If it were me, I'd eliminate all but a very little grass (St. Augustine or buffalo) in favor of beds. Which is what I'm working toward in a pretty big yard.

Oh, me too.... I've already mapped out beds as big as I can manage. This is for what yard is left--which is still probably at least 5,000-6,000 square feet. Ugh!

St. Augustine would require more water than any other, but to me it's the prettiest grass. If you have plenty of sun and take good care of the lawn (water,water,water), St. Augustine does a great job of crowding out weeds. It doesn't like alot of foot traffic, so if you have kids that play outside, or large dogs, it might not be the best choice. My neighbor across the street had bermuda, and he used roundup to kill everything. Waited a couple of weeks. Then he took his weedeater and pulverized what was left. They then hauled in a load of compost and spread it over the dead pulverized bermuda, and then sodded St. Augustine. It worked well, they have a nice lawn. This was a DIY project - except for having the compost brought in and dumped.
After killing the weeds, seeding bermuda would be the cheapest. Bermuda can be invasive into flower/garden beds and a pain to try to keep out of them. But it's a popular grass if you can keep it where you want it, and can get by on far less water.
I would not allow any grass/sod/lawn maintenance company to tell me what would be the best. They, after all, are in business to spend your money and will get as much as they can. I would do the research myself, decide what I want to do, and then get bids on doing what I want to do. You might look at neilsperry.com, go to most asked questions and click on lawns. Lots of questions answered there. Maybe the county extension office will have information on lawn replacement.
I also agree with newtotheyard. My back lawn is now postage stamp size - the rest is gardens, gardens, gardens. The front is lawn, and if I didn't have such a steep slope there'd be more gardens out there too. But if I were you, I'd do the research, decide what is the best thing for the situation, and not listen to the yard contractors. And if there are any lawn contractors reading this, sorry, just my opinion.

Use your weedeater to slice off all the weeds. Rake that up and throw it away. Get St. Augustine sod and sod the entire yard (don't worry about tilling...you will water enough to not have to till..and do not checkerboard because of the weeds). Your big rains are fixin to hit you, so do it now. If it is kept watered, it will grow. The black dirt under the St A will keep the weeds down. When the rains stop, water every day...10 min each section in the morning till it cools off. (I hope you have a sprinker system). In the fall, winterize it (try to find Fertilome Winterizer). This time next year, use Scotts Bonus S Weed N Feed on it IF it is healthy. Be sure to mow at least once a week during the growing season, and during the second year you can cut back to every other day watering, unless your house was built on a cotton field (many are up there)..then you have to water daily during that time. Voila!! (Don't get bermuda..I had bermuda in Trophy Club and couldn't have trees.....and trees make a yard). You will love you St A Once it is established. Email me at apriljbox@hotmail.com if you have questions. Good Luck!

debndal, thanks for your advice! So your neighbors didn't till anything? That's encouraging... every site I've looked at to try to figure out how to prepare the soil has said to till it up, except for the Miller Grass website (the sod seller I am considering using), and two of the responses to this post. I do think that it makes sense NOT to till, as I think it would help keep the fresh sod hold water. I wonder, though, why your neighbors got rid of their Bermuda and why so many people hate it if it's so tough and disease resistant. Is it just because it gets into the flower beds? I'd be willing to put in 6" edging to keep it out. (Plus my beds are mostly in shade with healthy St. Augustine growing up to them, which I hope to keep.)

mrsbox77, thanks for your advice too! Is there any other reason you wouldn't recommend Bermuda besides the trees? What if I were willing to put in Bermuda in the sunny areas and St. Augustine in the shade, under my big old trees? I love St. Augustine too, but I've been burned by the Take All Root Rot and I'm afraid to losing it to fungus or drought again. I grew up with St. Augustine, though, and I have no experience with Bermuda.

debndal, thanks for your advice! So your neighbors didn't till anything? That's encouraging... every site I've looked at to try to figure out how to prepare the soil has said to till it up, except for the Miller Grass website (the sod seller I am considering using), and two of the responses to this post. I do think that it makes sense NOT to till, as I think it would help keep the fresh sod hold water. I wonder, though, why your neighbors got rid of their Bermuda and why so many people hate it if it's so tough and disease resistant. Is it just because it gets into the flower beds? I'd be willing to put in 6" edging to keep it out. (Plus my beds are mostly in shade with healthy St. Augustine growing up to them, which I hope to keep.)

mrsbox77, thanks for your advice too! Is there any other reason you wouldn't recommend Bermuda besides the trees? What if I were willing to put in Bermuda in the sunny areas and St. Augustine in the shade, under my big old trees? I love St. Augustine too, but I've been burned by the Take All Root Rot and I'm afraid to losing it to fungus or drought again. I grew up with St. Augustine, though, and I have no experience with Bermuda.

rebecca - nope, no tilling. They didn't say why they decided to change from bermuda to StA, I guess I thought it was obvious to me cause I prefer the look of StA over bermuda and figured they felt the same way. If you try to use both, the StA will eventually take over the bermuda, and you'll end up with StA anyway (as long as it gets enough water). If you get one of the improved varieties of StA you will have fewer problems with diseases/fungus, etc. In our 24 years here, we lost some of our front yard back in, I believe 1989 or so, when we had some really severe cold for several days in a row, but it spread back out nicely in one season. We did have a fungus issue 2 years ago (this drought has been tough)in the backyard (postage stamp size) and I composted it, gave it some extra TLC last spring and it has recovered nicely. I'm sure 6" edging will help, but that bermuda can creep through the smallest places, like where 2 pieces of edging join. It's really persistent!

If you are sodding, there's absolutely no reason to till. You can add a good compost mix, before you sod.

If you seed, then adding the compost mix will work well.

