# another "what is this evil grass" thread?



## hyunelan2 (Aug 14, 2007)

Backstory:

I purchased the house 2 years ago (this will be my 3rd summer). The house sat vacant for the summer before I bought it, and when we moved in the grass was almost knee-high. So, there were plenty of invasive species.

2 summers of fertilizing and weed-n-feeding and I have it mostly grass. I use Scotts in the spring, summer, and fall with their pre-emergent, plus 2, and winterguard formulas. I spray Ortho weed-b-gone (hooks up to the hose) in the early-mid summer.
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This evil grass is as prevalent as ever, which makes me think it is an invasive grass and not a "weed" that the normal killers would kill. It grows about 2x as fast as the good grass in the lawn. It also comes up earlier than the rest of the lawn, so I have patches of this already well established where the rest of the lawn is still mostly dormant. My soil is very well drained (pit run). Even though I cut the grass "high" hoping the good grass chokes it out, that doesn't happen.

A. What is this.
B. How do I get rid of it.


I have my theories on getting rid of it, but I don't want to get into a heading-cats situation. It is driving my wife crazy and she is nonstop complaining. 


Here are some pictures. It is thick-bladed, grows in clumps, and is maybe slightly darker in color than the other grass. These pictures were taken yesterday evening.


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## bob22 (May 28, 2008)

Looks like crab grass to me.
Google search it, then hit "Images". 
Come back if you agree. 
I think it is tough to kill once prevalent in a yard. Easier to prevent than kill. What state/location are you?


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## hyunelan2 (Aug 14, 2007)

I was calling it crabgrass for a while, but it doesn't really look like the google images I've seen.

I am in northern Illinois, 45 minutes southwest of Chicago.


Google Image of crabgrass:









The thing I have is more bladed. The crabgrass images look more like blades of "grass" coming off of a stem. I might need to try to get a close-up of it.


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## handy man88 (Jan 23, 2007)

hyunelan2 said:


> I was calling it crabgrass for a while, but it doesn't really look like the google images I've seen.
> 
> I am in northern Illinois, 45 minutes southwest of Chicago.
> 
> ...


nutsedge?

http://www.google.com/images?hl=en&q=nutsedge%20picture&um=1&ie=UTF-8&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&biw=1327&bih=1000


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## Ajtech (Mar 27, 2011)

I'm an herbicide spraytech and that looks a lot like a weed we have out here in arizona called tall fescue, pulling it won't do any good as its roots can break off and start their own colony. Chemicals would be the best way to spray them and kill them their is a chemical called fusilade its designed for turf weeds and mixed right it will only kill the weeds and not harm the actual lawn. Most turf weeds are very durable and can't really be beateb out by most grasses.


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## hyunelan2 (Aug 14, 2007)

Thank you! I googled "tall fescue" and that looks exactly like what I have. 











In reading about it, it looks as if it is used as a common grass, unless "tall fescue" is used to not only describe a grass, but also a weed?


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## Ajtech (Mar 27, 2011)

Well quite honestly your half right. In training for my licence the rule of thumb is any plant can be a weed. A weed is any unwanted or noxious plant, some people make their entire yard with tall fescue or they plant certain other weeds because they flower.


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## Jay 78 (Mar 2, 2011)

My apologies to the OP if this comes across as a hijack, but I have a similar problem.

My entire back yard is riddled with similar looking crap. I'm planning on tilling the whole thing, but is this enough to destroy the weeds? Based on Ajtech's post, I'm beginning to wonder. Should I dig up the weeds and the surrounding areas by hand first? 

I have no garage (yet), and the terrain is pretty uneven, so I'm basically going to be starting from scratch. I'll do whatever is necessary, _if_ it's necessary.


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## hyunelan2 (Aug 14, 2007)

Ajtech said:


> some people make their entire yard with tall fescue


Yes, I see that Scotts sells a "tall fescue mix" grass seed. LINK

I'm wondering how bad of an idea it would be to have a bunch grass like tall fescue for the whole yard. My only real complaints are that it grows faster than the rest of the yard, and the blades are wider. However, if the whole yard was like this, it wouldn't be an issue - other than some additional uses of the lawnmower. 

The tall fescue (assuming that's what this is) comes up early, grows well throughout the summer, and is usually still green during drought periods when the rest of the yard browns up. My main complaint is just that there are clumps of it and not uniformity.


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## Ajtech (Mar 27, 2011)

Yeah you could easily create your lawn with just the fescue it will be a little more work with a mower but it spreads rapidly so its really up to you


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## SPS-1 (Oct 21, 2008)

Its amazing what one learns from this forum. I bought a Scott's book on grass and lawns a number of years ago, but all those grass and weed pictures looked alike to me. Slowly, very slowly, by seeing more pictures and descriptions, I can tell the difference. Tall fescue is what occasionally pops up in my back yard. I hit it with glyphosate or remove it with a shovel. The crabgrass is what tries to spread from my neighbors yard, who cuts his grass way to short. And I am going to be start pulling any nutsedge as soon as I see it later in the summer.


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## handy man88 (Jan 23, 2007)

Ajtech said:


> Yeah you could easily create your lawn with just the fescue it will be a little more work with a mower but it spreads rapidly so its really up to you


It's ugly though.


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## Ajtech (Mar 27, 2011)

Yeah it is is ugly, and be wary of the nutsedge if you've researched it you'll see that it grows from two large balls that can seperate and detach with very little aggitation. As far as your neighbors crabgrass invading your yard perhaps you could put a pre emergent down at the border of your yards to try and deter it, and just keep applying some fusilade to your lawn. Though without your neighbor fixing his/her lawn the problems will continue.


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## mike-g (Mar 22, 2011)

I would disagree. I think tall fescue is a very nice looking grass. The great thing about it is it doesn't need a whole lot of water and it mostly stays green in the winter. Now it little clobs it doesn't look very good but you would be surprised on the look of tall fescue as an entire lawn. It's really popular in my area (Missouri) and I enjoy the looks of it and how low matienence it is.


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