Grass - the stuff you walk on! Lawn issues.
 

I live in North Carolina in a neighborhood that used to be a pasture. There's no shade at all. We have temps in the 90s all summer, with high humidity.

The house is two years old. The lawn...well...

The lawn is sod, fescue I assume, that was rolled out as cheaply as possible by the builder. The ground underneath is red clay, which was scratched with a rake before the turf was rolled out. There's no underlayment, and last years drought (illegal to water it) didn't help. We're getting enough rain this summer, but the all-day sun isn't helping.

What I have is a bit of grass growing amidst a shitload of thatch from the grass that died. Since the dead grass was part of the sod, it doesn't want to rake up. There are bald patches that I can't get grass to grow in.

When I seed, it doesn't germinate, probably because it doesn't ever hit dirt. The weeds seem to be doing nicely, probably because they all have nice, long taproots. I have to go out and pull them up every week or so.

Advice? I don't have any money budgeted for major grass replacement. I've got to try to make the existing grass be more viable.

Scott's Turf-Builder III. Follow instructions and liberally apply it. Kills weeds, helps grass.

Sharpen your mower blade. Don't cut it too short, it shocks the grass. Don't let it seed, it drains the plant.

Water (if legal) only when absolutely needed. Let it get a little yellow in August. You will be creating drought-resistant plants. I never water.

I must have missed Scot's Turf-Builder I and II. Can I get them on DVD? :-P

I'll give anything a try at this point. I filled in the bald patches with potting soil and seeded them last year. Got some to come up, but not much.

before a big rain apply a thin coat of gypsum. it's cheap and it will help break down the clay soil below. every once in a while use a product called water-in or use some liquid soap in a hose sprayer diluted with water and that will help with water penetration issues. when it does rain the water is probably just sheeting off the hard clay soil.

why don't you plant a tree or two to get some shade on your lawn?

Tried that. Had to get a power auger last summer to get down just 12 inches in the hard baked clay. Planted a dogwood sapling and it lasted through the drought, last winter's ice storms, bloomed this spring, then died for no good reason as far as I can tell.

I'm going to pull it up and replace it with something hardier this fall.

Get a Stirrup Hoe. It has a stirrup shaped blade that roots up grass when you 'rake' with it. It works great (I had to use one for three hours today at a nursery). After you get all the big clumps/dead stuff up, you can spread a couple inches of composted manure over your yard (composted manure looks like dirt and doesn't smell) and reseed.

Then use Scotts Turf Builder.

Plant a couple trees (tough ones like maples). They should do fine in the clay as long as you stake them out and water them enough until they can establish roots.

I don't think it is worth you while to mess with the clay. It will just bog you

Make sure that you put on at least 10lbs of gypsum for every 200 sq ft of lawn. Also, periodically apply thin layers of organic mater and rake it into the lawn. Also, check the ph and adjust accordingly and old pasture land tends to sometimes be zinc deficient.

I'm saving the organic compost and re-seed for fall, but the Turfbuilder Plus 2 and pelletized lime is on the ground. 24 hours later, I water, and hope.

Why the lime? Is your ph to acidic?

Might look at getting a ph test of your soil's acidity.
if it's acidic add some lime.

I think that you answered your own question. You do not have good soil. You need to improve/increase the amount of organic matter that is on top of that clay. All the chemicals/fertilizers in the world want help what isn't there. I would invest in some quality organic matter to topcoat the soil and reseed this fall. Good luck!!

Ah - you're in that "transition zone" - too hot for cool-season grass and too cool for warm-season grasses.

90 degrees is too hot for fescue (especially with no shade). But, then again, fescue doesn't produce thatch. So - it's probably not fescue. Does it turn brown in the winter? If so, it's probably bermuda.

My advice would be to go to Home Depot and buy a couple of de-thatching attachments for your mower and use them - just getting rid of the thatch might improve things. If not - I'd Roundup the whole yard; wait a week; and then till it all up - add some sand and organic matter if you can (I know you said money was an issue), and seed the lawn with common bermuda (it's probably the cheapest seed you'll find). Clay soil usually means acidic, so, like someone else recommended, add some lime. If you get anything other than very mild winters, the bermuda will go dormant during the winter, but will come back in the spring. And bermuda loves heat and sun. Make sure to fertilize at least twice during the growing season. If you want, you can overseed in the winter with either tall fescue or ryegrass, if you want a green lawn year-round.

Also, if you can afford it - while the soil is all tilled would be a great time to install an automatic sprinkler system - it will save you money in the long run (because of its efficiency) and a helluva lot of work in the years to come.

Good luck.

Get rid of your lawn and plant something else... there are tons of other ground covers, shrubs, flowers, etc. that will grow nicely in your area...

Talking about lush grass is fine and dandy

OK here's the drastic answer. I had a new house several years ago with many of the same issues, tried and tried for three years to get the crap put down by the builder to grow and even with reseeding, putting up all kinds of other methods tried below still not what I wanted.

I finally did this (and you'd better have a couple weekends and the patience and back to complete). Kill everything in the lawn with a general purpose weed/grass killer, everything. Wait the week or two to let it all turn brown then rake out as much crap as you can. Take a soil sample to the local extention office and they'll do a soil sample for under $10. Follow their advice and put lime (probably since you have clay) and some low dose (10-10-10) or similiar fertilizer down. Then get a tiller and till it all in 6-inches deep. Rake out and level, put your seed down and keep it damp. My neighbors admitted chuckling through their windows in the process but what came up was the thickest crap you could ever imagine. Not a weed or bit of crabgrass and it's been that way for years.

But again, it's a hell of a lot of work.