Gardening practices have come to place high value on the turf grass lawn, for some reason.  Despite the fact that grass lawns are high maintenance and often, despite considerable expense and effort, yield less than satisfactory results, they are the norm for most areas.

Many times, circumstances arise that result in the gardener feeling the need to overhaul the lawn.  Drought, disease, lack of attention, or other things may result in such a need.  When this occurs, there are certain steps that will help change a lawn from bad to good.

Deciding what you want
The first step is to decide what you want.  Most lawns are made up of turf grasses, but this need not be the only option.  Some other solutions may include things like clover or ivy instead of grass.  However, this is not the typical choice and details of creating lawns of these types must be sought elsewhere.

If the goal is to have a turf lawn, the choice is narrowed to some degree, but not to the point that there are no decision left to be made.  The fact that you need to overhaul you lawn may suggest that what you had in the first place was not appropriate for some reason.  There are many different turf solutions for each climatic region.  These different turf types have different properties such as need for sun v. shade, tolerance of heat, need for water, and hardiness under traffic.

One way to decide on a type of grass is to find something you like and find out what it is.  Talk a walk one summer afternoon and listen for the sprinklers.  Take a look at that lawn.  If the lawn shares similar shadiness with your lawn and you like what you see, ask the owner what kind of grass it is.  This may work best if you notice certain care and intention in the other garden elements.  It is possible that a person may have no special knowledge about lawn care, but water religiously because everybody else does.  Consultation with a reputable lawn service company may also offer some ideas about appropriateness of particular grasses for your region.

One large seed company, Pennington, hosts a product oriented web site with much information about seeds and areas where they are appropriate.  While they would prefer you buy their seed, other brands of the same type would work equally well.  (Make sure that you are looking at the same type and variety.)  To visit their site, click here. You will note that they use as zone map different from the USDA plant hardiness zones.

It is important to mention that some lawn will require the use of more than one type grass.  If a yard has some areas that are all sun and others that are all shade, it is unlikely that a single grass type will produce satisfactory results.  Check to see what grasses are reliable performers for the different degrees of shade in your yard.

Dealing with What is Already There
Before going any further, after you have decided what you want, ultimately, in your lawn, you have to do something about what is already there.  In some cases, the lawn had been acceptable, the type grass was appropriate, but something happened and, now the lawn needs to be overhauled.  If this is the case, it may be advisable to save as much of the desirable grass as possible.

It is likely that many weeds have taken advantage of the situation and the lawn will be better off if something is done about them before further effort takes place.  Here, the decision must be made:  try to keep the grass and kill the weeds, or kill it all and start over.

Depending on what percent of the lawn is desirable grass, you must decide what you are going to do.  If you decide to kill it all and start over, you may wish to do so in many ways.  The chemical solution to this is generally the use of a non-selective herbicide such as Roundup®.  Other non-chemical options are available such as covering the area with large, heavy plastics to kill the grass and weeds.

If you decide to kill only the weeds, you may consider use of a selective herbicide such as Weed-B-Gon®.  You also may dig out the weeds.

If you are planning to use seeds, whatever you do, do not use a product with any type pre-emergent.  The whole purpose of these is to prevent seed from germinating.  Thus, you will not have satisfactory results from your seeding efforts.  If you are planning to use sod, be sure to read and follow label directions regarding any necessary waiting period.

Improving Soil
Another important step in preparing for a new lawn is to take steps to improve the soil.  This can be done in many ways.

Soil pH is an important factor in having a good lawn.  Tests can be done that reveal if changes need to be made.  If pH is too low, lime may be added to raise it.

If soil is overly compacted, water absorption may be reduced.  The option to utilize aeration should be considered.  Aeration opens up the soil and allows water and nutrients to penetrate deeper into the ground.  The less compacted soil also allows roots to develop more easily.

It is possible that soil may be devoid of proper nutrients needed by grass to grow healthy.  Plants need abundant amounts of nitrogen, phosphate, and potassium along with other elements as well.  These can be added by application of commercial fertilizers or organic compost.  Many companies package fertilizers with ratios designed to be "starter" formulas. In the case where you have elected to kill it all, you may consider tilling humus, peat moss, compost, or mulch into soil.

Another factor that you may wish to consider at this time is drainage.  Areas that are troubled by poor drainage may need to be built up or you may wish to install some sort of drainage from that area.

Improving Clay Soil

Dealing with clay requires even more effort.  Depending on the pH of the clay soil, there a few options.  The aim of any treatment to clay is to break it up to improve its moisture retention ability.  If all else is in order, the addition of gypsum is the best method to do this.

However, if you want to both break up the clay and raise the pH, the addition of limestone will help with both these goals.  Another option is to use dolomitic limestone which will additionally add magnesium to the soil.

