Recovering neglected lawn

mazchazo – posted 15 May 2011 18:28

I bought a house and the lawn was untouched for a year. When I moved in, the front yard was covered with weed and a few crab grass. There was barely any grass left, only 30% of the land is covered with grass and a few patches here and there existed. The sides of the house was okay since it is shared with the neighbors so their grass is shared with ours. The backyard is a disaster. there is a lot of crab grass in the way and only 10-30% grass exists in it. The rest is covered with weeds and same with the front yard. The drought killed the grass and the weed took over. There are dry dead patches here and there too.

The only treatment I did to it is I bought weed and feed to kill the weed, which it did but the weed regrew, but it is better than before.

The irrigation system is broken in the front yard because of a busted pipe but the backyard still works and it waters the backyard for 10 minutes everyday at night. I was hoping the existing grass would spread through out the yard, but it seems that it didn’t much.

What should I do?

The type of grass that still exists is St Augustine and lots of other weed. I want my yard to look good with the cheapest way possible. I don’t care if it means killing my grass for new grass or mixing it with something else, just want the cheapest way to make it look good.

I live in TX, the summers are hot and there is a drought right now. Very dry and hot weather in the summer. The winter blast from last winter, killed many of my and killed most of the yard.