Question
I live in Providence, Ri and will be replacing my lawn in a few weeks. I have a couple of questions:
1.) What type of grass would you recommend for my area? My lawn gets a good deal of sun (it really gets baked during the summer) and has been neglected by the previous owner.
2.) I've seen numerous methods on the internet for destroying and replacing an existing lawn, and am not sure about the best approach for my lawn. The various recommended ways seem to be:
a.)Use a sodcutter to remove the old lawn, prepare the soil and plant.
b.)Use Roundup before using the sodcutter.
c.)Use Roundup and then rototill the dead/weeds grass.
d.)Cut the lawn extremely short, use Roundup and then just plant on top.

   Which of these would you say is best? My lawn is 60-70% weeds right now.

    Thank you for your help

Answer
If you have 60-70% weeds, then I would do a total renovation.

You can either kill the existing vegetation with Round-up, then loosen soil or sow grass seeds.

You can also just till the existing vegetation under without using Round-Up. I would probably use round-up, first, however.

To ensure good germination, you need to ensure good soil/seed contact, and to provide good turf growth, the roots should be able to grow deep. This is why I recommend loosening the soil before planting. Planting on top of a hard surface goes not give good results.

As minium loosen the top 1-1.5" of soil with a rake, but since you are at it, I recommend roto tilling the soil to a dept of 8-10". You can rent roto tillers at equipment rental stores.

After tilling, rake the soil smooth. You get best result by watering heavily (or waiting for a good long day of rain). This will then settle the soil. After a few days you can rake smooth and even out any depressions. For optimum result, repeat this cycle another 1-2 times. The more watering, raking, and waiting you do, the better level lawn you get and the nicer the lawn will be.

You can start soil preparation now. Then sow seeds towards the end of august.

Before seeding, rake the top 1-1.5" loose and apply 4-6 lbs of grass seeds per 1000 sq feet. I recommend a good mixture of kentucky bluegrass and perennial ryegrass for your area. Read lables. Try to use named cultivars (such as "Kentucky Bluegrass, variety Midnight", as opposed to "Kentucky bluegrass, NOS" or "various". Avoid bags with more than 0.1% weed seeds, and bags which contain annual ryegrass (you want Kentucky Bluegrass and Perennial Ryegrass). Sake good order: Do not confuse Kentucky31 (or K31) with Kentucky Bluegras. These are not kentucky bluegrass but the name of a tall fescue cultivar by that name. This is a wide leaved, rough grass. Avoid Kentucky31 (K31) tall fescue.

Once you have applied grass seeds uniformly, ensure good soil/seed contact by using back of rake to stamp the seeds into the lawn. Then water gently to moisten the top layers of soil and the seeds thoroughly. If you have lots of hot sun baking the lawn, then you should also consider buying a few bales of hay (without seeds) and spreading them lightly over the lawn to minimize evaporation (about 1 bale per 1000 sq feet).

Then water twice daily (morning, afternoon) to ensure that the seedbed is always kept moist (if allowed to dry out, the seeds die). Once the seeds sprout (germinate) you can gradually change from a frequent and shallow watering pattern (used to keep seedbed moist at all times) to an infrequent and deep watering pattern. E.g. over a period of 3-4 weeks, change from watering twice daily for 15 minutes to watering once per week for 1-2 hours. Deep infrequent soakings are preferred for an established lawn.

Fertilize at time of doing soil preferation, and then again 3-4 weeks after new grass is up. Next year, fertilize in late may, early september and late october. Do not fertilize in hot summer months.

Good luck