# My lawn is a disaster. Where do I start?



## derekeh (Apr 21, 2016)

I recently bought a house in southern kentucky and remodeled it. The lawn is in horrible shape. Half of the yard stays brown year round, it's full of weeds, crabgrass , Moss and grub worms. From what I've read, I'm probably too late in the spring to spray the crabgrass. Can I do anything else about it? The moss is in very large sections. Too much to rake up. I'm new to lawn care other than mowing so any advice is appreciated. Thanks.

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## ZTMAN (Feb 19, 2015)

Based on the price of fertilize/lawn chemicals, I called a few national lawn services last year for a quote. Believe it or not, they cost about the same as me going out and buying the materials, and they do the work.
Don't know how big your lot is, but I would get a few quotes. They will tell your what should be done.
My guess , aside from treatment , would be aeration and slit seeding.


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## Doomsday (Jun 2, 2016)

Isnt that like cheating though lol. I have really started enjoying working on my crappy lawn oover the last couple years. Im half an acre and in seed, ive put down 60 lbs just on half of that half an acre. Bought a new lawn tractor and several tow behind toys for it and fertilizer. I dont really count the tractor and tow behind items cause well, they are just fun to use lol. Maybe what I should have done is let them come in and get it looking great then take over. I have to say its more therapeutic for me to get out there and cut the lawn. I been having a blast the last couple years.


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## Devley (Jun 16, 2016)

Our grass was like this. Not a very large area but a nice mixture of weeds, moss and very little grass. Top soil and seed and repeat and seed again. Spaced out of course. 2nd season now I think we are at a point of more grass than weeds.


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## stick\shift (Mar 23, 2015)

Rule of thumb is that if your lawn is more than 50% weeds or undesired grasses, you should kill it all and start over.

A soil test is always a good idea and usually a core aeration is as well.


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## chrisn (Dec 23, 2007)

Also if you have that much moss ,you need a lot of lime. The soil is too acidic.


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## jlhaslip (Dec 31, 2009)

The 3 r's...

Round-up
Rototiller
Re-seed


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## MakeaShed (Jul 12, 2016)

If the weeds have taken over more than half of the lawn then it would be better for you to start all over again. Otherwise you can use some homemade remedies to get rid of them like using vinegar. It is said that if we apply white vinegar to weed leaves they'll die off. But you have to be careful to not spray them on other plants and soil. Another way is to sodium chloride on the weed leaves. Many other techniques are explained in these blogs. 
http://infinitygardens.ca/blog/organic-weed-killer/
http://www.treehugger.com/lawn-garden/homemade-herbicide-kill-weeds-without-killing-earth.html

I hope this comes helpful to you and other others who is facing from weed trouble.


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## vinogradov8 (Jul 22, 2016)

This is seriously the post I have been looking for. Even though I am at a rental, and my lawn is small, I'm trying to make it look pretty per se. Great advice guys!


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## tnprogrammer (Apr 16, 2014)

I'll throw my .02 in here. I'm a bit of a yard nut and over the years I've pretty much got my system down to where it doesn't really feel like a lot of work to me each year. I learned most of what I know from a guy that used to be the head greenskeeper at a pretty nice golf course for years here in Nashville. He also had his own lawn company on the side. One constant thing he always told me...You can take any patch of land, no matter how crappy it looks in the beginning, and if you keep treating it like a lawn it will eventually become a lawn. He extended his back yard three years ago by purchasing a large square of pasture land behind him. I wish I could post a pic of it because it now looks like one of the best lawns I've ever seen  It was 3 foot tall weeds when he bought it.
That being said, here is what I do every year:
Note....Derek, I live in North Nashville, so my climate is practically identical to yours.

1. March....I do not use pre-emergent. I tried it for years, it didn't really work. I think it is crap. I just let the weeds, which are primarily clover and dandelions, start popping up. I do my first round of Weed-B-Gone spray. I've used it for years and swear by it. I NEVER use granules to kill weeds. One week after I apply the Weed-B-Gone I dethatch my yard with an actual dethatching rake. I then put down lime and spread a thin layer of either peat moss or rich bagged topsoil. I drop down good grass seed and fertilizer and kind of rake it in. Then start watering the pizz out of it 

2. Late April to early May.....about 5-6 weeks later the seed has come up and is pretty strong. During that time I might be spot treating any other large weeds with a spray bottle of Weed-b-Gone. At this time, if a second large round of weeds is coming up, which is not unusual, I'll do a second spraying of Weed-b-Gone. This second spraying will usually knock out everything else that was going to come up. The extra grass seed that has come in usually thickens up the yard enough to keep new weeds choked out through the rest of the summer. 

3. Throughout the summer I'll spot treat any weeds with the spray bottle of Weed-b-gone. 

4. September....Once it starts cooling down a bit to where the high temps are no higher than about 82 I'll have the yard aerated. I'll repeat he process of dethatching and spreading a very then layer of peat moss, seed and fertilizer. This is really the best growing season, so I'll make sure to do everything I can to bring the grass in as thick as possible. You could lime it again at this time if you want. I've always been told that you really can't over-lime a yard. Lime just brings the ph to a constant, keeping the soil from getting too basic or acidic. 

