Well I will try to help, but you may not like my comments and answers, but they are honest.

Tree Issue:
Trees are a problem if you want Bermuda. I will take your word for it you trimmed them enough, but here is a question you need to ask yourself: Does the area get at least 6-hours of direct sunlight? If you answered NO, I think you know where I am going like Saint Augustine or Zoysia.

Poa Issue:
DonÂt worry about it, too late to do anything now, and once our weather finally snaps out of the cool spell it will die off. If you are going to re-sod, forget about it. What to take away from this is work on it next fall, winter, and late winter with pre-emergence. Personally I donÂt do much of anything about it other than raise healthy grass and use Corn Gluten Meal as fertilizer on my personal home lawn. Farm and landscape biz is a different story. Where we use a commercial product.

Laying Sod:
At bare bones minimum to protect the investment Round Up or better yet generic Glyphosate the entire area, wait a week; scalp it all the way down, rake up and remove the debris, and then SUGAR COAT with something like top soil, sand, etcÂ

To really do it right hire a professional to come in with a tractor and box blade to re-grade and add soil and amendments if necessary.

I will warn you to assess your shade issue honestly. If there is any doubt go with Saint Augustine. Depending on your current coverage of SA which I assume is Texas Common, use what you got, and supplement it with like sod for economic reasons. Other varieties to consider are Raleigh or Palmetto, as they will take our sometimes freezing weather. For Bermuda Tifway-! Is good (aka 419), but Tifway-II is available and improved 419 for the same price in the region.

Good Luck and feel free to ask more questions. Either I or someone else will help.

TW

Even SA won't thrive under healthy shade trees. Perhaps you could apply mulch to a large area surrounding the trees so that that kind of competition doesn't have to go on. Your grass would be happy, and so will your trees. A nice layer of mulch looks a heck of a lot better than struggling grass, right?

It depends on the location of the trees and how high the branches are, SA can be grown with no problem with a few hours of direct sun.

Thank you both for the responses. I do think the grass does get enough sunlight now. The trees are bradford pears on each side of my front yard. I'll try to post a picture or two tomorrow so you can see. My house faces north, so there is still shade from the house, but mid-summer that is not an issue. The reason why I want to go with the hybrid is I laid about 400 sq ft of it in my backyard last summer. I love the feel of it and I can keep it fairly short with my push reel mower (about 5/8 - 3/4 inch). The SA I would still have to use my rotary mower and have it at least 2" thick. I don't like the feel of it either.

Bradford Pear Huh? Well the good news is they won't be around long, could be gone by summer if Mother Nature does her job by blowing them over.

Ya, If I didn't trim them up last month, they would have been down after the storms we had this past week. I was little disappointed. I'm ready for them to be gone.

BSTER, If I were you and you can afford it in the next couple of years, I would remove them before you are forced too. Replace them if you want with something desirable, it will greatly add to your property value. Besides the shade problem will come right back with their rapid growth.

TW, I agree. I will probably do that within a year.

Is there a zoysia that is similar to the 419 in that it is low growing and can but cut similarly short as the 419? Is there any that are tolerable with some shade? Since sodding is not a good option now, maybe just plugs. I'm just not a fan of the SA.

Also, I did start using soybean meal in my backyard from Aug - Nov last year with the 419. The grass did well for the sod being laid in May and with all the rain we had. I'm not sure if I used the correct amount on each application. It didn't stay green an entire month. How does it differ from Corn Gluten Meal?

Can you possibly recommend a program of fertilization for the rest of this year, then what should I do in the fall to hopefully take care of the Poa in the front yard for next year?

I appreciate it.

Emerald Zoysia is very similar in texture and color, but can be expensive, but plugs will not break you and is a good shade performer. Another one is Meyers aka Z-52 but it is not as fine or dark in color but readily available. Lastly El Toro and Belaire but they are coarse in texture.

The main difference between Soy Bean Meal and Corn Gluten Meal is price. CGM is very expensive now days. The other difference is the protein content with CGM @ 60%, and SBM around 46%. What this means to you is the application rate. SBM needs 15-pounds per 1000/ft2, and 10 pounds for CGM.

