"LFR" wrote in message news:jEF2c.11600$fD2.3516@lakeread02...
When I bought my house in Virginia, my yard was predominantly weeds. We
contracted with Lawn Doctor. They came in the fall and on 2 separate
occasions gave our lawn the Round-Up treatment. Then they came and seeded
over the dead stuff. We stayed with them for a year and they came and took
care of our lawn on regular intervals (6 times that year). That first year,
we had a beautiful, green lawn with few weeds. The only thing I regret is
not having tilled the yard before they seeded. Our soil tends to be
compacted. I thought they were going to till after they killed off the
weeds, but they did not.

The point to my story? Live with the weeds now because I think it's too
late to start. My understanding is that it's best to try to establish a new
lawn in the fall when the weeds start to die off. My suggestion would be to
give the whole back yard the Round-Up treatment, then when everything is
brown, you may want to till just to loosen the soil. Then seed and use a
starter fertilizer.

Everything I've read indicates that a healthy, thick lawn prevents weeds
from taking over. I've witnessed it in some neighboring lawns. Use a weed
& feed on the front lawn in the spring. It may be too late for you now but
it's still worth a try, in my opinion.

Hope this helped.

Lynn

"Evan Mann" wrote in message
om...
My lawn is a major mess. I live in Central FL and the grass type is bahia.
The front yard isn't too bad but it has lots of patches of what I believe
is
crabgrass and TONS of dollarweed.

The backyard is another story. over 1/3 of it is pretty much all weeds.
Crabgrass (again, I think) and various other entities that are definitily
weeds . There is probably now live bahia in this entire 1/3 area.

Now I realize this is a garden newsgroup but I'm not into
gardens/gardening.
I'm looking for advice on how to handle this. Can I effectievly kill the
weeds in the frnt yard and get it fully healthy?

Can I do anything to slavage the backyard portion that is bad, or do I
need
to till it all up and start over?


I have a suggestion - get rid of LAWN DOCTOR!

I contracted with these con-artists last year and have had ongoing
service! Now, with the spring my yard looks WORSE than ever and their
reply?

There is "nothing" we can do about the weeds now!

HELLO? Isn't that what we contracted with these professionals to do?

I've cancelled my contract and am putting a big sign in my yard - I
figure if I have to be embarrased by what they did to my yard they
should be embarresed too!