Tilling will just increase the weed growth, as it will make the lawn irregular, increasing the places where weed seed can get trapped to grow.

Can you tell that a lot of this is personal preference?

1. Will not turn into a monstrous bouquet of weeds again -- Both will unless taken care of
2. Can be taken care of with as few chemicals and as little water as possible -- I think bermuda takes less water. I have berumda in the mostly sunny areas and StA in the mostly shady areas. My StA did not survive well when we went to weekly waterings last year. I'm replacing with a flower bed. Chemicals are a matter of preference. There are both organic and non-organic pre-emergents and post-emergents. I like spending time outside so usually just pull the weeds.
3. Will avoid dying - My buffalo grass in the far back did the best with low water usage. i.e., I didn't water it last summer and it looked fine. It's not nearly as thick looking as the bermuda or StA and for some reason has way fewer weeds. Go figure.
4. Is inexpensive, if possible - I haven't priced either lately but usually sod is most expensive and seed the least.

a clover lawn! If ya can't beat em join em! They are low/no mow,no fertilizers,clover chokes out weeds, and it it beneficial to wildlife.

Here is a link that might be useful: wikipedia clover lawn

St Aug does not require more water than Bermuda. 1" a week during the heat of the summer (1" a month during the winter) is all a *healthy* and correctly mowed St Aug lawn requires. Kill off the Bermuda with RoundUp (otherwise you'll be battling it for eternity) and sod over it with St Aug bought from a reputable seller. Do research into what newly-sodded St Aug requires in your area, and feed it organic goodies -- corn meal, alfalfa, soy bean meal, compost, used coffee grounds, etc. When it grows, cut it at the highest lawn mower setting. Once established, it will thrive just fine on 1" of water a week.

I've taken out a good deal of my lawn and converted to flowerbeds. But I do love St Aug, and enjoy keeping mine as healthy and vigorous as possible. Rowlett is under water restrictions, and my St Aug came through last summer just fine on 1" a week.

Carla

Don't use either St. Augustine -or- Bermuda. Zoysia is drought and heat tolerant, crowds out everything, grows slowly so you don't have to mow all the time, and is lovely and soft.

If you sod Zoysia, you have to make sure to water it in well to establish good root growth, and then after that, it needs very little water. I've found that the Amazoy variety works well in sun and shade.

St Augustine really doesn't need all that much water when it's established, but it will need more water as new sod. The trick with St. Augustine in the summer is not to scalp it.....we leave our mulching mower set up high. It does mean we have to mow a bit more often, but we have a front yard with grass, and my neighbors--whose lawn crew cuts the grass at about three inches---have next to nothing, even though they paid to resod a year ago. I can't afford to water my grass regularly and rarely ever do (and then only the front yard) unless it's looking really, really stressed.

I want to also point out that St A is tolerant of light shade, but hates medium to deep shade and will not grow there at all. I'm not familiar with buffalo grass, but I'd suggest going with a ground cover under any heavy tree shade. StA grows all right in my front yard under a thinned out ash tree where the light is dappled, but there is none at all under the heavily branched ash tree in the backyard (it's on the utility easement and I wouldn't get near the power line with a saw if you paid me a million bucks). I grow ferns under there. Previous owner had black mondo grass. Good luck! If it were up to me, I'd just take the vast majority of my grass out.

Thank you--I really appreciate all the help! pjtexgirl, I would love to do a clover lawn... a friend told me that was what everyone used to have in the 50s, when my home was built, so it would be appropriate for my ranchette. But alas for homeowners associations.

I think I have decided to go with St. Augustine sod, no tilling (and keep expanding the borders of my already-extensive flowerbeds). Now to convince my husband, who was falling in love with the idea of a golf course yard... (If he knows how much work it would mean for him, I think I can win the battle pretty handily.)

Rebecca...I had a drop dead gorgeous bermuda yard in TC (and the house was built on a cotton field!). We would even go nuts and mow it in a plaid pattern like the grass at Rangers Stadium. And it was maybe a bit easier to take care of than St A (because you do not have to have your trees trimmed, etc)...having said that tho, if you have bermuda and St A...St A will take it over (as previously stated), so why not go ahead and sod St A now and have it all looking nice right away, and not deal with bermuda in your beds. Currently, I live on a large subdivision lot in Spring with 20 large trees and if you keep the lower limbs trimmed up, your St A will grow everywhere you want it to. St A just seems to allow you to do more...I love shade plants, and without trees, you just can't have very many. I think your decision to go with St A is wise....I will be thinking about you watering it after it is laid...it is a pain, but worth it. Oh..and for the record...I got the weedeating idea from the man who sold me some sod for the backyard. It seems that most sod people agree on just weedeating it down and laying new. Works for me...less work! lol

I'm in San Antonio, not Dallas...but as we have water rationing nearly every summer I do have an opinion here. ;-)

As mentioned above, St. Augustine does not need more water than Bermuda. Besides the fact that St. Augustine can do with less than it is sometimes given, if you want Bermuda to look *nice*, you're going to have to water it a lot. St. Augustine will be green and lush on that same amount of ("extra") water, but probably on less.

There are several different varieties of St. Augustine, and some do better in sun and some in shade. Palmetto is one recommended for shade.

We were having trouble with Bermuda dying out in the shadiest parts of our yard. We got a pallet of Palmetto St. Augustine sod last fall and put it out here and there, weed-eating those areas first as others have mentioned. It is green and spreading. =)

Once more, I really appreciate all the wonderful advice! I feel much less anxious about the whole endeavor now!

I did a search for zoysia after reading this thread and it sounds pretty impressive, in addition to being very reasonably priced. I have a mind to experiment with a little 300 sq. ft. area in my yard and plant some zoysia plugs and see what happens.