As to the question of a fertilizer plan, doesnÂt make much difference between organic, synthetic, or synthesized organic. The choice is yours. With that said with organic approach it can take a year to get the soup cooking so to speak, and you may want to ease into it by using a hybrid approach. I suspect it didnÂt stay green for an entire month because you either didnÂt use enough product or your soil just has not transitioned to make use of the organic material.

Here is what I suggest if you want to go organic starting yesterday. See if you have a Lesco dealer, if so get you some 39-0-0 slow release urea fertilizer, and then go to the feed store and get Soy Bean Meal. Apply the 39-0-0 at a rate of 1-1/2 pounds per 1000/ft2 (1/2 pound nitrogen), and apply 10 pounds of SBM.

Wait 30 to 45 days or sooner if you see the color fade, and repeat.

Wait another 45 days and reduce the 39-0-0 to 1-pound and up the SBM to 15 pounds.

Then wait another 30 to 45 days and just use SBM at a rate of 15 pounds for the rest of the year every 30 to 45 days.

Keep some 39-0-0 around and supplement if the performance of SBM does not satisfy you as I mentioned it takes time to get the soil microbes built up. Urea is a synthetic organic compound and does not do the harm like Ammonia Nitrate.

For a synthetic organic program you start in the spring as soon as the grass is about 50% green with a slow release urea in a ratio of either 15-5-10 or 20-5-10. Then every 30 to 45 days use a slow release urea 39-0-0 up until a month before the first frost. End and rest till spring.

The synthetic organic program seems a bit more manageable for me. I do have a lesco dealer down the road in Plano. Do you know of a specific Lesco product that has 3-1-2 or 4-1-2 ratio, or can I just ask for that ratio and they will know?

The zoysia seems to be the call. I have a couple of sod retailers near by.

My last question is how to I tackle the Poa in the fall (for next year)? I'm assuming I need a pre-emergent in the fall. What is the best time to put that down and how does that application coincide with my monthly feeding of fertilizer? Can it be done at the same? What product(s) do you recommend?

Nature's Guide 9-2-2 organic fertilizer will do the trick without having to do all that stuff TW tells you to do. A neighbor used it on his bermuda lawn and it went from light green to dark green in a week and it was first time they fertilized it. Go Figure.

Home Depot has Lesco 15-5-10.

I'd much rather go with Palisades Zoysia than El Toro. Good shade tolerance. I'd much rather go with Zorro zoysia than Emerald. Performs better all around with good shade tolerance.

It is unfortunate that the storms did not take your Bradford pears out. If you're looking for large sized trees like 3 inches caliber, get B&B tree instead of the ones in large containers. The root system is terrible in the container and not worth a spit. If you don't mind starting over with smaller size, check out 'Fire Dragon' Shantung maple from metro maples tree farm. It grew over 3 feet for me last year in caliche soil (planted it in spring of 2006). It can be 25 feet after 8 years maybe more if you do things right. Much stronger than bradford pear for sure and very nice tree too with consistent red fall color.

Here is a link that might be useful: Metro Maples

Thanks Lou. What is a B&B tree? My wife says she would rather have no trees than the bradfords. The two of them bascially hide the house. The house faces north, so we really don't need the shade. The're just for looks, and they don't look good. If we do replant something, we're thinking of a thinner tree that doesn't have much shade.

I just got back from HD and I saw the 15-5-10. Question on not using all the fert. I only have about 4k sq ft of lawn. The bag covers 7500. Since I would only use this in the spring, will it still be good if left in the garage for a year?

It's ball and burlap tree. Basically, they dig up the tree for you and cover the root ball with burlap to hold it together till you plant the tree. I suppose you don't really need shade tree on the north side of the house.

Try 24-2-11 instead that you can use multiple times. It's the phosphorus (the middle number) that causes problems when used too much.

I just discovered Diamond Zoysia, developed at TAMU.

Here is a picture of Diamond mowed at 0.115 inches. Apparently it grows well in 60% shade, takes a while to get established, and then grows like wildfire. This picture is from a golf green in NC.

They also use it in the fairways and the tees, so it does not have to be mowed this low, but it certainly looks healthy. All the same grass mowed at different heights.

Looks nice. I wonder if it is carried here in the North TX area.

