My lawn is in horrible condition and I need some serious help PLEASE! We bought the house 6 years ago and the lawn was decent. Over the last 6 years all we've done is mow it regularly. The weeds and bare patches have slowly gotten worse. Last summers dry spell completely ruined more than 50% of our lawn. I've done some research and what I think I need to do is: 1-rake and clean up the winter mess 2- use some sort of pre emergent herbicide 3- re seed and fertilize What should I do? What do I use? I would really appreciate some guidance and direction?
I think you've got a good plan already. When our lawn started misbehaving like that we turned it into a big border.
May I suggest that you add 2-3" of compost to the lawn, all of it bad spots and good ones, too. The compost will lighten the soil and allow deeper root penetration as well as adding trace minerals and "tilth" to your lawn's soil. When you re-seed, be sure that the grass seed you are using is compatible with the grass you have now. We have a lot of Bermuda here in Texas, and it will fight St. Augustine to the death. It isn't a pretty sight!
Actonite welcome to the Stew from a stewbie in Wis. I guess I would start with raking like you had said. Then I would aerating the lawn as it will help it breath, get moister easier and help it grow better. Then if you want to put a pre-emergency product on your lawn I would use Corn Gluten. It is safe and natural. You could also spray your weeds with a product called IronX. You can get that from Gardens Alive. It works really good and again is a natural product safe for you and the environment. Buy now I think you can guess I am very much into using natural, safe and non-toxic products. You would probably have to wait 3 weeks or so to replant the lawn. As the corn gluten would keep the seed from germinating. After all that you could feed your lawn with some Milorganite. Not sure if I have it spelled right. It is a natural fertilizer made out of poo. Then just be sure to keep your lawn mower blades sharpened after every fourth time you cut your lawn. I know that not to many of us like to do that. But you need to keep your lawn mower blades sharpened to prevent damaging your lawn. If you cut your lawn with dull blades it tears the top of the grass and gives disease a chance to invade your lawn. It will also keep your lawn from looking nice and green. The reason for that is because the ends of the torn grass blades dry out and look dull. Hope you will give the natural way a try and have a super looking lawn.
Actually, one of my friends yard is in the same condition and he was asking me for advice ...ha ha :-D He is really interested in growing moss as ground cover in his front lawn. Any suggestions for that? We are in Seattle (Zome 7B).
Thanks for all the info. I think I'll stick to the natural stuff (as long as it's going to work). I've got 2 small kids who love playing in the yard. If anything, I would REALLY like to get a handle on these weeds. I read that once the forsythia blooms it's time to start the weed control. Is that accurate enough? Could I start now? Here's a photo of what my lawn looks like now... one of the bare spots ( photo / image / picture from Actonite's Garden )
OH ouch that looks rather painful for a lawn. I guess you can start weed control as long as there is active growth. I believe that the Iron-X product I told you about will work in 50 degree weather as plants are actively growing. Glad to hear you are wanting to stay on the natural side. Especially with kids romping around on the grass. It will take some time to get it up and growing. But the effort will be well worth it.
