Two comments, don't bother with tilling. It is a waste of time and will leave your yard even more uneven. Use a tractor and box blade and regrade the area. Once that is done you are ready to plant or lay sod.

There is no such thing to my knowledge of common Bermuda Sod for sale to the general public. There are a couple of sod farms around that grow Princess aka P-77 for commercial properties like football stadiums, but there is simply no money in it for a sod farmer to grow common Bermuda when you can buy the seed for a small fraction of the price. So if you are going with common you cannot plant it until May or Early June.

Thanks for the response, TW.

I wish I could get a tractor back there, but the gates on the fence would let a riding lawn mower through, at best. I don't think I have much alternative to tilling, unfortunately.

Well, I definitely don't want to seed, so it looks like celebration bermuda it will be for me. So, will the "wild" bermuda overtake the celebration or is it not something to worry about?

You will have to wait until the Bermuda is growing in your area. Fertilize to really get it going. Following week hit it with Round Up. Give it a few days then start watering. The next week hit it again with Round Up. And repeat once more. The wild stuff will pop up from time to time. Just hit it with RU.

I have celebration bermuda in my front yard and love it.
It survived last years drought just fine on minimal watering.
I am out between oakhill and dripping springs. Very shallow soil.
I did till my yard with adding Geo growers double thunder but still fighting a bumpy yard.
I laid some out on untilled portions of the yard too and that grass rooted in just fine also.

It grows low to the ground and spreads out real well. I don't recall seeing any seed heads like the common bermuda so that is a big plus also.

I installed my celebration turf last year also. Although the majority of the yard was weeds, there were a few spots that had my neighbors common bermuda creeping in. As of the fall(approximately 7 months after installation) the common had apparently been overtaken. Then again, it could just be blended in. I do occasionally see the common creep through the celebration, as the common grows faster vertically than my celebration. Hope that helps. Individual results may vary.

It sounds like the experiences of those of you that have it have been positive. That certainly is reassuring.

Sounds like overall the Celebration has more vigorous lateral growth than common, so I guess I can see how it would crown out any invading common.

Do either of you have any shady areas that you tried it in? That's my only other concern, if it really can handle some shade.

It can take a little bit of shade. Probably more than common. There is a spot under oak trees in my yard where St. Augustine thrived but the celebration has completely died from lack of sun. other than than spot it really looks good.

I have no experience to base this comment, but from trade magazines Celebration has equal or better shade tolerance than Tiff-Grand. Both have been tested at 50% shade with fair results.

On a lighter note Tiff-Grand is an American product, while Celebration is a Aussie Down Under product. I say buy USA.

TW,
I understand where you are going on your comment but here is another way to look at it. My celebration comes from a grass farm near Houston Texas. It is harvested by people living in the USA and sold by people in the USA. It does have genetics in Australia from Rod Riley but how far back nobody knows.

Just like buying a car. I have a honda pilot. Yes a foreign company in Japan. But my pilot was made in Lincoln, Alabama.

TW,
I love your knowledge here and read the bermuda bible constantly to make sure I am on schedule.

Let me guess Murf Farms or All Season?

Man your good... Murf Farms
I could not append this to my earlier comment so I saved this until now:
After researching Tiff-Grand online. 190.00/pallet
naturally dark green blade
developed By Dr. Wayne Hanna and Dr. Kris Braman
and the University of Georgia's world renowned turfgrass breeding program

Celebration can tolerate 30-40% shade vs 10-15% of other bermudas. Tifd Grand claims to thrive in 60-70% continuous shade

I think I paid 95.00/pallet for my celebration.
blue-green blade
=============================
kinda an expensive test to see if it grows in my shady areas. I think I'll take the cheaper route and try something else instead.

Man your good... Murf Farms

Well it comes from being a TX Sod Farmer for 35 years. I know just about all the sod farms in TX, and what they offer. In this case it was easy because there are very few farms in TX that offers Celebration. Murf Farms is one of the rare few in TX licensed to grow and sell Celebration.

FWIW take what the promoters of the various varieties with a grain of salt as they tend to exaggerate a bit. Like I said I do not have any experience with either TifGrand or Celebration, but I do get all the trade publications and 3rd party reports and what I see is there is not a lot of difference between the two with respect to shade tolerance. Personally I am not sure a shade tolerant Bermuda is a good idea. Shade is one of the very few controls for Bermuda.

It's bad enough that bermuda thrives in the sun... it's already a nightmare for gardeners...

Don't believe the Tiff Grand hype. I planted several pallets last year. I think I paid a little over $100 per pallet. It does tolerate shade, slightly better then Tiff II. I don't think it looks as good as Tiff II in full sun, but it's only been a year. We'll see come July, 2012.

I just put in celebration bermuda in my backyard at my home in SE Florida about 4 weeks ago. It was looking fabulous for the first 2 weeks, then about a week ago, it started to turn brown and stop growing. I have a very sandy soil, and have an irrigation system in place. For the first 10 days, I irrigated every day for about 45 minutes the entire lawn. Then I cut it back to every other day for about 60 minutes. About a week ago, I cut it back to 75 minutes 3 times per week. I cut it with a reel mower for the first time around day 10 at about 2 - 2.5", then after a few days I lowered the mower down, I think I got down to about 1.5 inches, maybe slightly less, then all of a sudden it went from a beautiful deep green to patchy brown. I wondering if I over watered it, under watered it, or scalped it or if it's a lack of direct sun, since I do have significant shade. What I can do to salvage it?