Hi--hope someone here can help me.
I am a new homeowner and really like taking care of the lawn and
flower beds. The past two times I have mowed, there is more and more
large leafy crabgrass. In the spring, I did fertilize. Is there
anything at this time, (south jersey area) that I can do to cut
down on this. There appears to be more leafy stuff than grass. Is this
something I have to wait to do?
Thanks for any suggestions--also--what exactly should the fertilizer have
done?

Fertilizer makes things grow. Weeds and grass.

You need to determine if you have crabgrass or leafy weeds. There is a
difference.

If you have broadleaf weeds, you can use a selective broadleaf weed killer
to deal with the weeds. If you have crabgrass, there are selective
herbicides (MSMA comes to mind) that (applied properly) will kill crabgrass
without killing your other grass.

KB

"Good Golly" wrote in message
news
Hi--hope someone here can help me.
I am a new homeowner and really like taking care of the lawn and
flower beds. The past two times I have mowed, there is more and more
large leafy crabgrass. In the spring, I did fertilize. Is there
anything at this time, (south jersey area) that I can do to cut
down on this. There appears to be more leafy stuff than grass. Is this
something I have to wait to do?
Thanks for any suggestions--also--what exactly should the fertilizer have
done?

Hi--hope someone here can help me.
I am a new homeowner and really like taking care of the lawn and
flower beds. The past two times I have mowed, there is more and more
large leafy crabgrass. In the spring, I did fertilize. Is there
anything at this time, (south jersey area) that I can do to cut
down on this. There appears to be more leafy stuff than grass. Is this
something I have to wait to do?
Thanks for any suggestions--also--what exactly should the fertilizer have
done?

It sounds like the fertilizer did just fine.

If you prefer to use chemicals, there are weed 'n feed chemicals that will
assist you in maintaining your lawn -- just follow their schedule and keep
the lawn cut properly and you'll have the weeds under control by start of
next season. You can also use any of a number of vegetation killers that
are grass-friendly / other-unfriendly to get things under control more
quickly.

A better way (IMHO) is to go au natural -- i.e., eliminate the chemicals
altogether. Chemicals are bad for the soil and its inhabitants and they're
really not that hot for you either.

To keep the soil's nutrients up, apply some compost lightly over your lawn
area (you can use a spreader if you like or just toss handfuls about). Use
a mulching mower and allow clippings to stay on the yard and decompose, then
when autumn comes around use that same mulching mower to chop up the leaves.
This all adds organic matter to the soil that will enrich it just as well if
not better than any chemicals you might add -- all without the negative side
effects of chemicals. You'll want to continue this process each year to
keep the soil rich in nutrients.

To help combat weed growth, I recommend first doing the above (soil
enrichment), second keeping the lawn cut to 3 inches, and finally over
seeding the lawn to encourage new gras. As the grass takes hold it will
slowly but surely resolve that weed issue. Since most weeds do not survive
the winter (they tend to be perennials or annuals) the new grass will also
prevent seed germination. I also like getting outside right about the end
of the winter season to toss down some more grass seed as well (right before
the last snow is always great because then the grass gets it's first
watering as well and the birdies won't get the seeds). Lastly, in some
cases ya just gotta do things the old fashioned way -- get out and pull a
few weeds.

Bear in mind you don't really want an all grass lawn either -- a little
variety is always a good thing. For example, if there is clover in your
lawn you'll want that to continue -- it fixes nitrogen in the soil which
grass of course needs.

The more "natural" method may take as much as a full season to get things
under control but in the long run it's a better solution and costs far less.

James