Where's dchall when you need him?

I need to re-do my 700 sq ft front lawn but don't have the time...

I had a couple of ideas - one was to plant perennial rye so it will be green until early spring and then back to dead again.

The other thought was to plant a cover crop if it would help the soil and be ok to look at. I do not want a tall cover crop as I had years ago.

Huh? Man you got me confused. You don't have time to seed your lawn with a grass of your choice, but have time to seed Rye or weeds.

What am I missing here?

Where do you live in Calif?

How often do you water and for how long?

How high/low do you mow?

Have you used any herbicide or insecticide in the past year?

When were the last two times you fertilized and what did you use?

I live in San Jose.

I water 2-3x a week for 15 minutes twice, at 4 and 5 am.

Not sure the exact height I mow, but not too short nor too tall.

No herbicides or insecticides in years.

I fertilize 3-4 times a year, last a month or so ago.

The 50% of the lawn that is dead is dead because I cut trees way back that had been casting afternoon shade on the lawn. The lawn is now in full sun.The lawn was planted with a shade seed blend.

If I plant annual rye (I think that's what I meant to say, not perennial) I would do so with minimal preparation - just want to get something there to green it up for a while.

The idea of a cover crop may be more beneficial for garden beds, rather than a future lawn site.

Ginny

Ginny, you may not want to plant clover, onces it starts and takes hold you will have a hard time getting rid of it. I use White Dutch clover in my lawn because its easier to take care of and there less work, I mow every other week,it will creep into your flower beds and other places you might not want it,thats the bad thing about clover, the good thing is you don't mow as much and you don't have to feed it ever and it will stand up to kids playing on it and pets peeing on it.
Bear

Excellent points from gardenbear. Clover makes a nice permanent "turf."

Your watering is way off. What you are doing is encouraging very shallow roots. What you need is very deep roots to handle the heat. In order to get deep roots you need to space out the intervals and water longer. We talk about deep and infrequent as the basic guidelines for watering. Deep means one full inch all at one time. Watering at 4 and 5 is still considered "all at one time." Just don't water 1/7 inch every day. Infrequent means once per month in the cool months and once per week in the heat of summer. By watering deep and then not watering for a long time, the grass roots will dive deeper looking for that water stored deeper in the soil. You cannot go cold turkey to get to deep and infrequent. Start by stretching the interval and watering a little longer. You should also measure how much your sprinkler puts out in 15 minutes. Actually use tuna or cat food cans to measure how long it takes to fill them. That is an inch. My system takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. My neighbor takes 15 minutes. You really need to measure your own system.

Deep watering will be better for any trees you have left, too.

NOW is the time to redo your lawn. Spring is NOT the time to redo your lawn. If you want to do a real lawn renovation, start now. For 700 square feet it should not be much work. Let us know if that is what you want to do.

Thanks for your ideas. I appreciate your time.

Ginny