OK. FYI, read this first. You'll enjoy it. Another participant in this
thread will not. Oh well. The person you pay to apply lawn poisons may
actually believe they're safe, but that's only because the manufacturers are
such effective liars. Bottom line: They are not safe, and cannot be tested
in a way that's considered valid by any well-informed adult. Further, the
"inert ingredients" are anything but inert, but they are exempt from testing
regulations due to effective lobbying by the chemical industry.
http://www.beyondpesticides.org/lawn...ts&figures.htm

This google search will give you enough information to keep you awake
nights.
http://www.google.com/search?hl=en&l...ts&btnG=Search


A healthy lawn will deal with almost anything except the worst of grub
attacks, and those can be dealt with without hiring a chemical thug.

1) Get a soil test. Do it yourself, in several different places. If you're
not confident about it, call your local cooperative extension. Some will do
it very cheaply. Here (Rochester), it was a dollar per sample last time I
checked. Your pH may be way out of whack, which not only contributes to
lousy growth in general, but can also relate to the fungus you mentioned.

2) The fungus: Correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm guessing it appeared in
spring, especially if there had been snow cover for any length of time. It's
supposedly caused by leaving the grass too long at the last mowing of the
season (late autumn). Those are the ONLY mowings for which you should set
your mower very low.

3) Mowing: Beginning with the first mowing in spring and continuing until
the last couple, the mower should be set at its maximum height, and you
should leave the clippings in place, unless you've let the lawn grow to the
point where the mower's dropping huge clumps that you know are going to
smother what's underneath. You'll recognize what's too much of a clump, and
it should be a rare occurrence, unless your mower's not good at mulching.

4) Feeding: There are plenty of granular foods which contain no insect or
weed killers. Watch the weather and try to apply when it's going to rain.
Or, water it in yourself. Frankly, you don't need to feed as often as the
experts say, especially if you're leaving lawn clippings in place.

5) Grubs: As you visit garden centers, take note of who sells biological
controls, so when you need it (and you're panicking), you wont' have to
drive all over town looking for it. I haven't needed it in years, but when I
did, the bacteria was bacillus thuringensis, which you'll see abbreviated to
BT. These bacteria are also used to control various food crop bugs. The
particular species may change from time to time if grubs develop resistance.
You will NOT see immediate results from the bacterial controls. You may have
to wait until next season, but it WILL work.

6) Soil quality: If you dig down maybe 6", after a heavy rain or watering,
take a handful of soil and compress it. It should crumble as easily as cake.
If it's a bitch to dig into, it needs to either be amended with peat moss
(blended in, not just thrown on top), or perhaps aerated, a service you can
pay for. In other words, the problem could be that the soil itself is lousy
(add organic matter), or it's been compressed for some reason. After a few
years of healthy lawn growth, it will loosen up, but in order to get grass
growing on bare ground, you'll have to help it.

7) Learn to love burlap and bricks when seeding new areas. I've never used
that fluffy stuff that highway crews use to seed large areas. Maybe it
works. But, I've always good luck covering new seed with burlap and holding
it down with bricks. Keeps birds of eating the seed, and equally important,
it helps maintain moisture during germination, and keeps rain or your hose
sprayer from scattering the seed. That's important because the goal (however
unachievable) is to keep the area constantly moist, but not muddy. The
burlap's reusable, and bricks always come in handy for something, like
throwing at the Chem Lawn truck.

8) Water deeply, but don't obsess about it. The whole idea of grass is
silly. We push it to live in places it would not grow naturally. Where it
does grow naturally, it turns brown in the summer and greens up again in the
fall. We hack it off with mowers before it can go through its natural cycle,
and then wonder why it behaves stupidly. We grow varieties that looked so
beautiful to the British that they decided to bring the tradition here
hundreds of years ago. Great, except that their climate is somewhat cooler.
Anyway...water deeply, but don't expect constant green.

Above all, be patient. These are plants, not machines. It took me three
years to get my lawn in shape, after which it needed almost no care at all
for 20 years.

By the way, here's a link to your cooperative extension:
Main page: http://www.rce.rutgers.edu/
Home resources: http://www.rcre.rutgers.edu/garden/ (soil test link at the
bottom!)


"Jon Hirschman" wrote in message
news:BTlge.1477$Zb3.957@trndny08...
I live in Northern NJ.


"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...
Where do you live?


"JonHirschman" wrote in message
news:KdUfe.9399$Ws6.1578@trndny07...
So far grass seed and mowing has given me weeks, fungus at least once a
year, and grubs. I'm interested in your suggestion, and how they will
yield a better lawn.


"Doug Kanter" wrote in message
...

"JonHirschman" wrote in message
newssyfe.4261$N_5.1671@trndny09...
I live in Northern NJ and am thinking about contracting with a lawn
service to take care of the fertilizer and other weed treatments?

I have about 1/3 acre of grass. Will the results be any better then
what I could accomplish myself?

Any recommondations.


Depends on your goal. If the point is to poison children and birds, you
can do that more cheaply yourself. If the goal is to have a better
lawn, you can do that for next to nothing, with nothing but grass seed
and intelligent mowing. Interested?