Bringing a lawn back from the dead
 

this is also what we are faced with at a rental (zone 5). what we are going to do
is:
1. weed B gone
2. spread some bagged type manure all over the lawn
3. dig up the stems of the worst weeds (burdock)
4. water the lawn almost every day it doesnt rain
5. send DH out with his soccer cleats to aerate (golf cleats would work better)
6. more fertilizer and some seed in fall
7. put in some plugs if the existing "grass" doesnt seem to be doing it
..... we dont have grubs, but there is milky spore for that. once the roundup goes
on, or pre-emergent you can forget seed. the only way to get sod to "take" is to
have the existing "sod" skinned off, the dirt has to be augmented, sod laid, rolled,
watered. it is expensive.

"Big Purple Nose" wrote:
"Your lawn is dry, needs a lot of water, and is really compacted. Your
lawn is also thin, which gives way to weeds, and you have ants. We
can't really save your lawn, we could get rid of the weeds with round
up but it will kill everything. You will ahve to sod or take Ecology
Program to take care of weeds and gree the little bit of grass there
is, with an aeration to help water go in and OVSD (that is a double
core with seeds) but you would have to put down a lot more seeds and
merit for grubs. but the results are hard to guarantee."

So what is the difference in cost between doing what she said,
basically killing all the weeds and then slathering seed about, and
going out to get fresh sod. I presume the latter is more expensive. If
you lay sod don't you have to lift up a few inches of dirt that is
already there and cart it off first? I mean, if you don't doesn't that
make your lawn several inches higher than the sidewalks and paths?

How long would it take if I just let the lawn company kill everything,
then reseeded? I don't mind waiting a bit, if that is likely, with
their help, to be successful. Don't advise me to lay the sod myself to
save money. I have a bad back and I'd wind up being laid up for days.
So I'll have to hire a landscaping company to do it. The lawn in back
is about 2,000 sf and the one in front about 1/4 of that. Should this
sort of thing be done now or in the fall or in the spring?

I'd be grateful for even a very rough idea of pricing, if possible. I'm
in southeastern Ontario

Dave



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Zone 5 next to Lake Michigan