[GCM1988]

Hello Everyone!

This is officially my first post. I am so glad that I found this site and looking forward to some helpful guidance.

Here is some back story to my lawn:
My wife and I moved into our new house roughly two years ago. My house sits on 3 acres that use to be a corn/soy bean field. I maintain roughly about 65,000 sq feet of the property (Mowing twice a week). The rest is left to grow and cut twice a year with the bush hog. When the builder completed the landscape around the house, they hydroseeded the area surrounding the house with a fescue blend.

Over the two years that I've been in the house, I haven't had much success with maintaining the lawn. This is mostly my fault given not being equipped to handle the size of my lawn. Recently, regraded my front yard and had an irrigation system installed (Ready to get serious)

Here are some Pictures





As you can see, the front yard in bare for the most part from the grading and the front/side yard to the left of the driveway is all mostly weeds with some fescue mixed in. This year so far all I have applied to the lawn is Lime and Milo.

So after all of that explantion, here is where I need help. I am leaning towards restarting and plant a zoysia or bermuda lawn since I get so much sunlight.

What do yoy guys think? I am leaning this way (mostly towards zoysia) because of less maintence and water (dont want to stress the well)

When it comes to zoysia, should I look to plant seed or do plugs or both?

Sorry for the long winded post but im excited to get started! Thanks in advance!

 

[Bunnysarefat]

You want to renovate 65,000 sq. feet of lawn and plant another grass on all of it?

 

[GCM1988]

You want to renovate 65,000 sq. feet of lawn and plant another grass on all of it?

Sorry. I should have clarified that. I would like to do pieces at a time. My main focus is the front at this point.

I am very new to this so I am open to any ideas or opinions.

 

[Tellycoleman]

Welcome to TLF
65,000 square feet wowwwwww. Is all that covered by irrigation? Not sure if the water requirements are so much different between zoysia and Bermuda or tall fescue. They all want around 1 inch or water per week.
If you want to seed then I wouldn't look at seeding zoysia. It is very difficult. But sodding 65,000 square feet isn't an option unless you have deep pockets. If you must seed your options will be bermuda or cool season grass. You could sprig that yard with Bermuda but i think that would be a great money expense as well.

One thing I would not do is purchase common Bermuda seed. Just don't goto Lowe's or Home Depot and get bermuda seed. Being in a northern climate I would not get anything other than Riviera or Yukon seed. Lots of options with sod bermuda.
But you have NO TREES!!! I love it
A Cool season lawn maybe a cheaper option for you.
I seeded 22k and it was honestly to much to do at once. I couldn't imagine 3x that much. I would take it in sections like the section you have now without grass.
In the 1st picture you have a large section prepared but you have grass growing in the middle. You need to spray roundup or generic - glyphosate again and kill everything green.
Decide what you want but seeded zoysia is gonna be challenging I wouldn't do it

 

[SCGrassMan]

Welcome! You might want to move this over to cool season grasses as many of us aren't as knowledgeable in this part. I will say that everyone here is super helpful and friendly though.

 

[Movingshrub]

Sprig zoysia is what I am thinking.
Lowest cost method of planting.
More cold weather tolerant than Bermuda.
Can handle the hot weather without constant irrigation.

If you want to cut all the time, sprig lat 36 or Tiftuf. I am unsure how Bermuda does in Virginia's cool season.

If you're going cool season, I assume Kentucky blue grass is in your future.

 

[Ware]

Welcome to TLF. :thumbup:

Let me know if you decide to make this a cool season endeavor and I will move it.

 

[GCM1988]

Welcome to TLF
65,000 square feet wowwwwww. Is all that covered by irrigation? Not sure if the water requirements are so much different between zoysia and Bermuda or tall fescue. They all want around 1 inch or water per week.
If you want to seed then I wouldn't look at seeding zoysia. It is very difficult. But sodding 65,000 square feet isn't an option unless you have deep pockets. If you must seed your options will be bermuda or cool season grass. You could sprig that yard with Bermuda but i think that would be a great money expense as well.

One thing I would not do is purchase common Bermuda seed. Just don't goto Lowe's or Home Depot and get bermuda seed. Being in a northern climate I would not get anything other than Riviera or Yukon seed. Lots of options with sod bermuda.
But you have NO TREES!!! I love it
A Cool season lawn maybe a cheaper option for you.
I seeded 22k and it was honestly to much to do at once. I couldn't imagine 3x that much. I would take it in sections like the section you have now without grass.
In the 1st picture you have a large section prepared but you have grass growing in the middle. You need to spray roundup or generic - glyphosate again and kill everything green.
Decide what you want but seeded zoysia is gonna be challenging I wouldn't do it

Thank you very much for the great information! Virginia is very much a transitional zone. Our summers bring with it hot, humid conditions. The winters can be so difficult to judge. Some winters can be harsh, some can be very mild with little snow.

My irrigation only covers roughly 40,000 sq ft. We have plans to eventually do a patio and build another garage in the back so I'm more worried about establishing the front and side

Since my yard gets a ton of sun light, I believe that I have the capacity to grow a Bermuda or zoysia grass. There is a sod farm not far from me that grows zenith zoysia and has plugs available. I am willing to be patient on this project so that's another reason why plugs seems like a good option

 

[Ecks from Tex]

Dude with 65K sq feet of lawn you should just start a sod farm hot damn dude that is a big a$s yard :lol:

You're gonna want a turf that does well getting mowed with your zero turn because there's no way in hell you are going to do a walk behind.

I guess my question would be what do most in your community have for turf? Kentucky Bluegrass is my guess because it's probably most likely to survive there. I think you're on the right path with either zoysia or KBG, but I would lean towards kbg if I had to take a wild *** guess. It will do very well getting mowed tall with a zero turn.

I do not think Bermuda is an option for you but might be something to look into.

Whatever you do either seed or sprig but most likely seed, which means you should go with kbg.