"Justin Wilson" wrote in message
...

"nightrider.36" wrote in message
oups.com...
Hello everyone!

I've never planted a lawn before and I'm getting overwhelmed at the
information at Home Depot's books and online. I have questions that I
need answered before I get started. I don't have a big budget, I
don't have time, I don't want to do it and I want to make my wife
happy so please help me! I need to lay this out and maybe seed it in
a weekend--maybe two--SOON!

[snip].

After the grass (and weeds) start growing good, hit them with a Weed n
Feed.

1. If you need some quick results and can afford it, go with sod, and have
a local nursery or sod dealer (not a big box store) help you decide which
variety to use. If you can't afford sod and can afford to wait for a few
months, seed is a second-best choice. A previous post recommended St.
Augustine grass as one choice but didn't mention that you can't buy St.
Augustine seed -- it's a sterile hybrid. If St. Augustine grass is the
prefered lawn you'll have to go with sod.

2. Most professionals don't recommend weed-and-feed. That's essentially an
indiscriminate use of a pesticide, and if your lawn is that bad you should
just kill off all the weeds and start over. Also, the fertilizer in a
weed-and-feed is a high nitrogen water soluble type that isn't the best
choice for a good/healthy lawn. (The high nitrogen is needed to combat the
effects of the weed-killer, but also induces leaf growth at the expense of
root strength. This in turn makes the grass more attractive to insects,
fungus, etc.) Once you've got a good lawn started, pull or spot treat weeds
and use a lawn fertilizer appropriate for your region, which probably will
have elements in the ratio of 2-0-2 or 2-1-2, with most of the nitrogen
being a slow release type. In my area I use a 17-3-17 Lesco product. Your
extension service or master gardener program can give you written
information on lawn fertilizer requirements.