15 years??? Some seeds???? The reason the lawn is thin near the pavement is the pavement holds the heat from the sun and dries the soil out all day and all night. You might consider something different or plan to water a little extra near the concrete. What time of day are you watering? How long do you water? You should be watering about an inch at a time (measure with cat food or tuna cans). And you should only be watering once a month this time of year. And this would be a good place to mention that it would be much more helpful to tell us the town you live in. Zone 10 CA is not helpful at all. I'm guessing San Diego, but it could easily be Calexico where conditions are much different. The close up pic is of bermuda grass. It does not look like the rest of the yard is bermuda. Bermuda likes different care from most other grasses. It really likes to be mowed at your mower's lowest setting. Fescue, your likely other grass type, likes to be mowed at the mower's highest setting. You can decide now which one you like more and just set your mower for that height. It will take care of itself for the most part. Fescue, however, will need to be reseeded in the fall if you want to thicken it up. It does not spread like bermuda grass. If you are near the coast (really need to know) then Kentucky bluegrass makes an incredible lawn. You would have to start over but that is not that difficult. You would have all summer to think about that. I'll attach a pic of a KBG lawn near Long Beach. Nothing will grow on the south side of the hedge you have out front. If you are going to leave that in, you should plant flowers or something on the north side of that. The reason your back yard is bumpy is that someone in the past has rototilled the soil. They might have had a garden once. You can level that by adding sand to the holes. If you want to dig up the high spots, that becomes a lot more work. Thank you thank you thank you for posting pictures. Now tell us where you live! Here is some general lawn care best practices. These are not mine. In fact when I first started doing this, I disagreed with all of it, but by reading here over the years, these really (REALLY) do work. They are in order of importance. 1. Water deeply and infrequently. As I described above, water all at one time but not very often. Monthly in the cool months working your way up to every 7 days if you really get HOT. Don't fall for the plan of watering a little bit every day - even if your neighbors all do that. It is a recipe for disease and weeds. 2. Mulch mow at the mower's highest setting unless you have bermuda, bentgrass (you don't) or centipede (you don't). 3. If you are going to use chemical fertilizers, do the first app any time after you mow real grass for the second time in the spring. Fertilizing before that is a waste of fertilizer because your roots are not ready. A good starting schedule is Memorial Day, Labor Day, and Thanksgiving. If you are going to use organic fertilizer (look for the Organic Lawn Care FAQ on the FAQs of the GardenWeb Organic Gardening Forum), then you can fertilize any day of the year, or every day of the year, almost as much as you can afford. It is very hard to overdo organic fertilizer. If you decide to go with bermuda, it can use chemical fertilizer every month. Bermuda is a nitrogen hog. Other grasses cannot tolerate chemical ferts in the summer. KBG lawn in Huntington Beach. All he does is water infrequently, mow high, and occasionally fertilize with used coffee grounds.

Hi Susan, Im still not sure if you have ground ivy (Glechoma) or Swedish ivy (Plectranthus). Did the landscaper put it in, or did it just show up? If the landscaper put it in, it could be either. But then why doesnt he know what it isand if its Swedish ivy, why would he put a tropical outside! And Glechoma h. IS sometimes sold commercially (dont know why!) so it could be thatit looks so even, Im inclined to think he did put it in, and maybe he just didnt want to tell you what it was! If he didnt put it in and the ground was bare, then most likely its ground ivywhich will come up anywhere theres bare ground. Both Glechoma and Plectranthus are in the mint family (Lamiaceae), so the square stems wont help decide which it is in this case (most things in the mint family have square stems). I agree with Dafy that the guy at the nursery noticed the square stems and was trying to tell you, you had something in the Mentha species. Most things in the Mentha species do smell like mint, but most things in the mint family dont smell like "mint" as we think of it. Watch for flowers, and if it blooms, if the flowers are white you have Swedish ivy, and if theyre purple/lavender, you have ground ivy. If its Swedish ivy, its going to freeze the first time you get a hard frost, and if its ground ivywellI consider it a weed. Youre going to wind up with it coming up absolutely anywhere you have even the tiniest bare spot of soil. I dont have any growing in my yard, and I dont have a clue how the seeds spread from other places so easily (possibly the wind), but every year I have it coming up here and there all over my yardespecially in the lawn wherever there are (very) small bare spots. So, if its ground ivy, besides coming up all over your yard, itll be coming up all over your neighbors yards too. If your landscaper did put it in, I recommend he pay to replace it! If you just want a nice even ground cover in there, why dont you put in one of the prettier Ajugas. Chocolate Chip makes a really pretty, low, shiny, and dense ground cover (if I get a chance, Ill try to remember to come back and post a picture on my next days offdont have any downloaded right now), and for something with larger leaves, Bronze Beauty would be nice. And there are the plain green ones too if thats what you prefer. Dont get Burgundy Glow if you go looking at them. Its pretty, but it just doesnt grow as well as the others and probably wont fill in nice and evenly. Oh, theres another fairly new one, Black Scallop thats really pretty, and I think itll fill in well, but Im not real familiar with it yetjust have a tiny one Im starting. And there are lots of other nice ground covers you could use that wont become a nuisance to you. There are some really nice ground cover Veronicas, or you could even go with Alpine (sometimes called French gourmet) strawberries, Fragaria vesca (usually Rugens Improved). Theyre runnerless, so they stay inbounds, and they produce very small, but very intensely flavored edible strawberries. Theyd have a nice, woodsy look to thembut they wouldnt fill in quite as quickly as Ajuga or most of the other spreading groundcovers. Fingers crossed that you dont have Glechoma, Skybird

Would it be possible to get a bigger, higher-resolution picture of it? I'm having trouble even telling whether it's a weed grass or a herbaceous plant from that little photo...

If you want pure fescue, you'd have to renovate. Personally, I don't see any need to do so as that can be a very nice lawn if you work on it a bit. >>What about the yard leads you to believe it's low on resources? I did have the soil pH tested which came out at about 6.8-7. I know the yard was limed a year or so ago. And no doubt it needs feeding from what I understand of the previous owners maintenance routine The slight patchiness, the inconsistent colors, and the differential in growth rates still apparent from late fall. There are more subtle signals like the way the grass' blades spread that point to issues with lesser nutrients and micro-nutrients in your soil. None of that is assured, but it's an indicator that you should have this soil tested and then rebalance it properly--don't blindly throw lime or anything else (other than nitrogen or organic feeding) at a lawn or garden. Improperly balancing the resources is worse than being too low on some as resources compete with each other. Overdoing calcium would, for instance, block absorption of phosphorus, potassium, and most minor elements. >>I was thinking I had a good enough base to overseed with fescue or KBG/fescue mix without having to completely kill off the lawn. Would you agree or disagree if I am wanting to go with that grass choice? Partial disagreement. Everybody tries to get around the soil test, at least until they see photos of lawns that have had them done, fixed any issues, and then used proper care techniques otherwise. Even cheap, builder's grade lawns look fantastic. Properly chosen seed for the locale stops passing cars to admire the greenery. There are few existing lawns that can't be rescued to become extremely impressive. But if you have your heart set on one particular grass type, a full renovation is going to be the only way to achieve that. Since it can't be done until late summer, that gives you the rest of spring and summer to fix any soil problems.