[Rab1s]

Hey guys. Me and my wife bought our first home in st Pete Fl last year. I haven't had the chance to take to the yard yet as money is tight with two kids and whatnot. Any way

My yard is over turned with sandspurs and pebles. I know the soil is trash too which is causing the sandspurs. I have a large 1500sq ft+ corner lot yard.

What do I need to do? I'm my head the only thing I can think is to dig out my whole lawn and put new better dirt down then seed. The other thing I was thinking was pour some good soil around my yard,rent a toll from homedepot and till up the ground pebles and all. As I said before I have little to no budget, but lots of willing friends. Any/all help would be greatly appreciated.

 

[daganh62]

I would dig down a foot or so and see how the soil looks below the pebbles. If it's good I would till it, seed it and come back later and top dress it. That will help with the cost since you can spread out your cost over time. If id's all pebbles you may need to dig it out and fill it. I would recommend Bermuda side its cheap, hard to kill, and grows in bad soil.

 

[Colonel K0rn]

Welcome to TLF, glad to have you here! :thumbup:

Let's see what kind of soil profile you have, by taking a garden spade, and doing like @daganh62 suggested. Let's see what you're working with. Sandspurs and other weeds are pretty easy to dispatch for not much out of pocket costs, but they're growing because there's not much turf.

If you've taken a look at my reno thread, you'll see that bermuda will pretty much grow anywhere, and the costs to start from seed are minimal, but it requires a lot of time investment. TBH, sod isn't that much, roughly $0.75-$1.50 ft², and you can go with St.Aug or Bermuda. Nice thing about sod is that you kill off everything, smooth the surface, roll out the sod and then pretty much say "Boom" instant lawn.

 

[SCGrassMan]

$2000 in sod, in my opinion as a non realtor, would easily add 2k or more to the value of your home. but you may as well do irrigation while you're at it! So 4-5k for an instant yard.

 

[Rab1s]

While I would love to throw down sod and irrigation, I don't have the funds for that. And I won't have the funds for that for a while. I'm looking for a way to make it nicer on a budget even if it takes more work

 

[SCGrassMan]

In that case, you could probably buy the sod yourself. I want to say, and this is a huge range, it's 125-250 a pallet? And you get 450 sq ft per pallet.

I mean you could go the whole seed route, but personally I never have much luck with that.

As far as the dirt that's there, you could send it in and have it tested for about $16. It may be perfectly fine and you could just level it out and slap sod or seed down with some starter fertilizer.

 

[Topcat]

Welcome to the forum! Being budget minded, as long as you have a green thumb, I'd go out buy some seed and throw it down. Bermuda seed from the big box stores is cheap - you can get enough for 1500 sq ft for less than 50 bucks. Some things to consider when establishing a lawn from seed will include how much can you spend on the other things you need to have a full and weed free lawn. How much time can you spend tending to it. If you seed, the seed will need water several times a day to stay moist until it germinates. Since you do not have irrigation, that will mean dragging hoses, and turning the water on and off several times per day - when the sun is at it's peak.

Herbicides, Fertilizers, and increased water bill will be the extra costs that might be over looked. Add that to the budget you'd set aside for a lawn renovation. The nice thing about doing it with seed is that you can spread the cost over time since you will not have to buy all that stuff at once....

The last thing I'd offer is do a search for lawn renovation here. There are a LOT of folks that have gone down the path you are considering and they've documented their challenges that you can learn from. Don't get discouraged - since you are here, it tells me that you have a real interest in improving the look of your lawn and home.

 

[Alan]

What do your neighbors have growing in their lawn? How does their grass look? How much sunlight does your lawn get? There are a lot of factors to consider before leaping on the Bermuda bandwagon. Recon the area.

 

[FATC1TY]

Do some recon of the neighbor, I agree.

On a budget doesn't give all the choices so let's see what can grow with this soil, and move from there.

 

[raldridge2315]

Back in the seventies, I had just gotten out of the Navy, was married with a baby in the house, and I was going to school at night while working during the day. Money and time was tight. We bought a new small house on a VA loan. The yard was dirt and weeds. I bought a couple of yards of Bermuda and broke it up into small pieces almost like sprigs (today we call them plugs) and planted them about a foot apart. When they grew in, I dug some of it up and did it again. It took me two seasons to fill the front yard, but my initial cash outlay was only a couple of dollars for that first sod. It takes patience and an understanding wife who helped with watering, but it can be done with very little cash, It takes time though. I hand pulled more weeds that can be counted.