I have this same geography issue with the residents of the Dallas-Fort Worth area. They refer to their region as North Texas. I used to live in the Texas Panhandle about 300 miles north of them in "North Texas," and I can tell you Texas goes much farther north than Dallas. San Jose is not N. Calif. San Jose is "Bay Area" Calif. N. Calif starts just south of Redding. I realize you hear Northern California on TV all the time, but someone needs to look at a map. Back when the speed limit was 55, it was a full day's drive from SF to Oregon. That should tell you you're not in the north. But anyway...Bay Area is much more helpful because your climate is different from either Sacramento or parts further north. All the dormant stuff appears to be common bermuda. Some of the green stuff appears to be common bermuda, too. Both your watering and mowing are at the wrong ends of their respective scales for the grass you have. I'm basing this on bermuda, because that is what you have the most of. This time of year no matter what grass you have, you should be watering once per month for longer than 15 minutes. Having said that, some sprinklers can put out enough water in 15 minutes to measure a full inch, but not all. Time how long it takes your sprinklers to fill several cat food or tuna cans placed around the yard. Every system is different, so this is something you have to do yourself. Since bermuda is now your dominant grass, you should be mowing 2x per week at your mower's lowest setting. If you had fescue then you could mow at the highest setting, but fescue is too weak a turf to compete with bermuda. If you want the bermuda to look its best (ahem), then fertilize with a high nitrogen fertilizer every month. There is a variety of bermuda which really does look great, but you don't have that one. Now to get back to your original question, you can kill bermuda with RoundUp spray. If you want to put in a fescue or Kentucky bluegrass lawn, you should really wait until next fall. If you try to renovate in the spring, two things will happen: one is the crabgrass (real crabgrass) will be the first grass seed to sprout. Second is the new grass which does germinate will be too weak for the summer heat and will die out in July...leaving you with the original crabgrass. If you want to put down sod, you can do that in the spring with much better results. I would recommend you take great care of the bermuda over the summer and start in August to do the renovation. Then the bermuda will be growing great and will die much better with a couple applications of RoundUp. As far as watering the rest of the season, wait until the temps rise into the 70s before going to once every 3 weeks. When it gets into the 80s, go to once every 2 weeks. With temps in the 90s, then go to once per week. If you get a period of several days above 100, go to once every 5 days and get back to once every 7 as soon as you can. The problem with frequent watering is the weed seeds LOVE that schedule. But if you allow the surface of the soil to dry completely before watering again, then the weed seeds cannot get started. And I should note that all your late winter and early spring weeds have already sprouted. They sprout in the late fall and lie dormant until the days start getting longer. Treat those with a spot spray of something like Weed-B-Gone for the broad leafed weeds. Killing grassy weeds in a grass lawn is harder, but with bermuda, you can take a tough love approach and the bermuda will be back in a few days.

