Need more information:

Where do you live?

Are you looking for a showcase lawn or one that keeps the mud out of the house? or something in between?

Do you have children or pets on the yard?

Unless you can afford to put sod down, spring is a poor time to start new grass from seed. Fall is the time to do that and early fall is better than late fall.

Hey dchall, thanks for your response! I am in zone 8A. I would like a lawn that looks nice and is low maintenance. We do not have children or pets yet, but soon :)

We are definitely on a budget so no re-sodding right now. So I guess my best hope for right now is to just kill as many weeds as I can & try to nurture what little grass I do have, until Fall rolls around? Should I proceed with applying a pre-emergent now in that case?

Zone 8a where? 8a in Texas is vastly different from 8a in Washington.

North Texas! :)

He's afraid if he says, Dallas, we'll all come over for 4th of July.

The reason we needed that info is that northern grasses are much different from southern grasses. You're in the southern area where it gets too hot and dry in the summer for the northern grasses to grow. The zones only pertains to winter low temps, so they are mostly unhelpful for much of anything once you have selected your plants.

You have two choices for a lawn. Well, you have more, but 99.999999% of all the lawns in North Texas metro area are either bermuda or St Augustine. The bermuda people are most happy with is TIF 419. You can find it as sod anywhere you go. Cost is probably not $50 per pallet anymore, but it should not be much higher. The demand might be higher this year because it got cold enough to kill some of the lawns. The cost is low because builders have adopted it as their standard lawn for new construction. Because of that there are LOTS of suppliers and the cost is low. Bermuda must have 6 hours of direct sunlight every day or it will thin out and become very weedy. It does not grow well under low, dense trees, behind walls or fences, or next to shrubs.

St Augustine costs about $100 to $120 per pallet. Why so much? Supply and demand. Builders aren't buying it. A pallet covers an area about 25x20 feet or 500 square feet. St Augustine will grow in 0 hours of direct sunlight as long as it gets some filtered light during the day. It will be much more dense in direct sun, but it will still resist most weeds even in the shade.

If you are patient these grasses will spread to fill. That means you can buy less and let these grasses spread. You'll have to keep after it with weed killers, but it will happen. Once it is established St Augustine spreads about 15 feet per year. I don't know how fast bermuda moves, but I would guess it is about the same if not faster. I bought a house in the summer of 2014 where the lawn had been abandoned by the owner. There was some St Aug growing in the shade up against the north side of the house, some along the back patio, and some against a patio addition. I estimate there was 30 square feet total of grass. Now there is roughly 1,000 square feet total in all those places, and all I've done is to let it expand. If you want to talk about the the options for planting to make it spread, let us know.

And since I only feel qualified to advise on cool season lawns and more specifically, PNW cool season lawns, that localized info is critical!!

...and what she's secretly telling me is to keep my southern butt out of her PNW lawn care topics. We've been on this road before going both directions. I would avoid the PNW topics if she were a more frequent visitor here. I can't let something go unanswered, even if I don't know the exact soils and climate conditions as well as she does. My experience with cool season grass was 18 months living in Dayton - certainly not the PNW, but still cool weather grass and weeds.

Let the turf war begin!(pun intended)

Not at all!! Although I don't always agree with everything suggested, the lawn guys here know their stuff and I am happy that they do supply answers to PNW'ers, as I don't get to this forum all that often.

Frankly, by the time I get done doing a series of lawn care seminars locally through mid April, I am burnt out on lawn care issues and tend to suggest everyone dig up their lawns and replace with something else............:-))

Ha well, we actually just moved out of Dallas and into Ellis, but not by much. I think we have mostly Bermuda around here. I have seen some lawns in the neighborhood that have switched to St. Augustine, but it seems to be taking over their neighbors yards as well! I would honestly prefer the St. Augustine, but it seems wrong to force that on the adjacent lawns (these are small lots). One of our neighbors probably would not care, but the other has pretty nice & thick bermuda.

I think in terms of time, energy, and finances, it would be best for me to work with what I've got instead of trying to lay all new sod. Maybe I can lay some bermuda sod in the really bad areas, but otherwise I think just killing weeds and/or applying new grass seed is what I want to do for now. I guess I am just not sure on how to go about it.

Since it is too late to apply new grass seed, should I go ahead and apply a pre-emergent? We have a lot of crab grass in the lawn, mostly in big dead patches from being sprayed late in the fall. I would like to prevent it from coming back, and I would also like to know how to remove the big dead patches of it & fill them in with grass (just remove & wait, I assume?). I sprayed the back with WeedBGone, but I am scared to touch the front with anything because we have two young Live Oaks and some shrubs out there.

I hope that came out in mostly coherent thoughts, its been a long day! Thanks for all of the input folks.

Weed b gone won't harm your shrubs or oaks unless you spray them directly, so don't worry about that. It also won't do anything about grassy weeds, so you'll need a grassy weed product as well. PreM is due in the next few weeks in your area, so you have some time to shop.

For the bare areas, the best method is to replace with new sod, but obviously most people are not willing to put in the time for that. The oaks will start to shade out certain areas as well, so plan accordingly. I replaced tree shade areas with celebration bermuda & a fish fertilizer or kelp extract will help to revive areas that have sun, but are still under performing.

My biggest piece of advice after looking at your pics is TAKE ACTION NOW. All those weeds will shade out the bermuda that is trying to wake up. Get some product down & let them die so your Bermuda can come in strong.

Thanks reeljake! Alright so I am good to WeedBGone the front, sweet. I'll do that this weekend. Any recommendations on PreM, as I know there are different kinds and I struggle to find what is best suited to my situation (or if they are all pretty equivalent).

Maybe instead of sod I can throw some grass plugs in the bare spots and nurture the hell out of them? I think it would be cheaper and less time / labor intensive. I think it would also be less likely to succeed, but frankly I do not know what I am doing here so I have that problem already ;) ... but let me know if plugs are a waste of time and I will avoid that.

Other than that, I guess I just need to start a seed/feed schedule at the appropriate time this year & going forward, and I should be on pretty good ground with this lawn.

Thanks everyone for all the input, and let me know if you have anything further to add! I'll check back and update as things progress or if I destroy something :)

Whichever preM you can get consistently is probably best, but prodiamine & dimension are the most popular around here. You can order it in liquid form online to save some cash in the long run, or buy granules locally but stay consistent either way. Mine goes down every 3 months like clockwork.

Plugs are not a waste of time, they're much better than seed for sure--Don't waste your money on Bermuda seed, it's really unreliable. I'm not sure why people think sod is expensive, it's only 1.25 a square around here & I only paid 100 per pallet for certified celebration. Where do you plan to get the plugs?

I bought some High Yield brand dimension herbicide. I am going to apply it in a few days after this little wet spell we are having passes, and then every 3 months after that. Thanks again for the advice!

At some point I am going to try and lay some sod down. I think I will ask the neighbors if they care about St. Augustine, which would eventually creep into their yards. Any tips for success with laying the sod? I will do some research and maybe make another post here when the time comes.

Thanks!