Lawn Renovation: BURN IT DOWN!!!

Okay. I hate my lawn. It's official.
Aside from the fact that I have to mow it, it's patchy, weedy, and overall inconsistant. I have "jungle" areas that grow at rediculous rates, near-dead areas that have only a few grass plants, and areas that are practically solid weeds...

This means WAR!

When faced with a problem lawn like this, I feel that I am left with only one option: BURN IT DOWN!!! MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!! MWA HA HA HA!!!

Er... Sorry about that...

Lawn Renovation part 1: The Burn-Down
In agriculture a burn-down doesn't involve literally igniting anything, rather the use of a broad spectrum non-persistant herbacide, such as Round-Up, to kill all existing plants in preperation for planting. This prevents weeds and non-desirable grasses from outcompeting the desired plants.
All Round-Up that is not absorbed by plants rapidly breaks down into harmless materials, allowing the "burnt" area to be reseeded in as few as three days. Since the existing plants are dead they don't compete for sun and soil nutrients, allowing the new planting to thrive.
I am currently burning down two areas of my lawn, which are pictured below. Next weekend I plan on replanting them...



Part 2: Soil enrichment
I have a strong suspicion that my soil has inconsistant nutrient levels. This is solved by applying fertilizer. Using a handheld broadcast spreader I generously applied triple-12 fertilizer to both of the burn-down areas, and hopefully with the rain predicted over the next few days it'll be thuroughly absorbed into the soil by the time I have seed ready.
Normally fertilizers like this can "burn" plants, due to their high nitrogen content, but considering that I'd already applied Round-Up to the grass I doubt if this is a serious concern...



Part 3: Re-Plant
This will be covered in the next post...




Replanting Area 1: The "pool"
The previous owner of the property had a swimming pool on this portion of my lawn. The grass is very spotty, and my attempted re-planting last year failed miserably. I have higher hopes this year...







Replanting Area 2: The Back Yard
This is one of the poorest areas on my lawn. And yes, it's worse than it appears in this picture. Weeds dominate this patch, and the grasses are scraggly and short. The short part doesn't bother me, but the weeds do...

These are only the first two portions of my lawn that I plan on replacing. Eventually I'd like all of my lawn that I don't plan on putting into production (gardening and home-farming) to be Kentucky Bluegrass, but I plan on doing this peace-meal. These two plots are the experiment, and more likely than not all I'll actually replant this year. I may change my mind, but I have other projects that to me take precedence...

That's all for now. More will be posted over the next week.