Completely Desolated/Restore Back Yard

kill everything with round up, rake it all up with an iron rake or rent an aerator or power rake. Then seed or sod. It's not rocket surgery

Do you have any lawn grass mixed in with the weeds, if so do you know what kind of lawn grass? If you could post some photos of the most significant types of weeds you are dealing with that would help. Many annual weeds can be reliably controlled, some perennial weeds are more problematic.

2400 sq ft is about 5 to 6 pallets of sod, at $180 to 250 per pallet depending grass. Does not include delivery of sod, killing all the existing grass, tilling and prepping the lawn after grass is killed. I could see $2000-2500 to replace the lawn if you did it yourself.

Maybe you want to try controlling the weeds and working on establishing a lush lawn as a cheaper alternative?

Thanks! You guys have me on the right path, just ordered weed killer to spray and will take the next step from there!

Question, should I water the yard during the 3 weeks it will take to kill the weeds?

if it is truly all weeds, all you're going to be doing is watering weeds...

pics would help. Also, with roundup or something similar it doesn't take 3 weeks to kill the weeds. You will see some dying the next day.

Need more details tho

What herbicide did you order? Assuming you have some desirable grass - St Aug, centipede, Bermudagrass or zoysia - mixed in with the weeds, I suggest using methsulfuron methyl (MSM Turf) or Celsius herbicides to spray the entire lawn because not only are they good broad spectrum weed killers they are safe to use on the 4 lawn grasses in this summer heat.

Other good lawn herbicides can potentially kill your good grass at temperatures exceeding high 80s-90s. Follow the label diections and use spreader/sticker (surfactant) in the herbicide solution.

You’ll need to spray again after a few weeks and be aware that younger weeds are more easily controlled than older weeds. Usually the herbicides are “rain fast” after several hours so yes you can water. Do as others suggest by cutting the grass/weeds often so they don’t develop seed heads but don’t scalp the good grass.

After you see some significant death of the weeds, I’d fertilize the good grass with lawn fertilizer, but not weed & feed, to stimulate growth of the lawn grass.

In fall (Sept/Oct), I’d apply a granular pre-emergent herbicide, for example, Dimension, and re-apply it in the spring (late Feb/March). Pre-emergent herbicides are a game changer in suppressing annual weeds in problem lawns.

Certain perennial weeds and grassy weeds may require special attention and spot spraying with certain herbicides depending on your lawn grass.

Be patient, but persistent, and you should be able to turn your lawn around.

Can you post some pics of what you are dealing with?

If you have a dog that runs the back yard you probably should research before you do some of the things in the posts here.

LINK

Here’s some pics and a video, thanks for all the advice it’s greatly appreciated and my mood has gone from “OMG what have I done” to “Ok, I think I can do this”, so thank you.

I would begin by pruning lower branches, at least, on trees to allow more sunlight.

I can’t tell what kind of grass you have, need closeups.


I would probably cut one of the trees down if it were me. Most likely end up with the same amount of canopy but a prettier tree. crowded trees tend to hold each other back.