Hi Folks -

I live on long island, Ny ... and the temps are just about ready to start
dropping below 80 consistently... I have nearly a 1/3 acre of lawn, and have
a sprinkler system

As a first year homeowner I'm relatively new to this game. Here's my
problem: I have clover, lots of clover, and I'd like to know the best
strategy to rid the lawn of it and replace it with nice grass.

Currently, clover and various other weeds (perhaps chickweed) make up about
50% of the lawn, although its dispersed pretty evenly with nice grass... or
I'll say decent grass. The house is 90 years old, and the lawn landscaping
had been neglected for quite a few years. I get good sun.

Anyway, on a recent trip to Home Depot.. the gentleman there pointed me
towards using an Ortho product called "Chickweed / Clover / Oxalis Killer"
.... which is used with a sprayer, which I also bought. I tried one bottle,
which took care of test area about 25X50 ft. That was two weeks ago. Wow.
This stuff is serious! The product wiped out 100% of the clover and killed
not one blade of grass. Cool.

Anyway, now that that proof of concept succeeded, and I only tested it on
perhaps 1/10 of the area that needs fixing, I have a few questions about
timing, and the steps I should take:

1) It's August 28, should I go out, buy nine more bottles, and nuke the
whole place right now? Or is it too early? Given the fact that fall growing
season starts mid-late september here, isn't it a good idea to nuke the
place of the clover now?

2) After its all brown and dead, with all that fluff... what should I do? My
gut tells me that when everything's dead, I should a) rake up all the dead
and fluffy stuff with a stiff metal rake so the surface is fairly clean and
the top layer of soil is looser, b) overseed the whole place on September
15th or so, c) and put down starter fertilizer with that seed, and d) run
the sprinkler system at half the run times, but nightly (instead of the
normal every other day) untill germination

Is this a good attack plan? Any help on methods, timing is appreciated.

Thanks

Tom Newton

"Tom Newton" wrote in message
...
Hi Folks -

I live on long island, Ny ... and the temps are just about ready to start
dropping below 80 consistently... I have nearly a 1/3 acre of lawn, and
have
a sprinkler system

As a first year homeowner I'm relatively new to this game. Here's my
problem: I have clover, lots of clover, and I'd like to know the best
strategy to rid the lawn of it and replace it with nice grass.

Currently, clover and various other weeds (perhaps chickweed) make up
about
50% of the lawn, although its dispersed pretty evenly with nice grass...
or
I'll say decent grass. The house is 90 years old, and the lawn landscaping
had been neglected for quite a few years. I get good sun.

Anyway, on a recent trip to Home Depot.. the gentleman there pointed me
towards using an Ortho product called "Chickweed / Clover / Oxalis Killer"
... which is used with a sprayer, which I also bought. I tried one bottle,
which took care of test area about 25X50 ft. That was two weeks ago. Wow.
This stuff is serious! The product wiped out 100% of the clover and killed
not one blade of grass. Cool.

Anyway, now that that proof of concept succeeded, and I only tested it on
perhaps 1/10 of the area that needs fixing, I have a few questions about
timing, and the steps I should take:

1) It's August 28, should I go out, buy nine more bottles, and nuke the
whole place right now? Or is it too early? Given the fact that fall
growing
season starts mid-late september here, isn't it a good idea to nuke the
place of the clover now?

If you still have the bottle check the application rate on it to make sure
that you are within the specs and then decide how much product you will
need. Mid-September is normally a good time to apply, depending on the
weather. You want coolish, mid to low 70's temps.

2) After its all brown and dead, with all that fluff... what should I do?
My
gut tells me that when everything's dead, I should a) rake up all the dead
and fluffy stuff with a stiff metal rake so the surface is fairly clean
and
the top layer of soil is looser, b) overseed the whole place on September
15th or so, c) and put down starter fertilizer with that seed, and d) run
the sprinkler system at half the run times, but nightly (instead of the
normal every other day) untill germination

The weeds will biodegrade and help to fertilize the lawn. No need to rake.
Before you over-seed try a bit of fertilizer. My guess is that it will fill
right in for you.

Is this a good attack plan? Any help on methods, timing is appreciated.

Thanks

Tom Newton



Peter H

"Tom Newton" wrote in message
...
Hi Folks -

I live on long island, Ny ... and the temps are just about ready to start
dropping below 80 consistently... I have nearly a 1/3 acre of lawn, and
have
a sprinkler system

As a first year homeowner I'm relatively new to this game. Here's my
problem: I have clover, lots of clover, and I'd like to know the best
strategy to rid the lawn of it and replace it with nice grass.

Currently, clover and various other weeds (perhaps chickweed) make up
about
50% of the lawn, although its dispersed pretty evenly with nice grass...
or
I'll say decent grass. The house is 90 years old, and the lawn landscaping
had been neglected for quite a few years. I get good sun.

