If you are really in Zone 9 and you have that much shade, then St Augustine is the only lawn grass that will survive. Since it only comes as a sod, it can be laid as fast as you can get it to the site. I would prepare it first. You need to regrade the property to get rid of the ditches. That is best done with a tractor and a tool called a box blade. Landscapers all use them. It would take no more than a morning. A landscaper will bring in more soil if needed or remove soil if you have too much. When he leaves your soil will be ready for action. The drainage will be perfect and surface will be profiled to provide that drainage. You can lay the St Augustine sod down without doing anything else. And you might not have to kill the weeds before starting that project. Do you know what weeds you have? The really bad ones in the south would be bind weed, nutgrass, and kyllinga. Bermuda can be a headache but in your shade it will never be a problem. If the landscaper comes on a Friday, you could easily have a lawn by Sunday. Where do you live? Zone 9 is not helpful because there are zone 9s in many different states with many different soil and head situations. With St Augustine it needs an inch of water per week in the heat of summer. What does not fall as rain needs to be supplemented with sprinklers. Mow St Aug at the mower's highest setting for best appearance and drought tolerance. If it gets really hot and dry, then stop mowing until the heat breaks. Let the grass grow up tall and it will survive with less water.

So far we've applied a pre-emergent to the new (last year) zoysia and done some spot weeding in the beds. All the plantings we had put in as part of a complete front and side yard re-landscaping survived the Winter well and are or have been blooming (see my posting in Georgia Gardening forum for a pix of our "Weeping Cherry's First Spring"). The bonsai will need to wait to go back out to make sure the last frost has passed, and I'm still carrying the new composter around in the back of the truck, but will at least pick a spot for it soon. The backyard, heavily treed, shady, and with a good crop of English Ivy (at least it's down from most of the trees) will be the focus of this year's efforts. We plan on erecting a fence along the back and one side (our neighbor has fenced in the other side), removing much of the ivy, creating pathways, planting some shade tolerant trees and shrubs,and leveling the one area that does get pretty good sun. Also on the agenda is moving our garden work table from inside the storage area under the sunroom to a covered patio area that is next to the area that will be leveled. Finally, we'll be looking at what to plant in a sloped raised bed area on the side of the house that was formed when we had the grade leveled and a retaining wall built along the side lot line. Our neighbor subsequently partially landscaped this area and we are cooperating on completing it. All this would probably make more sense were I to post pictures. I'll do so as we focus on the various "projects" that I've enumerated. Best Wishes--Carl

Our Acuba here covered in ice , is right outside our bedroom window along with a spreading, unknown named camellia , is also a mainstay around our house, it's huge! Also, there is a planted border of Leland Pines for protection and privacy along our N and NW sides of our property, as the famers' woods were mowed down for selling, bummer, but these evergreens are about 20' tall now, beautifully magnificent, and attract all of our local birds! The beautiful holly shrubs are planted staggered with the taller evergreens and will reach their maximum height of bout 6' soon, and are beautiful I love to use magnolia cuttings in arrangements, and just enjoy their presence. For blooming, I saw my yellow Carolina Jasmine, which is really spreading out and up now, had a few blooms in January. That is a nice surprise! Keeping Nandina around the house also allows the birds to come closer and find the feeders, so all of the above are beautiful year round and provide insulation, wind-breaks, and beauty.

In many cases with pets, especially if there is any shade, you can't have both pets and grass. When that happens the solution is mulch. Mulch covers the mud and the dogs love it. The dog parks I've visited have several inches of mulch for their ground cover. An inexpensive source for mulch is tree trimmers who mulch trees on the fly. They drive boxy truck and haul a chipper shredder behind the truck. Ask nicely and they may dump an entire load in your driveway - yay 8-( Where do you live? What kind of grass did you have? Is there any shade?