NOTES...
1. if you're going to commit to having a nice yard you are going to HAVE to water it and bite the bullet on the higher water bills. If you skimp on the water through the hot summer months a lot of your hard work in the spring will be ruined. Dry grass allows weeds to form more easily, and weeds don't need the water that grass does in order to be healthy. Then the weeds will start spreading and killing the grass. Then you'll be in a situation where you are spot treating larger areas with weed-b-gone in the hot months and ending up with big dead areas where you have to re-grow grass in mid-summer. 
2. It is possible to fertilize your yard during the summer. Just make sure you buy a Summer Guard type of granule slow-release fertilizer. And definitely make sure to water well for the next couple of weeks after putting it out. 
3. Don't buy cheap grass seed. I know the good stuff is usually over priced, but it pays for itself in better germination and less weeds. Never buy contractor grade seed. It has a ton of weed seed in it and the object to putting that stuff out in the first place is to bring in a new dirt yard so that ANYTHING starts growing in order to keep soil from eroding. 
4. you can do a round of weed-b-gone in late September if you think you need it. Just try to wait until the new seed is coming up pretty good so that you don't stunt the growth. 

Hope all of this helps.


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## derekeh (Apr 21, 2016)

Will weed be gone do anything to crabgrass? Thats what my yard mainly consists of. 

And do you have a recommendation on grass type? 

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## tnprogrammer (Apr 16, 2014)

Weed-B-Gone does come in a formula with crabgrass control. I use it throughout the summer. I do have a couple of friends that put pre-emergent down a couple of times through the really hot months because what tends to happen here is the south is that we'll get blooms of crabgrass in mid-summer due to the heat drying out the grass and soil, giving the crabgrass and other weeds a good opportunity to jump in and take over. 
As far as grass goes.....If you don't mind it being dormant in the winter, Bermuda or Zoysia is the way to go. I had a Bermuda/Zoysia mix at my old house and my front lawn literally looked like a carpet. Plus, it is good for choking out weeds and especially crabgrass. Not to mention the drought resistance. If you are determined to go with a tall fescue mix, which is what I have now, I would recommend the Pennington Smart Seed with the blue coating. I've been using it for two years now at the new house. It has good/quick germination, but like any fescue you'll have to water the heck out of it in the summer.


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## stick\shift (Mar 23, 2015)

For someone in KY, the ideal grass, IMO, is, you guessed it, Kentucky bluegrass. That said, it can take a long time to germinate and not thrive without full sun so many will plant a variety containing bluegrass, perennial rye and red fescue.


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## stick\shift (Mar 23, 2015)

I guess where in KY makes a difference: http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/agr/agr52/agr52.htm


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## NewHomeDIYGuy (Nov 23, 2011)

I'll throw my 2 cents in. I started about a year ago with a terrible lawn and scotts products, and I've had mixed results. I'm starting a new regiment that consists of Milorganite (3-4 applications a year) for the fertilizing, pre-emergent in the spring, and liquid spray/weed killer for spot spraying weeds as needed. My complaint with granule weed and feed is it needs to make contact with the leaves to kill the weed, and it's hard to do that w/ granules. The best I've found is by the concentrate and dilute it down with a sprayer and water, then spray the weeds. Cost wise you'll be way ahead this way. Keep in mind different weeds may need different chemicals to kill them not in the weed killers. A couple that come to mind are sedge (a real pita to kill), and crabgrass (they sell this at the big box stores, but if it gets too mature it might take a couple applications to kill it). There are also higher potency/specific chemicals for killing specific/mature weeds that you can buy on amazon.

Regarding growing grass/rehabbing a lawn. These are some things I've come to learn.
#1- Make sure you use a starter fertilizer. I didn't do this a couple times and barely anything grew. 
#2- Make sure you plant grass shortly after the weeds are dead, don't kill the weeds, wait a while for new ones to actively start growing, then plant seed.
#3- Till the soil well. A tiller is critical and buy a small electric one if you don't want to buy a gas one, but tilling by hand won't do a good enough job (I learned this the hard way also).
#4- Plant the grass at the appropriate time. If it's too hot grass won't grow.
#5- In the summer if you're trying to rehab a lawn that's half weeds, make sure you water. I didn't water this summer and the grass went dormant/died in areas and weeds popped up. If you have a well established lawn going dormant won't be as bad, but if you're in the middle of rehabbing it, best to keep it active w/ watering.
#6- Have patience. It may take a few years to have a nice lawn
#7- Cut your grass high. This will help choke out the weeds and do better in summer. I cut my lawn to 4"s in late spring through summer.

If you want to plant new grass in an area, glyphosate the area, wait a few weeks till everything is dead, then plant new seed/sod. 

I've found "the lawn care nut"'s youtube channel to be informational and entertaining and would recommend it. If people have good rules/ideas they follow it's interesting to hear different approaches.


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## stick\shift (Mar 23, 2015)

With regard to #5 above, if your lawn happens to go dormant, that's a good time to whip out the RoundUp for the remaining weeds, as the dormant lawn will not take up any of the poison while the actively growing weeds will.

I agree with trying to avoid that situation, as advised, just suggesting in something in case it happens.


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## derekeh (Apr 21, 2016)

It's going to be difficult to do my whole yard at once. Does anyone see any problems with me doing a section at a time? I'm thinking of doing my front yard in two sections. Actually I'm thinking of doing a small section this year to see how it goes. It's about a 10 x 30 ft section. 

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## stick\shift (Mar 23, 2015)

> It's going to be difficult to do my whole yard at once


Why? Sections sounds like a whole lot more work overall.


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