Sod it.
You have to.
Your lawn isn't that big anyway, it isn't going to cost as much as you think.
You will have a beautiful instant lawn.
Tell the sod people what kind of grass you want, and see what they say for your area.
I can't believe you killed your entire lawn.
The grass didn't look that bad.
Well, you will have a new lawn now.

> "I'd love to hear "you're an idiot for spending all that money and backbreaking work, you could've just tilled"

Actually, no, you're not an idiot - you're smart for *NOT* tilling everything up or you'd have a bigger mess ... really!

> "yet I really can't stand to have a dirt lawn all year"

Sodding is the answer, but if that is cost prohibitive, and seeding now is counterproductive compared to fall sowing - here's a quick fix. Buy yourself some cheap rye grass.

1. It will germinate in a few days, if kept moist.
2. The sun and heat will burn it to a crisp by late summer, but give you grass until then and while you prepare for a fall seeding of the softer grass you so desire - which may be fescue, because of your locale. Others can/will advise.
3. Might only cost you $10 to do this.

Yes, it's temporary but it buys you time till fall and avoids mud for those little ones to play on.
Also, rye takes a beating from kids. Parks use it for this reason!

Too bad about doing all that work.

I recognize those houses. Where in LA do you live? I'm guessing you are within 3 miles of the beach...in which case you don't have the summer heat that gary is talking about. But if you are east of the 710, then keep an eye on it in July and August for water needs.

Had you tilled, besides screwing up the soil profile, you would have torn up your sprinklers.

How often do your water and for how long?
How often do you mow and how high?
Where do you live? With LA weather being heavily influenced by the Pacific, it makes a big difference.

If you do your lawn right and maintain it right, you should never have to redo it. That advice sounds like an excuse to sell stuff you don't need.

Thanks for the responses :)
Gary, $10? how in the world? That sounds like a great option but not so sure. People had the rye out a few months ago while the other grasses lost their color and everyone was all fluorescent green. I'm not certain but it's already starting to get warm here (+75 degree days)

As for watering, well now I dont -teehee. I was watering every 3rd day for about 10 minutes and cutting somewhat high because I didn't want to remove the stems of the bermuda and be left w/ brown.

Dchall, i'm in the san fernando valley.

I think I may look into the cost of sodding.
My fear at the moment is the removal of all the remaining dead grass. Is it really necessary or can I just rake it all in. Meaning, is it all really dead or will this hurt the grass in the future?

Well I wouldn't have guessed the valley, but that's just my preconceived notions. I think your location practically rules out the possible use of Kentucky bluegrass - too hot. If I was in an experimenting mood I might try it there just to see.

What kind of grass are you thinking of sodding with?

Bermuda can be extremely soft underfoot but that takes a lot of work, continual work. St Augustine is much easier to care for, but you've already said you didn't like the feel underfoot. I find it to be very soft when mowed at 4 inches high. I spent 18 months in Dayton with a cool season mix lawn, so I know what you mean by soft. The St Augustine look and feel is an acquired taste, but you can get used to it.

When you get your new lawn established, you should work on watering less often and for a longer time. During the hottest part of summer I water once every week or two. I water for 1-3 hours per zone, all at one time. Every lawn is a little different, but weekly watering works in Phoenix, so it should work in the LA area. By watering less often you can nearly eliminate weeds. Weed seeds need a watering schedule almost exactly like you are providing in order to germinate. By watering deeply you will encourage your grass to grow deep, drought resistant roots.

Any St Aug you had is dead based on the color in the pictures. Bermuda, if any, is probably not dead.

Well, went ahead and spoke to a few people at the local nursreys and my neighbors gardners (i still believe i'm the only one in los angeles who does their own work) and here's where I'm at now.

Got the rest of the dead grass to the dump. Tilled the stuff (okay I paid for that) and made certain all my sprinklers were back in action again. I killed about half of them with the sod cutter but replaced with some better quality rainbirds.

Seeded with a mixture of perennial rye and fescue and covered with a generous layer of steer manure. Right now I'm watering early morning and night for about 5 minutes each.

Amusingly I'm pretty happy with how she looks now as compared with before lol!

