MICHELLE H. wrote:
Every year, we try to do the cycle of Scotts Fertilizers on our lawn (
Crabgrass Fertilizer, Weed Control Fertilizer, Summerguard Fertilizer,
Regular Fertilizer, and Winterguard Fertilizer), and usually have no
problems.


With that regime I am amazed anything grows.


We usually do the "Scotts Weed Control" one around Memorial Day
weekend in May, but this year my husband didn't get around doing it
until a few days ago.


Because its so late into June, we were going to just skip the "Weed
Control", and just do the "Summerguard", but we opted to still do the
"Weed Control", because our lawn was OVERRUN by clovers this year.


Tell me it isn't so!


We usually have clover throughout the yard every year, but this year
was the WORST, and we have never seen it this bad!!!! On one side of
our house, where we use to have nice grass, the clover spread like
wild, and the whole side of the house was just one big field of
clover. When you walked on the side of the house, you weren't walking
on grass, you were walking on pure clover.


What is so wrong with clover? It's a ground cover that will sometimes grow
when grass won't. Who told you that clover is bad?


But anyway, we watered the grass to get it nice and wet ( so that the
fertilizer sticks to the weeds ), just like the bag instructs, and we
set our "drop spreader" to the 5 1/2 setting like the bag says, and
applied the fertilizer.


Why should the fertiliser stick to the weeds, what would that do?


Well, the next morning when we went to the window, we were horrified,
as we saw that not only was the clover dead, but all our beautiful
Green grass is now a Yellow eyesore!!!!!



Well that's the beginning of the end of your reputation. To avoid eternal
shame you should act overnight before too many people notice.


The clover started to turn Brown, and slowly die off, but the grass
was all Yellow the next morning!!! Now all the neighbors have nice
Green lawns, and our lawn is all Yellow.


So, did the Scotts "Weed Control" kill the lawn?? So far, we have
gotten two different opinions.


We talked to a neighbor, and he told us that "clover" is high in
Nitrogen, and that the Nitrogen from the clover, and the Nitrogen from
the fertilizer was probably to much for the grass, and it just killed
everything.


Facts partly true conclusion not.


The sales guy we talked to at our local hardware store, said that we
probably put down the Scotts "Weed Control" to late in the season, and
that the high temperatures ( mid 80's in our area ), caused the "Weed
Control" to burn the lawn. According to him, he said that "Weed
Control" is suppose to be applied BEFORE June 1st???


More likely


If this is true, then why do they still have it on the shelfs!?


They expect people to read the instructions and to think, don't ask me why.
It would be better if such chemicals were under The Controlled Substances
Act which would force responsible conduct on the vendors, lobby your local
politicians.


So is there any truth to the above two explanations?? And now the
important thing, how do we fix/repair the lawn??? According to the
"Scotts" bag, you CAN'T put down new grass seed until 4 weeks after
applying the "Weed Control"???


You could in fact sod over it but there is a better solution - see below.


What if we were to spread around some new topsoil ( Topdressing I
think they call it? ) first, and then reseed?? Or do we have to wait
the full 4 weeks???


Fertiliser burn on the grass will do the same to shoots on seedlings only
quicker.


We have watered the lawn "deeply" for the past couple of days, but
that didn't really help. The grass is still all Yellow.


Any help and or suggestions about what to do now would greatly be
appreciated!!!


Choose between concrete, astroturf and pavers. Astroturf encourages
frollicking which brings on carpet burn for the unwary, something that
clearly says "Don't frollic" would be better in your case. I would go for
the concrete as you might get living organisms in the cracks between the
pavers. Your karma is already in bad shape and won't stand any more
genocide.

David