Anyway, on a recent trip to Home Depot.. the gentleman there pointed me
towards using an Ortho product called "Chickweed / Clover / Oxalis Killer"
... which is used with a sprayer, which I also bought. I tried one bottle,
which took care of test area about 25X50 ft. That was two weeks ago. Wow.
This stuff is serious! The product wiped out 100% of the clover and killed
not one blade of grass. Cool.

Anyway, now that that proof of concept succeeded, and I only tested it on
perhaps 1/10 of the area that needs fixing, I have a few questions about
timing, and the steps I should take:

1) It's August 28, should I go out, buy nine more bottles, and nuke the
whole place right now? Or is it too early? Given the fact that fall
growing
season starts mid-late september here, isn't it a good idea to nuke the
place of the clover now?

That would be my plan and in fact, the the Pacific NW, I'm killing the
crabgrass and such before I overseed in September. I have the same problem
as you, a neglected lawn. Get the poison down so it has a couple of weeks
to degrade before the seed goes down

2) After its all brown and dead, with all that fluff... what should I do?
My
gut tells me that when everything's dead, I should a) rake up all the dead
and fluffy stuff with a stiff metal rake so the surface is fairly clean
and
the top layer of soil is looser, b) overseed the whole place on September
15th or so, c) and put down starter fertilizer with that seed, and d) run
the sprinkler system at half the run times, but nightly (instead of the
normal every other day) untill germination



If there is a thatch problem, you probably want to address that before you
overseed. If the lawn has been ignored for as long as you think then you
probably have a thatch problem. Dethatching will remove the dead weeds and
old grass clippings and open the soil up for the overseeding. Then aerate,
then overseed.

I'd check the watering to do just the minimum. If you're doing every other
day today, that's probably too often and too little. Water deep, once a
week (maybe twice), and you'll have a better, healthier lawn.

Once you've killed the weeds and got the lawn going, start using a weed and
feed fertilizer for the next year for overall control and then kill/remove
the spot weeds that show up. Probably most important is to cut the lawn
long (approximately 3") and fertilize spring and fall.

--
Jim Sullivan

If you have a lawn where half of it is clover and other unknown,
weeds, the best solution is to kill everything and reseed. You may
have other undesirable grasses and weeds in there that are either
difficult or impossible to kill without killing the grass. And the
quality of whatever grass is there is suspect. Is it disease
resistant or will it be a problem. Is it the right variety, etc.?

Roundup will kill all the weeds and grass. You can reseed within a
few days, but generally it takes about a week for everything to die.

Mow it very short and rent a slice seeder. Keep it constantly moist
by frequent light watering until it gets established. Lightly
covering it with either weed free straw or peat moss will help retain
the moisture. Now is the perfect time to get started.













"Peter H" wrote in message e.rogers.com...
"Tom Newton" wrote in message
...
Hi Folks -

I live on long island, Ny ... and the temps are just about ready to start
dropping below 80 consistently... I have nearly a 1/3 acre of lawn, and
have
a sprinkler system

As a first year homeowner I'm relatively new to this game. Here's my
problem: I have clover, lots of clover, and I'd like to know the best
strategy to rid the lawn of it and replace it with nice grass.

Currently, clover and various other weeds (perhaps chickweed) make up
about
50% of the lawn, although its dispersed pretty evenly with nice grass...
or
I'll say decent grass. The house is 90 years old, and the lawn landscaping
had been neglected for quite a few years. I get good sun.

Anyway, on a recent trip to Home Depot.. the gentleman there pointed me
towards using an Ortho product called "Chickweed / Clover / Oxalis Killer"
... which is used with a sprayer, which I also bought. I tried one bottle,
which took care of test area about 25X50 ft. That was two weeks ago. Wow.
This stuff is serious! The product wiped out 100% of the clover and killed
not one blade of grass. Cool.

Anyway, now that that proof of concept succeeded, and I only tested it on
perhaps 1/10 of the area that needs fixing, I have a few questions about
timing, and the steps I should take:

1) It's August 28, should I go out, buy nine more bottles, and nuke the
whole place right now? Or is it too early? Given the fact that fall
growing
season starts mid-late september here, isn't it a good idea to nuke the
place of the clover now?

If you still have the bottle check the application rate on it to make sure
that you are within the specs and then decide how much product you will
need. Mid-September is normally a good time to apply, depending on the
weather. You want coolish, mid to low 70's temps.

2) After its all brown and dead, with all that fluff... what should I do?
My
gut tells me that when everything's dead, I should a) rake up all the dead
and fluffy stuff with a stiff metal rake so the surface is fairly clean
and
the top layer of soil is looser, b) overseed the whole place on September
15th or so, c) and put down starter fertilizer with that seed, and d) run
the sprinkler system at half the run times, but nightly (instead of the
normal every other day) untill germination

The weeds will biodegrade and help to fertilize the lawn. No need to rake.
Before you over-seed try a bit of fertilizer. My guess is that it will fill
right in for you.

Is this a good attack plan? Any help on methods, timing is appreciated.

Thanks

Tom Newton



Peter H