By all means, take advantage of the guys offer to regrade it. Assuming they know what they are doing, it will make a huge difference in your enjoyment of the yard. It takes years of practice to become good enough to do it "good enough." For an experienced tractor driver, it should take no more than 2 hours to do your back yard. Whether you need more soil or not will be up to them. More soil usually will change the drainage. Let them decide what to do. Actually you might get two other estimates for the job and talk to them about what they propose to do. You are bound to learn something. If you have full sun, the Kentucky bluegrass is the turf that will hold up to the kids best. It is a sod forming grass, meaning it spreads to fill in weak spots. Fescue is a bunch grass that might spread to fill in by the time of the next ice age. Ask your wife where she might like to have the garden before you do the lawn. She'll want the sunniest place. Here is the 1-2-3 of grass growing as found in these forums over the past decade. Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an hour in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. Mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. Bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses are the most dense when mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. Dense grass shades out weeds and uses less water when tall. Dense grass feeds the deep roots you're developing in 1 above. By mulching you help return fertility to the soil. Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 4 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. GardenWeb does not host pictures. If you have pictures hosted somewhere else on the Internet, GW can link to them. An Internet photo hosting site might be tumblr, photobucket, picasa, or some others. Then you need to use the correct HTML code so it shows up here. Here is that code. <img src="YOUR PHOTO URL GOES HERE"> You get your photo URL by bringing up the photo (in your browser at the host's site) and right clicking on it. Select Copy Link Location. Then paste that location between the quotes in the code above. The quotes are necessary for this to work. Don't leave them out. The photo URL should look like this http://www.photobucket.com/yourphotos/photoname.jpg Putting it all together it will look something like this... <img src="http://www.photobucket.com/yourphotos/photoname.jpg"> Then post your message like normal.

First, Thanks for your Service and congratulations on your new home. You have a pretty typical transition zone mix of common bermuda and tall fescue. The brown is bermuda, the green is TTTF or weeds. This mix is not the prettiest, darkest green, or consistent in height that many members dream of a lawn, but it is certainly serviceable, especially with 2 dogs and perhaps future little feet running around. Lawns are not a once and done task - they require maintenance just like the rest of the home. You can decide if you want a good relatively durable backyard or a show quality lawn, but you don't have to decide right now. Basics. The basics to any lawn care (in our area) would be to mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower, water about 1" per week, and fertilize at about 3 to 4 pounds of nitrogen per year with most of that in the fall. Proper watering and mulch mowing will get you to about 70% of your goal this year. Virginia Tech has some very good information on basic lawn care, soil sampling, and schedules. Recommendation. You need to treat for the weeds. The big box stores sell a weed and feed granular. Normally, I don't recommend a weed and feed, but your lawn needs both and it is quick and easy to start with. An option is to use something like Ortho Weed-B-Gone and just straight fertilizer. Apply according to the directions. Measure off your lawn so you know how many square feet your dealing with and you'll probably want to keep the dogs off until after the first good rain. Then follow the basics until at least the end of June. I think you'll find its not as bad as it looks with just a little care. If you don't like what you got keep reading this forum for fall lawn renovations, but I caution you it will take draconian measures to rid yourself of that bermuda. It will come back even if you use Roundup - it is that invasive. Now the garden plot. Before you plant any grass there please think about keeping a garden. Even if you don't want the normal vegetables it is a great spot to plant flowers, bulbs, shrubs for future planting (you can save a lot of money by buying small, maturing in a garden, then transplanting later). Perhaps if your time limited, you have a neighbor that would share crop with you. I know I'd love a nice flat back yard and it means less grass to cut too :). The leaves add organic matter to the soil. You'll want to incorporate those in the garden, and btw, they will be great to mulch up in your lawn this fall too. Hope this helps.

A lawn master named morpheuspa is caring for two lawns - his and his mother's. His is all improved Elite cultivars. His mother's is contractor grade. The mother's lawn is gorgeous due to his care. I believe he has demonstrated that even contractor grade Kentucky bluegrass can be the best lawn on the block if you get the soil tuned up and follow proper care. In fact here is a pic of his mother's lawn... If you want the best lawn in the neighborhood, then the Logan Labs soil test is necessary. New seed may not be necessary. I would see what you can accomplish this summer and, about mid-August, decide whether you need different grass. Renovating is a lot of work followed by a lot of stress waiting for the seed to come in. Then you are faced with a 3-year wait as the grass plants mature. If you already have mature grass, I would just make the very best of it first before jumping into the pool of renovation. But also necessary is mastering the basics of lawn care as follows... Basics of Lawn Care After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct. Watering Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an inch in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds. You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in Las Vegas your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week. Mowing Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush. Fertilizing Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it. Too little is better than too much. At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide. It is too late to fertilize with chemical fertilizers this summer; however, you can still fertilize with organics all summer long. You can start with organics before you get your soil test back - you will always have a nitrogen deficiency. Between the basic lawn care (water and mowing), organic ferts, and the corrections to micro nutrients prescribed by the soil test, your lawn should look amazing by August. You can introduce yourself to organic lawn care by applying alfalfa pellets (rabbit chow) at a rate of 20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. No, you won't be overrun by rabbits. They only eat rabbit food when confined and fed nothing else. Get the alfalfa pellets at any feed store. Check prices between rabbit chow and alfalfa pellets. They are the same product but sometimes there is a difference from brown bag to brown bag. Spray the soap and molasses and you are officially on your way.

A mix of KBG, Fescue and P Rye is what I've been using for the last couple years and that's what the current lawn SHOULD be but it literally has all died off in the heat and traffic and other grasses and weeds took over. Here's a distant pic of an area by the tree we cut down with large dead patches. Here's just a random up close area. Pretty much the whole lawn looks like a lot like either one of these pictures. Not much of the grass listed above. LOL