... although she thinks the yard looks just fine the way it is
Hard to tell from the pics but it is rough as hell out there...I almost need to wear a mouth guard when I mow.

[bigslick7878]

One of the reasons the front came in so good was because you amended the soil, make sure you do that again. It makes a HUGE difference!

Get it from the same place and you should be good to go.

But that area will be much easier to do then the front, the water will actually sit and not just run off like a lot of it would on that slope.

Is that fescue planted now and a warm season dormant with all the brown spots?

[avguy]

Those brown spots are patches of dormant bermuda, not sure what the other grasses are. Tons & tons of weeds, crabgrass, you name it out there. A lot of moss along the woods line. The entire yard was originally seeded in bermuda 13yrs ago when the house was built. The previous owner kinda let the lawn get away from him. I've been working on it (amending the soil) since we moved here 3 yrs ago. I'll get a 2nd soil test done this spring before I do anything. PH 3 yrs ago was 4.9

Hard to tell from the pics but the entire area is pretty rough. I think the lawn was graded with a box blade & tractor. I think I might just see what it would cost to get a bobcat & operator for a day & see if they can level it out a little more. If the soil checks out I think I can just move it around a little & not have to bring in more top soil. Thanks Scott

[bigslick7878]

Well obviously if the dormant spots are bermuda the rest of the grass is a cool season and it looks like fescue to me but hard to tell from the pictures. But I am going to go with tall fescue pretty sure.

That said, I have never switched from a cool season to a warm season like bermuda especially on a lot that size. Usually warm season grass will take over a cool season, but I would kill off all that existing (except the bermuda) and then replant if it is a lot of weeds and crabgrass like you said.

And I would still get some top soil right before you seed even if it is a light coat on top, it will ensure the seed gets good contact. Having all those uneven spots filled in is crucial as well, you need it nice and level if you don't want problems later on with weeds and water retention/drainage.

[Smallaxe]

The actual grass, you do have, in those photos, are much too good to be Bermuda. or , any other Southern grass I've seen.

Whatever you have, that, what, is still alive, in the photos,, needs to be alive , and, in the bare spots, as well...

If it's ,Fescue, I would not be looking for what makes it go... so much as... What made it stop.
Find out what happened in the "Kill Zones", and go from there...

[avguy]

Originally Posted by Smallaxe

The actual grass, you do have, in those photos, are much too good to be Bermuda. or , any other Southern grass I've seen.

Whatever you have, that, what, is still alive, in the photos,, needs to be alive , and, in the bare spots, as well...

If it's ,Fescue, I would not be looking for what makes it go... so much as... What made it stop.
Find out what happened in the "Kill Zones", and go from there...

The dark green grass I think is tall fescue....seems to grow in clumps. The bare ground you see in the 3rd pic was taken at the back of the property. That area is under a cedar tree that was completely grown over with briars/thickets/vines etc. that I cleared when I moved in. I also found cinder block, pea gravel, lanscape timbers & a couple of old christmas trees back there.

Bigslick....I think the reason the bermuda never overtook the other grasses is because of the poor condition of the soil. I was told by the extension office that did the soil sample that the soil was so acidic back there that just about all that would grow would be weeds until I got the soil amended.

This will be my 3rd year of adding fertilizer & lime to that area. Scott