Need to fix this lawn

Hi everyone

This is my first posting and I was looking for a bunch of help. This is the lawn at my dad's house and he was recently screwed over by his landscaping guys and now refuse to show up and do the work. I won't go into details but sufficient to say I am going to using mine and a bunch of my little cousin/friends to help finish this lawn.

As you can tell this lawn is in rough shape and I only have 30 days to get it in place for a wedding. I am asking the following:

1. What should I use to remove the weeds that won't kill the plants
2. What should I use to make the grass grow back
3. Should I use mulch around the plants that are healthy?
4. Is the lawn too far gone for the time and I should just drop the cash for new grass?

O.M.G. what a disaster for your dad, I'm so sorry, sometimes you wonder how these guy's can sleep at night !!!!!.
I think with the short period of time you have left AND an important Wedding due to take place, My brain is saying you either prep the soil by hiring tools to help, (there are mechanical tools that strip
the excuse for a lawn and about 2 inch of soil. then lay top soil and rake it level, use a large plank of wood to level the soil, run the wood on it's side and by 2 people lightly dragging the wood back and forwards, you level off the soil, then tramp the soil firm, then do a final drag with the wood, stop ever foot and look see any dips, fill these in level using some soil.
Scatter the recomended dose of lawn feed and gently rake this in, lay turf starting at one end and waork across to the other, make any joints Brick fashion so they are NOT in the same place, work each row of turf by standing on a plank of wood so your weight is spread, by standing on the new laid turf, you will move it, this will cause gaps,
After laying the turf, you must give a good watering, when you believe you have watered enough, think again, you have NOT.
You may have to water every day depending on your climate, temp day time and evening temp, new lawns die within a week when NOT watered enough, you need to make sure by watering, it helps the roots to bed down into the soil below you prepared well.


Please dont think you can feed a new lawn and it will be like a green lush tennis court for the wedding, it will be killed off as the feeding too soon will burn the roots and anyway, you have already added enough feed to the top soil before you laid the turf.

Only after several weeks should you mow the lawn with the cutting blades high, dont scalp the top growth or you will end up with an area you have shown in your pictures.

Other solutions is, Hire artificial green grass, have to admit, there is no way it looks like a real lawn,
Throw down Black woven fabric and add 2-3 inches of small gravel that the colour matches the walls of the house etc.

Or black woven cloth and wood chip, not nice for wedding pictures.

Hire some staging that looks like wood decking and have experts lay it, they will return to lift this decking.

Sorry but think these are the best quick fix right now.
No matter what, make sure your Dad enjoys this wedding and afterwards assure him no one noticed there was a disaster.
Have a great day and hope everything works out fine.
Kindest regards.
WeeNel.

Ditto:

You are not going to get grass seed to look great in one month.
a) New sod. Do not walk on it for 2.5-3 weeks. Then mow it once, maybe twice before the wedding. But not the day before- give it a couple of days to recover. Let it be dry on the day you mow so you do not dig holes into the lawn. Then let it dry for at least a day, maybe 2 before the wedding. Even if the wedding kills it- better than having ladies in heels sinking into it.
b) Synthetic lawn.

Weeds:
You could take a 2-part approach to weeds in a non-lawn location:
Step a) Spray. This will kill a lot of the weeds, and weaken the others.
Step b) A week later pull. Do as thorough a job as you can, and make sure the people doing it know they MUST get the roots out- or else they weeds will regrow just in time for the wedding.

Mulch: Any mulch is going to look nice for a few weeks (long enough for the wedding) so get whatever you want, just plenty of it. Concept: The bride is supposed to be prettier than the garden, so go with SUBTLE colors, natural. NOT artificially dyed materials. Smaller particle sizes looks more elegant.

After weeding (only a week or so til the wedding): any more holes in the garden (missing plants, bare area on the patio) go buy whatever!!! you see with some flowers or nice colored leaves and either plant it, or set it in the hole. Or talk with the florist about adding something.