u/ministerman

Should say IS NOW WORSE. North Alabama Bermuda yard here again. My already struggling yard may or may not be better now. I had my yard crew come out to do core aeration so I can hopefully seed and top dress with something. The pics have some before and after.

Due to the very heavy red clay - aeration is always hit or miss. I asked for a double pass because my yard has become very compacted.

Since I don’t keep my Bermuda real short, I’m thinking about throwing some fescue seed down behind the above flower beds. It’s mostly shade all day long. I can’t afford to put down zoysia sod. So it’s either live with a muddy yard that is eroding down the slope behind the fence or put some fescue down.

I know it’s not ideal - but no one has given me any real solid, decent ideas. I thought about mulch - but it’s a decent size area and I don’t want to remulch that much every year. It’ll get expensive.

I thought about throwing down some more Bermuda seed in the non shady areas as well to maybe thicken some things up but in reality - since the sun sets behind the house, the bulk of my backyard doesn’t get any more than four to five hours of direct sunlight.

If you have any thoughts let me know.

I live in North AL with the dreaded red clay yard. As you can tell by the pictures, I have a yard problem. Just 3 years ago, this back yard had thick bermuda grass. Over the past 3 years, it's gradually thinned out.

I would blame the shade, but if you look at the first couple of pictures - you can neighbors have trees with bermuda under it.

My yard is driving me crazy. I've gotten quotes to just turn the back half into a flower bed with mulch, but the thought of having to re-mulch every year makes me shudder. I don't want to pay for sod if it's just going to do this again.

I'm at my wit's end trying to figure this out. The only thing I can get anyone to say is "Well, you have a lot of shade."

I just want someone to give me practical advice on how to fix this. The second half of the pics is during a rainstorm, to show you where some water is sitting. It does drain, but just not while it's raining.

You can see how behind the fence it's eroding, but the neighbors don't have that problem.

Please help me. I really have had 4 different people/companies come and just say "Well, you got some shade. I'd just mulch it and be done with it." Only one of those companies suggested tilling, topsoil, and sod, and they wanted $5000...but if there's a deeper problem, or if shade really is the problem, I don't want to have to go through this again in 2-3 years.

HELP ME PLEASE!! I'm looking for suggestions!!!

I live in North AL with the dreaded red clay yard. As you can tell by the pictures, I have a yard problem. Just 3 years ago, this back yard had thick bermuda grass. Over the past 3 years, it's gradually thinned out.

I would blame the shade, but if you look at the first couple of pictures - you can neighbors have trees with bermuda under it.

My yard is driving me crazy. I've gotten quotes to just turn the back half into a flower bed with mulch, but the thought of having to re-mulch every year makes me shudder. I don't want to pay for sod if it's just going to do this again.

I'm at my wit's end trying to figure this out. The only thing I can get anyone to say is "Well, you have a lot of shade."

I just want someone to give me practical advice on how to fix this. The second half of the pics is during a rainstorm, to show you where some water is sitting. It does drain, but just not while it's raining.

You can see how behind the fence it's eroding, but the neighbors don't have that problem.

Please help me. I really have had 4 different people/companies come and just say "Well, you got some shade. I'd just mulch it and be done with it." Only one of those companies suggested tilling, topsoil, and sod, and they wanted $5000...but if there's a deeper problem, or if shade really is the problem, I don't want to have to go through this again in 2-3 years.

HELP ME PLEASE!!

Based upon the way it's pouring over the outside, it makes me think it's a clog. If it were detached or if the drip edge were messed up, it would be running behind the gutter, right?

The actual downspout is about 10-12 feet to the left of this. What you see here is the end of the run.

Just trying to prepare myself for what I need to do to remedy this. I'm not really near any trees, so I don't think it should be clogged, and if it is clogged, I can't see it being this bad.

The downspout seems to be working. It is a buried downspout that drains about 40 feet away into a pond, but I checked it not too long ago and it was clear.