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As for KY blue, a good friend of mine has it in his backyard and its beautiful. He did it from sod tho.

So an update:
The seeding went quite well and within a week we had some green covering :)
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By ad1080

Things thickened up quite nicely and I turned down the watering to only 5 minutes in the morning. Let it grow now for almost 3 weeks and finally mowed.
Sadly, quite a number of broad leaf weeds are making their appearance as well.
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By ad1080

If you notice, when I mowed, I left the clippings on the grass. However in my experience, whenever I do this they just dry and get blown around. Seems like there's no advantage but people say the nutritional advantage is there.

Anyway, my concern now is the weeds. Should I attempt something like scotts turf builder w/ weed control? or maybe ortho spray (I'm petrified of spraying anything that might hurt the new lawn even tho they claim it won't.)

I have plenty of bags of fertilizer and bags of steer manure I was considering putting on the empty patches. Any thoughts?

I wish you had come here with your plan before doing it. What you did went against the suggestions you were given here.

Tilling will come back to haunt you in a year or so. As your soil settles it settles based on the surface of the soil underneath the tilled soil. If/when you left that "bumpy," the fluffy soil on top will settle bumpy. Also steer manure stinks. If you have any of that left over, keep it in the bag until fall when you can start to compost it. Dump it on the ground somewhere hidden and cover it with leaves you've collected from around the neighborhood. The leaves completely absorb the smell of the manure and allow it to compost in peace.

The grasses you picked will not fill in the bare spots. Spot fertilizing bare soil is a waste of money. If you have seen good KBG in the neighborhood, that grass will be the solution to every problem you encounter from now on. You can still make that work for you by seeding it in. Look for the Elite Kentucky bluegrass cultivars. Buy the best seed you can afford. Elite KBG is not available at Walmart. Seed it in the fall after the summer heat breaks. It will get better and better for three years and then, "over night," it will be the best lawn anywhere on the planet. The grass you planted will require more seed every fall. Once the KBG gets established, it will not.

Mow your current grass at the mower's highest setting for the best results. Once the grass is in as much as it can be, water every week but not every day. Expect it all to die in July. You simply seeded too late for the grass to establish good roots. If some of it does not die, then just enjoy it and treat it like it was the best lawn on the block. The time to fix it (again) is in the fall.

Your house looks just like the "big houses" in my old neighborhood in Hawthorne. My house was one of the 2-bedroom small houses. Only the corner lots got the 3-br houses.

Here is a picture of a friend's KBG lawn in Huntington Beach for motivation. It is not one of the Elite varieties because the color is not dark enough. All he uses on it is free coffee grounds from Starbucks.

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I did a side fescue yard that was infested bermuda with the roundup, sodcutter, haul away sod approach and know how much work that is. About half way through my family "yard crew" revolted and we brought in a guy with a front end loader and dump truck to finish hauling it off. ha. I was running it as thick as the sod cutter would go to get rid of roots and ryhzomes, and I have a clay soil. HEAVY.

I've put in a yard in the spring with good results. But, it took a lot of hand weeding. The spring overseed I did was long ago, but, it was also tilled and didn't turn out settling too badly. Try to stay off of it when its wet, that will cause holes. It probably won't be putting green smooth, but it won't be noticeably uneven if you tilled uniformly.

Keep reading here for all the top tricks of the trade and good luck!

dchall, I didn't think I went against the advice here. I read plenty of posts that made me think the chemical kill method was the best way.
Yes I was told to "wait" but I couldn't just live on a corner lot w/ a dirt yard and kids all summer.
Truth be told what I did wasn't terribly expensive and I'm not very dissapointed at all.
I tilled once I removed all the dead grass and then used a friends large rusty water filled roller to somewhat flatten the lawn. The area for the most part is nicely leveled and I don't really have any bumpy areas.

I realized the foolishness of my fertilizing nothing comment immediately :) Are you saying to completely kill and repeat my process now with the elite kgb cultivars or seed them in and they will take-over? I was under the impression by what you said above on 3/22 that my location was too hot for it anyway.
I'd be happy to spend a little money now if I thought I could have a lawn like that.
Backyard is next :)