Can my yard be revived? (Austin: house, landscaping, buying)

[nickasarbata]

Bought my house in August, and it had been vacant for four months before that. The yard looked like dead hay for months. After the rains finally started coming, almost the entire yard is green now, and grows FAST. Unfortunately, as you can see from the picture, virtually none of it looks like grass. There's all sorts of weeds and the like. It looks better than dead hay, but it doesn't look nice either. Can I expect to be able to revive the grass in there? Is there a way to kill weeds without stopping grass growth? The entire yard looks like this, so "pulling the weeds" really isn't an option at all. Or is the only option to have the yard re-sodded? (Not in my budget for at least the next year).

Help! What can I do?!

[ImOnFiya]

Have you thought about buying grass seed and digging up and re-seeding parts of the yard that are the most weeded? That seems like a temporary solution for now.

[kbchitown]

Originally Posted by nickasarbata

Bought my house in August, and it had been vacant for four months before that. The yard looked like dead hay for months. After the rains finally started coming, almost the entire yard is green now, and grows FAST. Unfortunately, as you can see from the picture, virtually none of it looks like grass. There's all sorts of weeds and the like. It looks better than dead hay, but it doesn't look nice either. Can I expect to be able to revive the grass in there? Is there a way to kill weeds without stopping grass growth? The entire yard looks like this, so "pulling the weeds" really isn't an option at all. Or is the only option to have the yard re-sodded? (Not in my budget for at least the next year).

Help! What can I do?!

Re-sod or re-seed. The drought killed the grass and only weeds will grow now.

[centralaustinite]

Pull the weeds, add compost and possibly topsoil! Even if you re-sod, you should probably put down compost first and try to revive the soil.

Without decent soil, you will waste your money on sod.

[mickey65]

My lawns totally died over the summer. But have grown back with some nice bermuda type of grass.

[OpenD]

Originally Posted by kbchitown

Re-sod or re-seed. The drought killed the grass and only weeds will grow now.

Don't waste your money on grass in any form. Despite recent rainfall we are still in a persistent drought which is already projected to last at least another year. City of Austin is already talking about going to Stage 3 water restrictions, which provide for a total ban on lawn watering.

Xeriscaping replaces non-native landscaping vegetation with drought resistant natives. City of Austin has informative literature about how to make the switch.

[G Grasshopper]

I agree with OpenD; take this as an opportunity to plant with natives and low water plants, to plan a yard that will function and be attractive even in drought conditions.

[cBach]

In a few months the rains would have left and we'll be left with scorching summer heat and no rain. What others have suggested is correct. It's a great time to xeriscape things!

[cBach]

Originally Posted by nickasarbata

Bought my house in August, and it had been vacant for four months before that. The yard looked like dead hay for months. After the rains finally started coming, almost the entire yard is green now, and grows FAST. Unfortunately, as you can see from the picture, virtually none of it looks like grass. There's all sorts of weeds and the like. It looks better than dead hay, but it doesn't look nice either. Can I expect to be able to revive the grass in there? Is there a way to kill weeds without stopping grass growth? The entire yard looks like this, so "pulling the weeds" really isn't an option at all. Or is the only option to have the yard re-sodded? (Not in my budget for at least the next year).

Help! What can I do?!

Your yard actually looks quite pretty with those wildflowers!

[CptnRn]

Originally Posted by OpenD

Don't waste your money on grass in any form. Despite recent rainfall we are still in a persistent drought which is already projected to last at least another year. City of Austin is already talking about going to Stage 3 water restrictions, which provide for a total ban on lawn watering.

Xeriscaping replaces non-native landscaping vegetation with drought resistant natives. City of Austin has informative literature about how to make the switch.

I too agree with this. I would normally say to rototill your yard, add good soil and new sod. But I'm afraid with the ongoing water restrictions you will not be able to water your new sod enough to get it established before summers heat burns everything. When and if you do put in sod, please don't plant St. Augustine, it needs too much water. See Turf Grasses on page 44 of this pdf document from Grow Green Austin http://www.austintexas.gov/sites/def...plantguide.pdf

Put as much of your yard as possible into mulch planting beds with native plants. Now is still a good time to plant shade trees, so their roots can get established before summer, and hopefully they will help keep your yard from burning up in the future. And hopefully we will still be allowed to water our trees enough to keep them alive this summer.