Last year we had a brand new house where the builder was supposed to put in
a lawn. Unfortunately, because he planted it too late and the weather was
extremely hot, none of his seed took, so we ended up with an acre lawn of
nothing but crabgrass. We knew almost nothing about lawns, but did a lot of
reading.

Here's what we did. I has worked out very well. We got the builder to pay
for the seed and other products it took to fix the lawn.

1. Last summer we kept the crabgrass mowed short to keep it from making seed
heads. It dried up and died in August.

2. In September we overseeded with a couple different varieties of grass
seed. We used quick growing stuff near the driveway where we had erosion,
some cheap stuff from Home Depot, some stuff from Aubuchons, and some
Scott's Premium mix on the rest. The quick growing stuff filled in very
fast. Didn't see much from the rest.

3. We put down crabgrass preventer plus fertilizer as soon as the snow was
gone. Though the lawn was very spotty at first, a whole lot of the grass we
planted last fall grew in and it has continued to grow and fill in bare
spots all spring.

4. We used an application of weed & feed in April. We're not crazy about
chemicals, but it gave the grass a really good head start. Now I hand weed
any further weeds that come up, mostly ragweed and dig out some of the
plantains if I'm feeling energetic.

5. We overseeded a couple of bare spots left by the snow plow 2 months after
putting in the crab grass preventer. In retrospect, we'd keep the preventer
away from areas that need reseeding and seed them earlier.

6. We will overseed heavily again in September.

We got some crabgrass growing into barespots still, despite using the
preventer, but it is nothing compared with last year.
And our lawn looks a whole lot better than the neighbors' though they spent
many thousands of dollars having a landscape company install their lawn last
year. I think mixing the different grass mixes together was a very good
idea, since different kinds of grass seem to have taken root in different
parts of the lawn. The neighbors' lawn is a monoculture and it has quite a
few brown spots especially over their septic system, while our lawn is
green everywhere--wet, dry, shady and sunny--though with subtle differences
in color due to the different varieties of grass. Since we're in the country
surrounded by farms, I prefer the more natural variegated look of our grass
rather than the sterile monoculture look. But the good news is, it is all
grass! By next year after another overseeding it should be gorgeous.

--Jenny - Low Carbing for 4 years. Below goal for weight. Type 2 diabetes,
hba1c 5.7 .
Cut the carbs to respond to my email address!

Low carb facts and figures, my weight-loss photos, tips, recipes,
strategies for dealing with diabetes and more at
http://www.geocities.com/jenny_the_bean/

Looking for help controlling your blood sugar?
Visit http://www.alt-support-diabetes.org/...0Diagnosed.htm



"AJ" wrote in message
m...
Ok, I am a first time homeowner struggling with a serious bout of
crabgrass. I bought my house in November, and when the weather
started getting nice out, I spent a lot of time and money on my lawn
making it look nice, which it did, until about late May, when
crabgrass just overtook about 80% of my front yard and 60% of my
backyard.

This occured about 1-2 weeks AFTER I used Scott's Lawn Builder with
crabgrass preventer on it.

Did I not use the crabgrass preventer early enough? Most
documentation says that it should be used in early May. It mid-May
too late?

And now that my crabgrass is in full bloom, is there any way to kill
effectively? I tried spraying a ready-to-use Bayer product on it, to
no avail! Should I mow high, or low?

Thanks!