cb wrote:
I'm in central Virginia, zone 7. I'm kind of new at the lawn thing. I
planted my first lawn too late this past Spring, and it came in full and
lush, but then got invaded by weeds and crabgrass, as I failed to put
down preemergent. By now, half the lawn has turned into crabgrass and
weeds. There is some grass, however, and I really don't want to retill
and sew a new lawn. I'd really like to get rid of the crabgrass and
overseed with fescue, but the crabgrass is still green and looks like
it's reseeding itself. How should I approach this lawn if I don't want
to retill the soil and resew a totally new lawn. I know fall is the
prime time to plant grass and I was hoping I could overseed. Will I have
to wipe out the crabgrass (which is pretty thick) by using a weedkiller?
Is there still time to kill it, seed/overseed and hope for growth? I'd
like to do all the proper fertilizing for new grass roots, so it would
get nutrients during the winter and come back in the sping. Next
spring….if I have grass…I will definitely put down the preemergent!

My suggestion, and what I did last weekend just north of you in
Montgomery Co. I also have a ton of crabgrass, plus weeds. I was not up
for wiping everything out with roundup, tilling, etc. I set my mower at
about 3" and cut on Thursday, then lowered to scalping height, about 2",
and mowed again Saturday. Followed that with a core aerator, and made
numerous passes to get lots of holes everywhere. Then seeded.

I hope to get halfway decent results. I know that slit seeding or power
raking is what the pros do or recommend, I was not up for all that.

The crabgrass will die as soon as the weather cools off. It will then
come back in spring if you don't do the pre-emergence treatment. I hope
to have at least some new fescue grown up in the next few weeks. I'll
report back in a week with my results so far.

David in MD