Texas, I'm 14 miles north of Augusta, GA. I have nothing but sand. Everyone here has bermuda or St. Augustine, or at least that is what the local nursery is pushing. I was thinking about possibly Emerald zoyzia, but its so late in the season, the only green in the lawn is weeds. At least the weeds are green and growing. It is brand new construction, and it was just sand when we bought it, but the builder put down tall fescue and last November, it grew in a little bit. But now, in June, it's all dead. I guess I will have to wait til next spring to see if I can plant some zoyzia plugs, I hear they like sand. God, lawns are alot of work, and money, and when it all dies, well, sometimes you just have to admit defeat. Your right, I can't grow tall fescue. All the zoyzia plugs of Emerald are all sold out now. There's always next year, right? Drats!

Okay if you're homing in on bermuda, I strongly urge you to get the surface as even/level/profiled PERFECTLY before you put the sod or seed down. Bermuda is mowed low so a rolling surface or holes makes it look bad every time you mow. Secondly if you are willing to put in some effort, look in this forum for the guy who took a few pieces of very expensive sod (total cost about $5, but it was the good stuff) and shredded it with a knife and planted the shreds. Golf courses pay through the nose to do this, but they have lots of acres to cover. Basically you take the sod, wash the soil off, chop it up (I'd use a machete), scatter it over the perfectly level surface, and dust some sand over to hold the sprigs down. Then start watering. It it called stolonizing or sprigging.

In all my years in the forums nobody has commented on the performance of either UC Verde or Prestige. Can you post some pix of the Verde? I've always wondered how Verde compared to TechTurf, which is no longer on the market. Buffalo grass is a prairie type grass which needs even more sun than bermuda. When it first hit the lawn market it was a very poor seed product. It grew very slowly, did not spread, sent seed heads up quickly, and looked thin/weedy unless you really poured on the seed. The improved hybrids are amazing compared to the old raggedy looking grasses. Where are you in SoCal? And if you live in the LA, OC, or SD areas, please be pretty specific. Those areas are big and have multiple climate and soil zones.

Where do you live? France is a big place. And does it snow in your area? Here is some general info on lawns. Ignore your neighbor. He's trying to intimidate you and set you up to fail. Plant new seed only in the fall. Start in the early fall. That might be August or it might be September depending on where you live. You seem to have done it pretty well - perhaps by accident. Not rototilling was excellent. Rototilling is a big mistake that a lot of new gardeners make. See if you can rent a roller. You only need it once the first time you seed a big yard. After that, for annual overseeding, you can simply walk on the new seed to press it down onto the soil. Water new very lightly 3x per day, every day, until you get 80% germination. For the shade grass you planted that would be 3 weeks. If you have shade type grass, I'm assuming it's a fescue. Fescue should be mulch mowed at the mower's highest setting most of the time. If it gets hot in the summer, then mow every other week. The idea is to develop deeper roots to get water from deeper places in the soil. Fertilize for the first time on Fête du huitième mai or Jour de la Victoire 45 (same date different name). Fertilize again on Assomption and for the last time on or about Jour d'armistice. With the new lawn skip Jour d'armistice for this year. National holidays are easier to remember than specific dates. If you want to use organic fertilizer, you can do that any time including now. The application rate for organics is almost always 7 kg per 100 square meters. I like to use alfalfa pellets (lapin chow) as a fertilizer. Get them from a local feed store in 20-kilo bags. They really work. Watering: Deep and infrequent is the mantra for watering. This is for all turf grass all over the place. Deep means 3 cm all at one time. Put some cat food or tuna cans around the yard, and time how long it takes your sprinkler(s) to fill all the cans. Memorize that time. That will be the time you water from now on. My hose, sprinkler and water pressure takes 8 full hours to fill the cans. Your time will likely be less. I like gentle watering. As for watering frequency, that depends on the daytime air temperature. With temps from 33-38 deep water once per week. With temps from 25-32 deep water once every 2 weeks. With temps from 21-24 deep water once every 3 weeks. With temps below 21, deep water once a month. Note that you have to keep up with quickly changing temps in the spring and fall. In the USA this deep and infrequent schedule works in Phoenix and in Vermont (for Oz think Hobart to Darwin including Alice Springs), so it should work for you. The reason for deep and infrequent is to grow deeper, more drought resistant roots and to allow the soil to dry completely at the surface for several days before watering again. If it rains, reset your calendar to account for the rainfall. These are in reverse order of importance. Watering is key to getting a good lawn with the fewest problems. Weeds: Spot spray a liquid herbicide in mid April and again in mid September.