Grasses can be one of two types. Cool season (like Bermuda or St Augustine)
or warm season (like rye or fescue). Going on where you live, I'm sure you
have some type of cool season grass. You really should try and find out
what type of grass you have (ask a neighbor) because knowing what type of
grass you have will enable you to research things like proper watering,
overseeding requirements (if necessary), mowing heights, and things of this
nature. My guess is you probably have Rye, Fescue, or Bluegrass. It is
possible you could have a combination of two or three different grasses by
orignial design.

I'm not sure why you were told to lime over three days. One application
should be plenty. The thing you need to know is how much to apply. You
already know your soil PH is 6.0. Cool season grasses do well in soil PH in
the range from 6.0 to 6.5, so actually you're already there. Really the
only reason you need it is to keep your moss down. When you say spray type,
I'm assuming you mean a rotary spreader which will work great. Assuming you
will be using dolomitic limestone pellets, I would recommend only about
10-15 lbs per 1000 sq/ft. This is a very rough guess. It would be best to
ask a neighbor who has a nice lawn because all soils are different as far as
how much lime it will take to raise the PH level. The main thing to
remember is don't over do it. You're already very close to the optimum PH
level. You'll need to either apply right before a good rain, or water your
lawn after application because you don't want to leave the lime on the grass
leaves for very long.

My recommendation is to not worry too much about your weeds right now. Your
main goal should be to restore your lawn to a healthy state first.
Chemicals which kill weeds also stress lawns to a certain extent so you
really should only use them when you have a healthy lawn.



"Pucky Loucks" wrote in message
news:LRYgc.52083$dg7.38396@edtnps84...
Thanks Roy, That's awesome. We just moved in and it looks like the lawn
has never really had any TCL. lots of thatch, moss, weeds, burnt
areas too. It also looks like the last people tried to fix some bare
spots with different types of grass, big clumps of odd grass. (all in
all a nightmare, but I'm willing) the lawn has direct sunlight all
day, but I'm not sure the grass type(s).

So here is my plan so far.

1) dethatch (2 days)
2) lime (I don't have a drop spreader just the spray kind is that ok) (3
days)
3) weed and feed (5 days)
4) mow often as you said. (as often as needed)


The reason I put days in, is I've been told that a lime aplication is
done early morning for about three days. and the same for the weed and
feed. I totally have no idea.

Located Victoria, BC. Canada (west coast weather)

Pucky


RoyDMercer wrote:
A PH of 6 is not too bad, but more than likely your lawn could benefit
from
a lime application once per year. Most turf grasses are happiest with a
PH
of around 6.5, but there are a few exceptions. You didn't specify your
grass type. The symptom of a lawn with too low PH is the lawn will not
green up properly even after fertilizer is applied. If your lawn greens
up
nicely when you apply fertilizer, you really don't have a problem with
soil
PH as far as the grass itself is concerned, however lowering the soil PH
will probably help with your moss problem. Iron sulfate will also help
with
moss. When you fertilize look for fertilizer with iron. Check the
active
ingredients and you should find iron sulfate or ferrous sulfate.

You can apply lime with or without thatch. It really doesn't matter.
The
lime is going to eventually soak into the soil even if there is thatch,
although thatch may slow down the process. If you have thatch, it
sounds
like this is your biggest problem and you should address it first.

If you have the capability of bagging, you may want to do that for a few
months until the thatch problem has been eraticated completely. If you
are
using a mulching lawn mower, make sure you mow often and don't take too
much
off at any one time. Thatch usually happens because of poor mowing
habits.
If you are not mulching or bagging, you should be. However even if you
are
mulching, you should be mowing as often as you should because if you try
to
take off too much, you are going to overwhealm the mulching system of
your
mower. Some people think that if you mow your grass low, you won't have
to
mow as often. Actually the reverse is true. For instance let's say I
want
to mow 1" off my grass, if I mow my lawn when it is 2" tall and I mow to
1",
I'm taking off 50% of the total grass which is a bad thing. If I mow my
lawn when it's 4" and I mow it to 3", I'm only taking off 25% which is
OK.
Different grass types like to be mowed at different heights, so research
what type of grass you have to find out the recommended mowing heights.

"Pucky Loucks" wrote in message
news:uEXgc.50994$dg7.48531@edtnps84...

Hello, I've just started my very first lawn project ever. Very excited
about it. I just tested my soil and it's ph is 6 considered acidic.
I've got a pretty good go of thatch and moss. Should I lime it first
and then dethatch? or dethatch and then lime?

I would think that dethatch would be first to open up the ground, but I
just want to make sure I don't over look any thing.

Thanks, Hope someone can give me a clue. would like to make this a
hobby.

Pucky