If you decided to kill the entire lawn, you may want to till sand and organic ammendments in as well.  The tilling process will mechanically break up much of the clay and mix the ammendments into it.

Instant lawn
After deciding on a particular type of grass to grow and preparing the area, you may wish to explore the possibility of laying sod (Instant lawn, almost).  Many varieties of grass are available as sod.  Contact a builder who does business in your area and ask who installs sodded lawns for him.  You may decide to have the entire job done for you.  If not, at least you can learn the name of a reliable sod company in your area, as most builders do not have time to do business with subcontractors who are unreliable.

If you decide to install the sod yourself, you may want to do some of the prep work presented below.  One important rule with all sod installations is this:  green side up.  Besides that, it is really not very complicated.  Make the squares fit as closely together as you can and cover the area.  You will have to cut some of the pieces to fit around other elements in your yard.  Press the sod down firmly without breaking it up or disturbing the root structure.

It will help a great deal if the lawn is relatively smooth and free from rocks, etc. before beginning.  This will reduce the effort needed to get the pieces even and smooth.

After the sod is in place, water thoroughly (about an inch of water).  You will need to water consistently as the roots extend into the soil beneath the sod.

Re-seeding
If you decide not to sod, then re-seeding is your other alternative.  Over a properly prepared bed, seeding can produce outstanding results in about the same about of time it takes the lines between the sod squares to disappear.  However, it will require much more consistent attention.

Timing is the name of the game if you decide to use seed.  Many grasses should be planted in the fall, when the evenings begin to be noticeably cooler, but well before the first frost.  In the middle zones (5, 6, 7, 8) this may be early September.  Grasses that will remain active over the winter months (such as fescue) should be planted at this time.  In the early fall, they will grow quickly and establish roots.  They will continue to grow throughout the winter, although at a very reduced rate.  In the spring, they will once more grow quickly and will be established enough before the heat of summer to survive.

Other grasses that become dormant in the winter (such as bermuda or zoysia) need to be planted in the spring.  About the time established lawns of the same type begin to green up, these grasses may be planted.  They will need the summer and fall growing time to establish roots sufficient to survive the winter.

Once you have selected a type of seed (or types of seeds) appropriate for your lawn, and the right time has come, you may begin seeding.  You do not need to till the soil, but you do need to take steps to make sure the seeds have the highest possible chance of coming in contact with soil as possible.  To do this, first cut the existing grass short.  If you opted to kill everything, cut as short as your mower will go.  If you elected to save some of the grass, cut it about half as high as you normally would.

If you used chemicals to either kill everything or kill just the weeds, read the label regarding how long to wait before re-seeding.  This may be days or even weeks.  If you used a product with a pre-emergent, forget planting seed for the next couple of months.

Seeds may be distributed by numerous methods.  Drop spreaders are good for large areas where uniform distribution is needed.  Broadcast spreaders with seeds will likely result in seeds in places where grass is not wanted such as flower beds and borders.  Sowing of seeds by hand may be the best method if you are filling in bare areas in already established lawns.

After distributing the seeds, you may want to press them down lightly into the soil.  Use of a roller at this stage is one possibility, but for small areas, you may just press them down lightly with your foot.  Make sure the seeds stay on the ground and not your shoe!

Germination
Now it is time to turn on the sprinklers.  You will need to keep the area where you hope to germinate seeds moist for the next few weeks.  The more consistent you can be with this effort, the better the results you will have.  For the first few days, you may have to water as much as three times daily.  The good news is that you are only soaking the surface a small amount.  The key is to water enough that the soil stays moist, but not so much that you wash the seeds away.

Germination time will vary depending on consistency of watering, temperature, and soil conditions.  Within a week, however, many grasses will begin to form visible green blades.  Watering procedures need to continue, but gradually tapering off the frequency while increasing how deep you allow the water to soak.  If you continue to water to a shallow depth frequently, the grass will develop shallow roots incapable of sustaining it under normal conditions.

In a few weeks, your watering procedures should begin to conform to your normal routine.  Watch closely, however, because new grass will not have the capacity to go without water that older, established grass has.  Be prepared to fire up the sprinklers at any time.  Left in dry soil for a couple of hot days, your new grass will wither.  Over the first year, the seedlings will develop their roots, so during that period of time, consistent watering will be necessary.

A lawn at last
After a few months, you will have the makings of a fine lawn.  You will have to deal with the invasion of various weeds and undesirable grasses.  Again, if you opt to use chemicals, make sure you read and follow precautions about newly seeded lawns.  Many will say not to use them until after the second mowing.

Once established, a healthy stand of grass will take care of many weeds on its own.  In fact, healthy turf is the best prevention of weeds available.  With regular mowing and adequate water, turf grass will provide the traditional look most of us have come to associate with, at least in part, a finished lawn and garden.