Not quite ready to give up yet, Tex. Dianna, you sound just like me when I first came to the Lawn Care Forum. I found this site looking for help with a new lawn I unknowingly drowned with water and was blaming my contractor because he told me to water every day. "Around here, folks water every day" is exactly what I told these guys, too. Because so many of them said much the same in the way of advice, I decided to try it and couldn't believe the results. What they were trying to explain finally clicked, so I began doing more research on the subject and found the professional turf sites, turfgrass research universities, the seed producers, advice columnists, everything and everywhere were saying the same things, which are the bottomline basics of lawn care. That all compelled me to do more research as well as conduct a few experiments of my own. I learned there is nothing more important to the health of your grass than proper watering and proper mowing. Believe me, I've studied a lot but that is little compared to some of these other folks on the forum. No one here would steer you wrong and if there is even the slightest information imparted incorrectly, someone will chime in to correct them and make sure you are provided enough information to work your lawn into the healthiest and most beautiful it can possibly be. I want to explain a little more of what Billl is saying. While your grass in the back may seem to be okay, trust that it is not thriving and it is not healthy if being watered every day. Frequent watering does not allow the roots to grow as deeply as they are supposed to. The life and health of the plant is totally dependent on the root system, and fescue grass has an extensive root system. When watered properly (deeply), the roots are allowed to grow as deep as they should. Shallow roots are weak, thin, and flimsy. Green grass is not equal to healthy grass. Unless the grass is healthy, it cannot thrive and tiller as it should, it cannot fight off disease it inherently is normally able to resist or tolerate, it cannot knit and form a thick, lush sod to help prevent weeds, and it cannot even produce its true genetic green color. What I neglected to suggest earlier, as Bill so aptly did, is to gradually back off watering rather than all at once. At this point, the grass is dependent on receiving it very often because you trained it to expect that. It doesn't need it though, and you can train the grass to be much less dependent on you for moisture and nutrients and to tell you when it wants water as I mentioned in the drought examples. Back off frequency while increasing the amount as Bill explained to work your way to just one inch just once a week. One inch of water will moisten the soil to a depth of 6-8 inches. Rather than sitting there in the upper layers of soil waiting to be fed, the roots will begin to grow downward looking for the moisture that one inch provided. See how it works? They will reach it and continue to grow beyond that point to receive the earth's water supply and natural nutrients for fertilizer. Then, you'll have a healthy root system. Just imagine yourself never being able to yawn or stretch out. Because you are located in a region of high temps, it may be necessary to irrigate more often as I mentioned earlier. That one inch can be stretched out over two or three days through the week to relieve heat stress. About the only thing we cannot tell you is exactly what species of grass you have. Without the advantage of sight to examine the parts of the plant, we're just trying to guess based on the clues you give us. Based on those clues, the only thing we know for relatively certain is it is a cool season type. You can find out for sure though by taking samples to the extension service I linked you to above. They are the real experts and will tell you the exact same as we tell you here. For starters, you can take advantage of their many publications. Type "lawn care" in the search box.

If the soil pH is really low and there is not enough organic matter in the soil and there is not enough sunlight grass will find it difficult to grow there and any that does will not be sturdy enough to withstand much traffic. Start this whole project by contacting your counties University of Massachusetts USDA Cooperative Extension Service about having a good, reliable soil test done so you know what the pH of that soil is and what to do to correct it to give any plant a better chance of survival there. They can also guide you in selecting something that may grow quite well there. You can also dig in with these simple soil tests, 1) Structure. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. A good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top. 2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up. 3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart. 4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer you soil will smell. 5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy. to see what more could be done to make that soil into a good, healthy soil that will grow strong and healthy plants.

>> He reminded me about the migratory Junko birds that ate much of our bare April fescue seeding last year. You get those too? Around here, they're year-round residents (sometimes). The average Junko (as well as other sparrows) are incredibly lazy. If you scatter just a bit of peat moss atop the blank areas when you dormant seed, they won't be very effective at finding the seeds and tend to do the job of burying them for you. No protection is required when seeding into a partially sprouted stand of grass. You can certainly add KBG to the mix if you like, but keep in mind that it'll tend to take over the lawn over the very long term (many years). Personally, I liked the resulting Abbey/Kenblue bluegrass lawn more than I liked the tri-mix that spawned it. So much so that I renovated to nicer bluegrasses! Under normal circumstances, pre-emergents for incidental weeds go around the time the forsythia blossom (or, when soil temperatures rise over fifty degrees). That takes care of most oddball stuff. You won't be able to apply any pre-emergent at this time as your new grasses will still be sprouting and have to be three mowings old before you use any pre-M or herbicides. Crabgrass sprouts warmer, but may get started in any warm snap in April or May. For that, I'd apply pre-emergent (Dimension, Barricade, most of them work on CG) around June first and realize that it's not going to be perfect. Spot treat any sprouted CG with Weed B Gon Crabgrass Control in July or so when you see it--the lawn will be old enough by then and more.