Lawn renovation/reseeding - Phoenix AZ

9 years ago

Thank you everybody for a wonderful forum.

I am a new home owner, and we have a huge backyard with about
1000sqft lawn. When we bought the home the lawn was fine with Bermuda
grass, but because of my neglect it is now filled with weeds. I plan to
renovate it.

The lawn is in two patches - 200sqft of it is filled with Poa Annua. I
just mowed all of it to the lowest setting, and sprayed Spectracide
weed killer for Lawns. I am not hopeful that it fixed the Poa Annua
problem, and hence I am thinking of reseeding totally from scratch. Now
these are my questions -

1. To reseed the lawn, should I first start with spraying the whole
lawn with Roundup? Is there a better alternative to remove everything?

2. If sprayed with roundup, how long should I wait before seeding?

3. Should I go with Bermuda grass? I am looking for the best bang for
the buck - grass that stays green longer portion of the year, and uses
less water. I don't need to have grass stay green in all seasons.

4. Is there a good source which elaborates the steps in reseeding the lawn if I plan to do it myself.

5. What is a good place to buy grass seed in the Phoenix area?

Responses are appreciated.

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Comments (2)

aztreelvr
9 years ago
The best solution for weed control is a healthy lawn. Lush, thick Bermuda grass will choke out most weeds and along with Bermuda hybrids, it is the best choice for a lawn in the Phoenix area. It will stay green until the first freeze (usually about Dec. 1) and begin greening up in March if not overseeded.

There are two classes of weeds - grasses and broadleaf (clover, spurge, London rocket, etc.). If you have broadleaf weeds, use a product containing 2-4-D which will not harm the Bermuda. Your Spectracide does not kill Bermuda but is effective on a wide range of broadleaf weeds. It also comes with a warning not apply to Bermudagrass when daytime temperatures exceed 85° F. The poa annua will be dying as soon as warmer weather arrives, if its not dead already.

Using Round Up now may not kill the existing bermuda. The active ingredient (glyphosate) needs to be translocated to the underground rhizomes and roots as well as the stolons, and it won't do this until the grass is actively growing when its hot - May - September.

To reseed your lawn, wait until mid May when night time temperatures are consistently above 65 degrees to seed more Bermuda. Here's a link to the steps on seeding a Bermuda lawn.

FYI, The seeded variety 'Princess' is a seed producing hybrid
variety. It is legally termed a hybrid, due to the arrangement and selection
of seed producing parent plants in production fields. 'Princess' produces a lawn
which looks much finer then most other seeded types of Bermuda
plants and is darker green in color.
newtoucan
9 years ago
Went through all the reseeding, mowing and weeding but since getting rid of the lawn, it has really been great. Not only is there less work spent on the lawn, I found out I can grow a ton of things that look better than a lawn. Much more interesting. Might want to think twice because getting rid of the grass is a pain. You can still do it though by covering all the old stuff with newspaper wetted down and then rolling your new sod over that. That would be your fastest way.
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Lawn renovation/reseeding - Phoenix AZ

Comments (2)

aztreelvr

newtoucan

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