I planted 4 acres of lawn this way but I bet I'll get a lot of flak for
this.
1) Use the weeds to your benefit. Spread rye grass/blue grass mix down. THe
weeds will act as "nanny plants" to capture the seed and provide the shade
and moisture needed to sprout it. Fertilize it a feww weeks after sprouting
2) There will be holes next spring so either scuff up the dirt and spread
more seed or let the weeds grow in and repeat. Fertilize again
3) In the fall use a good herbacide and kill off the weeds. fertilize again

At the end of 4 years everything will have grown together into a pretty
decent lawn with minimal work. THe key is having the 3-4 years to grow the
lawn. An instant lawn will take lots of work.
I neglect the crab grass because it to makes a good nanny plant and a thick
lawn will naturally choke it out. I am assuming it is crab grass and not a
different grassy weed. A different grassy weed needs to be treated
differently than crabgrass. SOmetimes you have to knock out the grassy weeds
with roundup.

The other thing you need to do is determine what you did or did not do to
make the existing lawn so bad. THan do the opposite. LAck of fertilizer?
lack of water? heavy traffic? Not enough light (not much you can do for that
one)?road salt? dogs?

"tenplay" wrote in message
...
Our large backyard has a large grassy area (approx. 110' X 70'), which
consists mostly of weeds and crabgrass. We want to upgrade it before we
sell the house in 3-4 years. Replacing it with a large lawn will take a
lot of work and expense. Is there a workable alternative that would be
attractive and inexpensive? A friend recommended planting groundcover,
but it's hard to envision such a large area of groundcover. We live in
Western Washington. Thanks for any suggestions/advice.