Since obviously their are several guys on here into having nice yards I thought I’d start a thread on lawn maintenance and upgrades for simple help tips do’s and don’t s. I’m not a rocket scientist by any means but I’ll gladly share any knowledge I have if anyone has any questions. We’re about to move into a different house for the summer and I’ll be revamping that lawn starting fairly soon from ripping up the grass and leveling it out to adding irrigation and building a water feature in the front flowerbed “Never Attempted This Part ” so if theirs any interest we can all share our projects and know how with this thread. If not it will die a sudden death

I’m still undecided on the type of grass I’ll be laying down but we will figure that out fairly soon, the sod cutter will be fired up in the near future and we will make it look like a disaster zone in short order

I’ve got 2 water features, one in front and one in back.

Here you can see the base. A simple galvanized metal 36 or 40 inch ring, filled abs packed the dirt and placed a large stepping block. The fountain on top is probably 400 pounds.


Here’s the finished pic.


This was 2 years ago.I’ll post the current pic and how much the plants have grown.

This is the backyard water feature. Much larger than the front. It’s not completed in this picture, but hopefully will be soon. Water is pumped from the tank into the the tank on the truck and back into the “pond”

My first choice would be Tiffgrand. 2nd and 3rd choice in no particular order would be Tifftuff and Tahoma 31.

One of the best things you can do for your grass is regular mowing.

I'm a big fan of Bermuda. I will never water a yard past the little piece my kids play stuff is in.

It all starts with tenacity.

Not something I would use on actively growing bermuda or st aug. Dormant app only.

Normally it all starts with icing down the beer

They still have to finish the job.

Then your mower drives crooked. I could mow like a champ with a beer on my riding mower/lawn tractor whatever you want to call it, but that is a no go with the zero turn.

Let's get this thread rocking! Do y'all get a soil test? What kind of fertilizers are you using. What kind of grass do you have.

Lawn is coming along. The cooler nights are not helping.

What type of turf grass? How long has it been established? I like the comparison to the neighbors yard pic!

Anybody have a yard sodded with Zorro Zoysia?

This rain has all of my yard plans on hold, if it ever stops I’ll be tearing all kind of stuff up. We did put 10 tons of 1” gravel rock in the back flower beds last weekend but I’m about to rip all the grass in the back up and level it out. On the front their scheduled to install the irrigation system on 6/14 and I’m planning on ripping the current sod up and smoothing it up but that’s 100% dependent on the rain and how wet the ground it. We’ve had 15”s of rain here this month so the grounds saturated to say the least.

My lawn has never been fertilized or watered.

Some type of Bermuda hybrid. I don't know which. House is 18yrs or so old. I bought it 3yrs ago and the turf was already established. There is a few spots of common mixed in and I can see huge difference between the two. If I had to guess I would say it's Tif 419 as that is a very popular bermuda in TX. If I was to redo it my choices would be either TiffTuf or TiffGrand maybe Tahoma 31. Both Tuf and Grand do well in more shady areas.

A blind man could grow that St. Augustine grass in your area Bill. You get copious amounts of rain. I remember my Dad, or my brother or myself, sometimes having to mow 2 to 3 times a week close to your area.
It is a really nice yard!

bill can still see - look it up.

Getting ready to go out and knock the tops off in a few.

speaking of lawns ... our front was solid St Augustine, lush and beautiful up until shortly after our lawn service did their normal every other month treatment last July. by the end of July it was tanking quickly, Long story, we just installed a new sprinkler system and will be re-sodding about 80-90% of our front yard. With that said, we are covered up with what I grew up calling nut grass, officially nutsedge. Any of you have any solid methods for getting rid of it???

2nd topic, any solid advise on killing poison ivy?

Less is better with StAugustine. I even sometimes mow in circles.. Can't help on the poison ivy. Not allergic myself.

Sedge hammer works well on nutgrass. It's slow to work but will kill it. Triclopyr works well on poison ivy. For poison ivy I would not dilute it. I would apply it with a foam paint brush making sure to paint the stems of it.

I’ve heard turtles like eating nut grass

Still waiting on a update and or website