What is the best approach to fix a really bad, weedy lawn here in northern VA? The lawn has clover weeds and all sorts of weeds. Everything but grass is sprouting from the dirt. I just want to restore it to a respectable decent lawn. Not trying to build a golf course here. Any tips or advice is appreciated.

All the lawn service lawns in my neighborhood look fine but all the rest look like hell. Never seen it this bad before.

Your PH is probably off. Add some lime.

As above, test for ph and adjust as needed. Right now, aerate, get some crabgrass preventative on. In two weeks overseed and keep wet. Scotts Turb Builder after that. You'll be the best in the neighborhood by summer.

Water.

Lots of water.

And that literally is not kidding - it will do wonders.

Have you tried fire?

Mr. Green Wrote:
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> As above, test for ph and adjust as needed. Right
> now, aerate, get some crabgrass preventative on.
> In two weeks overseed and keep wet. Scotts Turb
> Builder after that. You'll be the best in the
> neighborhood by summer.


Thank you. Can I just guess-timate on the PH and just spread lime ? Is it better to not lime at all if you dont do it 100% accurately?

OP -- i'm in the same boat as you. they have pH test kits at lowe's for about 10 bucks. just ask somebody in the garden center.

Mr. Green Wrote:
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> As above, test for ph and adjust as needed. Right
> now, aerate, get some crabgrass preventative on.
> In two weeks overseed and keep wet. Scotts Turb
> Builder after that. You'll be the best in the
> neighborhood by summer.

These instructions are good but if you add crabgrass preventative don't bother overseeding as the crabgrass preventative will prevent your grass seed from growing. It will say so on the bag.

Guessing is a bad idea and will cost you more in the long run. Start with quality products at the right time and your lawn will look great. My suggestion is to go to Betty's Azalea Ranch and talk to Steve. They have an easy-to-follow lawncare sheet that works fire me every year. I spend less than $200 on products and my lawn looks better than any if my neighbors who spend twice that with "professionals".

As Lawnboy says, don't guess. Figure out what's causing the problem. THEN address it.

Two other thoughts:

If the lawn's in really poor shape, sometimes the best thing to do is just to plow it under and begin from scratch.

Or, if the lawn is in a generally sunny area (not shady), consider Zoysia. It'll grow in thick, crowd out most weeds, and look good. Also, it's comparatively slow growing, so it'll need to be mowed less often. And it does great with very little water, so you don't have to water it as much in the summer. Some people don't like the straw-look when it goes dormant from fall to spring. (You can drive around some neighborhoods, especially older ones, and see the yellow-brown lawns.) Frankly, that doesn't bother me, or a lot of people. And, as a last resort, you can always dye it in the fall.

One other thing: I've had terrible experiences with lawn services. They come out and spray the stuff on, and it never seems to do anything. And as for their promise to come back and spray weeds if they don't die the first time, I tried that once. The company came out. Two weeks later the weeds were still there. I called again. They said it was too soon. I called a week later and they scheduled another appointment. I guess they sprayed, but the weeds still didn't die. I called them 3 weeks later and they wouldn't come out because they'd recently applied another (scheduled) treatment. And so it went all summer.

Hope that helps.

scotts.com

A lot of lawns got trashed last fall when we got umpteen inches of rain in September. Remember that? Roads washed out, schools closed, etc. You can fix it, but it ain't cheap. Even if you do it yourself.

For just a basic average lawn, rake the area to be seeded thoroughly, buy seed at Home Depot/Lowes and spread it thoroughly. WATER IT DAILY! Of course, if it rains, watering is taken care of. Ideally, you wanted to seed in the Fall, but now works as well, do it again this coming Fall, it makes a HUGE difference.

Scott's has a variety of lawn treatment products. Fertilizer, Halts (some kind of weeds preventer), etc. Had good results with them. Not thrilled with the seed products they sell though. I got Pennington's seed last fall after the Sept flood literally took out my entire back yard lawn. It's coming in quite nicely now and we've mowed a couple times already. Though the seed and fertilizer weren't cheap.

I don't have a 'golf course' lawn by any stretch, but it is serviceable for a wiffle ball game or playing fetch with the dog, etc. I have no idea what a company would charge you, but after I watched one of the various lawn service companies spread fertilizer on a lawn and realized they skipped over half the yard I chose to avoid them. I can push a spreader for a half hour or so to spread seed/fertilizer, etc. for a whole lot less cash.

To really, really fix the lawn?

(A) Hire a landscaping company to redo the surface and lay sod.

(B) Do-it-yourself renovation

1) Get soil tested. This will tell you what amendments you need (calcitic lime, phosphorus, etc.). You will need this info for later steps.

2) In July fertilize your lawn. Mow short, then water every day for a week or so. Your goal is get all of the weed seeds to sprout.

3) Spray lawn with RoundUp to kill everything. Two days later (before plants have started to wilt), scalp lawn down to one inch.

You can repeat steps 2 and 3 if you wish. This is called fallowing and your goal is to get rid of the weed seed stock. Your lawn will look like crap and your neighbors will hate you at this stage.

