Where in California do you live (zip code or town)? I see some shade in that picture. Is your lawn shady, or is that just late day shade? First step would be a soil test, www.loganlabs.com, $20 basic soil test.

Basics of Lawn Care

After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct.

Watering
Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an hour in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds.

You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in Las Vegas your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week.

Mowing
Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. One last exception is Kentucky bluegrass. The experts mow it at 3.5 inches (one notch below the highest setting).

Fertilizing
Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it. If you are using chemical fertilizers, too little is better than too much. If you are using organic fertilizers, it is the other way around. At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide.

If that is typical shade, then you have two choices of turf grass in that area. And really you only have once choice depending on where you live. If you live in a warm area (Sacramento and inland to the south) then you will have good luck with St Augustine. If you live within a mile of the beach or north of Sac'to, then you will have better luck with fescue in the shade.

That's a great question. I've only been here for a week, and I just don't know the answer to that yet. I assume yes, it is always like that because there are a lot of big trees that line the side walk.

So what town do you live in?

Upland, Ca in So Cal

I wonder what kind of grass you have now that is surviving in the shade???

St Augustine is your target grass in Upland. If you can get a close up picture in the shade and without Vaseline on the lens, we could probably identify it for you.

If you have TF it's probably one of the Marathons. That seems to be the dominant cool season grass used in So. Cal.

Here is a close-up of my grass.

Also, if I'm reading the earlier post correctly. I'm supposed to water 1 hour per day, or is it per week.

Yes, the yard is pretty shady. These are the trees right in front of it on the sidewalk.

It's not how long you water, it's how much. Recommendations are that 1" of water per week should be sufficient to keep a lawn green and growing--may need to increase the it to 2 one inch waterings a week if lawn is showing stress during intense heat waves. In order to keep the crowns in dormant grass from dying, the recommendation is 1/2" every 2 weeks or 1/4" weekly. When doing weekly watering, it should be applied in one dose, NOT spread out in four 1/4" waterings throughout the week.

How can I tell what is one inch?

Spread 3-4 tuna or cat food cans out under the sprinkler spray canopy at full presure. This is where time does become a measurement tool. See how long it takes to fill the cans with one inch of water. Once you know that, you'll know that using that particular sprinkler at full preasure for x period of time will result in 1" of water applied.

Thanks!

What type of grass do I have? And what about infiltration rate?

�Soil Type �Bare soil infiltration rate �Grass-covered infiltration rate
�Clay
�0.1" to 0.5" per hour �0.05" to 0.25" per hour
�Loam
�0.4" to 0.8" per hour
�0.25" to 0.5" per hour
�Sand
�0.7" to 1.0" per hour �0.4" to 0.7" per hour

Too bad about your camera begin fuzzy.

It is very likely to be Marathon fescue. In Upland it might even be relatively easy to grow. You're not as hot as Hemet or Temecula and they grow it all the time out there.

Is water infiltration an issue? I couldn't really read that last message. There's something about the symbols used in the original that did not come through in the HTML.

Water one inch per week in the summer heat and one inch per month in the cool months.

Should I fertilize now to help the green come back?

As far as infiltration goes, I read on a website that you need to know what type of soil I have and what the infiltration is in order to know if 1 inch is too little or too much.

It's been very hot lately, so for now I have the sprinklers set for Monday and Friday 1hour each time to get 2 inches per week. I haven't got the tuna cans yet, so I may have to adjust that.

This is my grass now

Ok, I have been following the directions dchall_san_antonio gave minus the mowing because I do not have a mower just yet. I don't want to buy a cheap one.

I used the tuna cans to figure out how long it will take for 1 inch of water, and doubled that up because I feel the lawn needs a good 2 inches per week. Here are the results.

Lawn Pictures

Lawn Pictures

Lawn Pictures

Lawn Pictures

Lawn Pictures

Anything?

Looks pretty rough. You have a few options. Kill all the weeds with selective herbicides and overseed in a month or so. Kill everything and lay sod or seed. Did you do a soil test?

I didnt do any soil test as the lawn was green when I bought the home, and turned brown shortly there after. I got the sprinklers up and running, and started to water about 2 inches per week, and this is what happened. I finally mowed it, and it looks better, but still weed infested. What do you mean by overseed?

^ Oh my. ....overseeding is a process of adding grass seed to an existing lawn to make it more full.

In my opinion, having done overseeding and renovations, with a lawn your size and condition I think it is worth the little bit of extra effort and just do a full renovation.

It is recommended to do a soil test either way to see what you are dealing with as far as growing conditions of your soil.

So, I should start over with this lawn rather than trying to fix what I already have? weed killer wouldn't do the trick?

Wow! Amazing what water will do.

What are you looking for in a lawn? If you get rid of all the broadleaf weeds, are you going to complain about the grassy weeds? Those are the often pasture grasses/weeds which grow faster than some of the more sedate, turf grasses. You could spot spray with something like Weed-B-Gone and make a big dent in the lawn weeds. You could rake out all the gray areas where the grass is dead and overseed in there. When you over seed you have to change your watering to much more frequent to get the seed to sprout. You need to go to 3x per day for a very short time - usually 10 minutes. Do that until the grass sprouts. If you use Kentucky bluegrass, that takes 3 weeks to germinate. Fescue takes 2 weeks. In Upland you definitely have some summer heat to deal with. I would lean toward St Augustine sod or one of the Marathon fescues. KBG won't take your heat. If you were on the other side of the hill in West Covina then you might get away with KBG. That whole stretch from Santa Monica inland through El Monte, Covina, over the hill to Pomona and on to Fontana/Upland/Chino is a mix of environmental eccentricities that make your area hotter and drier than even Covina just a few miles away. Most cool season grasses will struggle, but Marathon seems to survive with more water. St Aug would be preferred because it likes shade and heat. It is also very tolerant of varying soil conditions. It would not need as much water as Marathon because it is better adapted to the hot conditions.

If you just want something green, then spray with WBG. If the first WBG you try leaves some species of broadleaf weeds, try a stronger one. Remember with WBG you only need to moisten the leaves - it is not a soil drench. But if you want something that looks more like a lawn at all times, then consider more of a renovation approach. We can help you figure that out, too.

I'll try the WBG for now. I'm currently preparing the back yard for irrigation and then hydro seeding. Once that project is done, I'll think about resodding. Based on the pics, would you agree that I have tall fescue?