"Looks nice. I wonder if it is carried here in the North TX area.
To my knowledge it is not available anywhere. In NTX about all you are going to find is Z-52, Empire, and El Toro. Around Houston and SA you can find Jamur, Cavalier, Emerald, and Zoro

Here is the Texas directory
http://www.txsod.com/directory.html

Try this sod farm, it is not to far from you, I know it well likek the back of my hand.
http://www.tritexgrass.com/

I'm pretty sure you can also get Palisades zoysia (probably best coarse type zoysia) in NTX. I have seen it in person in Arlington at Turfgrass America. I liked it a lot.

I also have seen Zorro zoysia in person at Turfgrass America in Arlington as well. It received high marks at NTEP testing...

Turfgrass America has Cavalier, Emerald, Palisades, Empire, and Zorro.

Here is a link that might be useful: Turfgrass America

Will Zoysia take over the small amount of SA and whatever Bermuda I have left in the front yard?

There are some spots that do get full sun (strips of grass between the sidewalk and street and the side areas next to my neighbors) and the bermuda comes back thick in those areas during the summer. Right now it's all Poa. I don't want to spend time plugging the zoysia in and it only taking over in and around the trees that are only getting 4 hours of direct sunlight.

Bermuda will always thrive where it gets a lot of sun. In partial sun area, zoysia seem to be the dominant one from what I've observed at my mom's where there are zoysia, st augustine and bermuda. St Augustine is the dominant grass by far though probably because it was mowed high, gets enough rain and less sun with tall trees. If you do nothing and it doesn't rain much, st augustine will go away, bermuda would look bad and zoysia would look the best because it requires far less fertilizer than bermuda to look decent. It just depends on a lot of things. Amount of sun, amount of water, amount of fertilizer, cutting height, etc will influence grass to be dominant over other grass.

So I guess the smartest way to solve my problem is to get rid of the bradford pears. If I plant/plug zoysia now, but eventually remove the trees, the existing bermuda will most likely take over the zoysia

Hard decisions, huh?

I don't know where you can buy zoysia plugs though except for one place online (Empire and El Toro but is it worth it?). The best ones are sold by half pallet or full pallet (450 sqft). I like Palisades zoysia the most (more than st augustine that I grow now) but like bermuda, they will take over plant beds, etc and it would require expensive barrier to keep them out. the biggest pluses is that they have better shade tolerant and requires far less mowing and fertilizing. I had planned on getting them but I balked because I had no confidence that it could keep compete with bermuda but it's a moot point anyway. It will still invade st augustine lawn. I planted a lot of trees so that will help st augustine compete with bermuda with no problem as it was obvious at my mom's when maintained the right way.

Lawn Nation in DFW area.

You can try them for Diamond Zoysia is you are interested. It was developed at TAMU. You would think they would have spread it all over.

Thanks everyone for chiming in on this. I appreciate all the comments. I have some decisions I need to make the first issue I am going to tackle are my trees.

If you go the Zoysia route the trees are not much of an issue.

You are right. I'm not sure when I will get those trees out, but I know my lawn needs help now. What's the best way to prep my yard, without hiring someone, to get it ready for sod. Last year I sodded Tif419 in my backyard, but started from scratch. I put in about 4 inches of a soil/sand mixture and it worked will. My front yard is mostly Poa and weeds with patches of bermuda and SA that are just starting to come up, and bare spots where the trees used to shade pretty well. Those area are now getting some sunlight, so the zoysia should be fine. Should I scalp the entire yard as short as possible and add some soil ammendment on top before the sod, or do I need to remove any and all ?

Best way is to hire someone with a tractor and box blade to re-grade the area.

Next best method is to spray the area with RU, wait a week, scalp it as low as possible, remove all the debris, and sugar coat with a top dressing.

Can you regrade the area with boxblade with the trees in the way esp where the roots are?

You can regrade with trees in the area. It helps if someone involved knows to leave the tops of the roots exposed at the trunk. Eventually the tractor driver needs to know that. He's more of a resurfacer than a horticulturalist. He may not be aware that if tree trunks are buried, the bark can rot and the tree can die.

Well, I have a sprinkler system, so I don't think a tractor will be the right choice.