4) Buy high quality seed suited for this region. Do NOT go to Home Depot or Lowes, as their seed is crap. The National Turfgrass Evaluation Program (http://www.ntep.org/) will list the top fescues and bluegrasses based on their College Park and Blacksburg testing sites. VA and MD also team up to recommend turf grass cultivars. The high quality stuff can be bought from local specialists or through mail order.

5) In late August, amend soil based on soil tests. In all likelihood some of this will need to be done during seeding, but may have to been done at multiple times through the fall.

6) Around the same time, put down your seed. Scratch it in, roll it in, whatever, just make sure you get good soil contact. Aeration is probably a waste of time and money.

6b) Spray the soil with Tenacity. This acts as a preemergent that kills most weeds but leaves turfgrass seedlings unscathed. This is optional, but I wish i did this last year.

7) Get plenty of hoses and sprinklers. You need to water at least twice a day every day for at least 2 weeks, possibly a month. Your goal is to keep the soil moist so that all the seed sprouts.

8) Mow when the grass height is > 3 inches, and keep your blade at 3+ inches.

9) You'll need to fertilize at least 2-3 more times in October through early December.

10) Next spring, do not fertilize. That causes brown patch. Try to put down a preemergent weed control that does not contain fertilizer. I'd do this in mid-March (or even earlier this year). You should not need to fertilize again until late August, but if you want, you could put down some organics (e.g. Milorganite) in Mid-May.

Soil Tests:

http://www.fairfaxcounty.gov/nvswcd/newsletter/soiltest.htm
http://www.soiltest.vt.edu/Files/testing-process-and-fees.html
http://www.loganlabs.com/

Good Lawn site (including some local lawns):

www.bestlawn.info

What are you...fucking blind, mang? Look around you...this is the 703, holmes. Go down to the 7-11, hire some illegals and 2 hours later your lawn is green again.

Shit, all we gotta' do is LOOK at grass and it grows, ese...

Juniper Rat said:

> One other thing: I've had terrible experiences with lawn services.


Ugh. I watched my neighbors lawn service come out and aerate and overseed last November. There were so many things wrong with this, I don't know where to start. (1) Seeding in November is pointless. Its too warm to dormant seed, and any seedlings that do come up will get killed, (2) No one walks on their lawn, and the kids are grown up and moved away, so there was no point in aerating, (3) our soil types is sandy, not compact, and drains well. There is no point in aerating (other than making money).

But, these guys come out and spray, overseed, aerate, etc., and their lawn looks mediocre.

Me, well, I got some lab reports, amended my soil with several apps of calcitic lime and Lesco starter fertiizer (way low P, K, and Ca), fed the lawn and soil with Milorganite, and used high quality seed *, and my lawn looks 10 times better. Did I mention that I don't believe in watering?


* http://www.unitedseeds.com/Products/SuperTurf_II_SodGrower.asp

If Carlos Hernandez were here, he'd know what to do. But he's dead, murdered by his "friends"! Poor Carlos... he was one hell of a landscaper, even for a spic!

Maybe you can dig him up and use him for fertilizer. That'll make your grass green again!

Most of my lawn has been taken over by light green patches. In mid-March the same area had small white flowers. Could this possibly be chick weed? Where did this stuff come from? Could this be another gift given to us from Asia?

Scott Wrote:
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> scotts.com


Scott's is crap...your lawn may look good for a few weeks, but it is like a sugar high. The key with fertilizer is using a quality slow-release product that will not burn out the grass. I typically start in the fall with a dose of fertilizer at the end of October and a double dose at the end of November along with a pre-emergent weed preventer. This should give you a healthy, green lawn in the spring. Then, in mid-April I put down a final treatment of fertilizer and weed preventer which works for months. Apart from some clover and errant dandelions I have a lush grass carpet with no weeds.

If I want/need the grass to be greener in the heat of summer I use some Ironite or similar product, but nothing with nitrogen which will only stress the grass when it is trying to rest.

While the the products at Merrifield or Betty's seem expensive, you will use less in the long run and the advice they provide will help you treat the cause, not the symptom. The key is being pro-active - it is easier, say, to kill grubs in April instead of trying to solve a mole problem in August.

Try some of this. It's got what plants crave. You can get it anywhere.

Spend a lot of time reading up on this forum:
http://bestlawn.info/forum.html

More than enough info on weed prevention, better methods of fertilizing, and lawn restorations. Start an account, post pictures, and you'll get a lot of support on the steps to take.

Also, try to use natural fertilizers. Right now you can buy Milorganite and Chickity Doo (yep, processed chicken poo) at HS. Going natural means you get off the junk food program fertilizers like Scott want you to get on. Also means you get better root development so your lawn stays greener longer during hot summer months.

Be warned, re-viving a lawn can take a year or two. Patience......

ooops, "HS" above should be "HD" (home depot)

The best thing to do is encourage your neighbors to do the same (once you figure out how to rid your lawn of weeds). Seeds from weeds and crabgrass are airbourne, so if your neighbor's lawn continues to look like shit, you will be fighting a losing battle.