charleshx, I don't know your area very well, but you have four options. Embrace the bermuda, vigorously growing bermuda grass is very drought tolerant, suppresses weeds with it's dense growth habit,requires less water than the cool season grasses (fescue/rye) and best part of all you don't have to mow for a couple months during the winter. Fertilize with a total of two pounds of nitrogen per thousand sq.ft. mid-spring through late summer. Turf paint is an option, not all that expense for a small to mid sized lawn. Greenlawnger turf paint is a commonly used option. Over seed with rye or fescue (fescue is more drought tolerant but)in early fall at ten pounds per thousand sq. ft. Before you seed mow the turf a little shorter than normal to open up the turf canopy a little, then seed and water. Water wise you should set up your irrigation system to run a couple of minutes of water every hour between 9 a.m. and 3 p.m. until the seed germinates. Over seeding does not address the bermuda issue it just masks the dormant turf during the winter. You will have to reseed every few years. The herbicide options mentioned above work very well, if you have a qualified individual to apply the products ,and you are ok with your lawn looking pretty bad for about four to six weeks weeks, and you still have to over seed. You must renovate if you want to effectively and efficiently get rid of the bermuda grass. Spray Roundup and Fusillade with three applications seven days apart. Wait seven more days then resodd. This method will buy you a few years of bermuda free turf. You will have to monitor your yard for bermuda grass, and once you develop a couple of small patches use turflon and acclaim to control it and then over seed those small spots.

weigojmi, The "heat tolerant blue" is nothing more than 3 different types of TTTF (about 94% of the bag) and Hybrid Bluegrass (about 5%) (1% weeds seeds) which is a cross between Texas Bluegrass and Kentucky Bluegrass. The hybrid bluegrass looks just VERY much like most Tall Fescues. It doesn't have the fine blades, the dark green color, and density of Kentucky Bluegrass. A few of my neighbors have seeded that blend for a few years, the results are disappointing in my opinion. It makes a decent turf, but not dense enough or dark green. The real Kentucky Bluegrass grows well in your area with the proper care, so why bother with the "wanna be" kentucky bluegrass. There's a McDonals off of I-85 from Charlotte via Spartanburg, SC, located in Kings Mountain, NC; the entire lawn is Kentucky Bluegrass. It looks wonderful, always green. Of course, they have irrigation and a Lawn care company caring for the grass. I'm not a Nascar fan either, but I watch it from time to time. I'm, however, a Formula 1 fan, Rally, and MotoGP. Back to grass talk, the solarization sterilization process is used in Bermuda Sod Farms to intruduce a new type of bermuda grass in the existing site/soil. I've never done it, so I don't if it will work or not. I have, however, used roundup and a tiler to succesfully get rid of any bermudagrass. I did wintness once one of my neighbors dig a section (about 5x5) of bermuda infested fescue sod to about 4 inches deep, the replace with new fescue/bluegrass sod. That was 3 years ago, today that area (which I remember well because it's near his mailbox) has not shown any signs of bermuda coming back - it's all fescue and bluegrass. You can order Elite type bluegrass from different sources in the internet, one of them is: www.turf-seed.com The carry the Galaxy Blend which works very well in NC.

BP, that's correct. Buffalo grass will need as much light as bermuda in order to thrive. Sethramesh, with 6 hours of direct sun light, Fine Fescue (if no foot traffic) or Tall Fescue will work better than any other grass. Zoysia Shadow Turf claims it can survive on 2+ of direct sun light (I don't believe it) You can try it by buying some plugs, expect to pay top $$$ for those. Centipede will be a poor choice at your site with those light requirement, althogh Centipede does have more shade "tolerance" than Bermuda and Buffalo grass. Dchall, that bluegrass lawn looks like Tall Fescue... WAY too tall for my taste. I bet it's cut at 4 inches... The recommended mowing height for Kentucky Bluegrass is between 1.5" to 2.5" with 3" to 3 1/2" MAX during the summer months in the Transition zone. Areas with cooler/mild/wet summers can keep the height to 2.5" and down to 1.5" during the Fall/Winter. When you mow Kentucky Bluegrass higher than those recommended mowing heights, the top of the grass blades beging to lay over and turf loses density - very similar to what happens to Bermuda grass and seashore paspalum. Tall fescue has thicker and stronger blades that can easely handle 5 or even more inches before it starts to lay over. Perennial Ryegrass is very simmilar to Bluegrass in that regard.

Depends on how quick you want to get the job done. Too late in the year to plant Bermuda seed, but that is irrelevant. What I suggest is: 1. Immediately switch to Bermuda lawn care practice by mowing at ¾ to 1-1/2 inches or as low as your mower can go twice a week. 2. Between now and 30 days before your first frost date fertilize every 30 days with 39-0-0 at a rate of 2.5 pounds of product for every 1000/ft2. 3. Once the Bermuda goes fully dormant this winter, spray anything green a couple of times during winter. Just make darn sure the Bermuda is DORMAT. 4. Next spring once the soil temps warm up to 70 in the daytime, seed the thin areas with more Sahara.