Question
I rent in San Francisco and have a very small lawn.  I was gone for a month and my friend forgot to water for me.  The grass is now brown.  My landlord has never spent money to have anything done to it.  Is there an inexpensive way that I can get it back to its relatively green state once again?  This is about 12 square feet of grass.  Thanks so much!

Answer
ZERO Precipitation for an entire month -- Baghdad by the Bay has become a virtual desert.

There are two ways to handle this.

One is to Xeriscape.  As a Californian, you are painfully familiar with that term for gardening sans water.  As a short term resident of this address who probably does not pay the water bill or think about these landscaping, you are probably not interested in it.  If you are, I'll elaborate.  But I had to mention it for the record.  Water is becoming increasingly scarce and certain parts of the world have none of it in their future.

The other choice is fairly easy.  You need a shovel or hoe and a rake, plus a way to transport some sod (car with a trunk should do it, must protect w/ plastic -- a sheet of painter's plastic will do the trick).  You can pick this up at Lowe's or Home Depot or another sod location and after preparing the postage stamp site, you can roll out the sod and just add water.

Preparation involves turning the brown grass over, tilling in the dead grass and incorporating it into the soil, removing rocks and debris.  Sprinkle it over with fertilizer -- I prefer a soil conditioner like Aged Manure/Compost or Humus, which you can purchase at a garden center or HD/Lowe's.  Figure 1 bag per 3 to 4 square feet for superlawn status.  DO NOT BUY TOPSOIL.

Rake nice and level.  I cannot emphasize the importance of this part.  Bumpy grass does not level itself.  You want it to be absolutely even.  Flatten it with a board.  Soak with water.

Now for the fun part.  Roll out your new Grass.  If you're up to it, roll it out on a diagonal and trim at the corners.

This will give you an INSTANT fix that's so beautiful your landlord should credit your rent.  You can tell him/her I said so.

Borrow the tools since you have no use for them otherwise, or buy them on Craigslist from someone who just sold their house and is getting rid of their old garage equipment.  Then you can resell when you're done, maybe even make a little profit.

Good thing it was not your house.

Sound good?