spidey07

Well its spring here in KY and everything is starting to green up. But my lawn is not as strong as I'd like it to be. Few dandylions are starting to pop up and crabgrass/johnson grass has always been a problem.

I went out and got some 30-3-4 fertilizer with a pre-emergent today and applied. Deep watering it now.

But I still want to keep the dandylions out. The yard is not greening up very well and its still kinda brown. Hopefully I did the right thing. Any advice is welcome - like should I spot treat the dandylions with a liquid mix? I've heard those suckers have a 2 foot tap root.

-edit- I had a company treat my lawn for the last 3 years and it still looks like crap so I'm doing it on my own this time. I think those bastards just came and put a sign in my yard and charged my 400 bucks a year without doing anything. "sir, you've got grubs we need to put down grub control for 100 bucks"

"hey jackass, you've been doing that for 3 years now and I still have grubs, WTF? Not to mention the crabgrass and overall weak lawn."

swclown

Use no other fertilizer or seed other than Scotts.
I've had serious issue with other brands. The extra price is worth it.
Dandilions have roots that can be FOUR feet long. I've seen them when I dug every FREAKIN one up by hand!

goose25

That sucks man, what kind of grass do you have? Is it Kentucky Blue Grass?

GreenMonster

I use the scotts stuff, but I think I only did the #2 (dandelion control) and #3 last year.

Seemed to do the trick as most of the dandelions are gone, and hopefully the rest will go when I hit it again this year.

I tried to dig mine out a couple years ago, but if you don't get all of the roots, they grow back.

mikeymobiles

get the spray...that usually works real well

spidey07

yep.

the fertilizer was vigaro with pre-emergent. The problem was the lawn was put in during late spring 2001 and we got hit with a big drought. Its still kinda weak. So I figured feeding it and watering like a son of a gun would be good. Most parts of my lawn get 100% sun.

-edit- need to post some pics, any good free pic hosting places?

swclown

http://www.imageshack.us/index.php

^ pretty good. no registering. pics won't stay up forever though

Be careful about too much water. It's good in the Spring, but you have to be careful once it starts to grow. The grass will grow shallow roots because there will be no need to grow deeper if you water too much.
It rains so much here in the Spring I don't need to water.

matelot

make salad out of teh dandylions

swclown

nice avtar. his birthday was last week

GreenMonster

Yeah, google had a special logo for him. DerrickM has one of the olive paintings, but I've got a starry night copy in my living room... so...

spidey07

bumpity,

Its like I can sit here and watch the dang dandylions grow. Do I dig them up or spot treat them?

spidey07

Got some Ortho weed-be-gone MAX concentrate. Mixed it up in a pressure sprayer and started going after the little buggers one by one.

I'll be darn if that stuff isn't killing them dead, and its been less than 24 hours...already starting to see the effects.

suXor

Well, it's a bit late for pre-emergent. Here is what I do:

Fall (Mid-End November):

• Last mow of the season - Lower the deck a few notches and scalp the yard
• Put down a dormancy/winterizer
• Water 1-2 more times (4-5 minutes per zone on a irigation system), to get teh winterizer into the soil. Turn off sprinkler system
• If need be, mow again, as needed until end of season

Winter:

• Um, nothing

End of winter/early spring (end of Februrary/Early March)

• Mow to shock the dormant grass and stir up the top soil (will be dusty)
• Put down a pre-emergant. Type varies based on your normal weed types and grass type. There is usually a pre-emergent for most all types. Dandilions, and most all broad leaf weeds are the biggest culprits
• Water 1-2 times (4-5 minutes each zone)
• Wait for Spring

Spring:

• Watering- As you start to see the area green up, turn your sprinkler system back on. Again, based on the weather in your area, how much you water varies. For me, anything < 90* here in Texas, with rain once a week, I set all zones to 5 minutes, every third day. IF it rains more, I might shut the system off for a week or so. If it rains less, or gets hotter, I amy add more time to the cycles, but not more frequency. I have a very solid clay based soil that does not drain well, so I need less watering then most. You need to know your soil, and sun exposure to know how much to water and where needs more than other spots. If you have planted a tree in yuor yard, you'll know your soil type. If you haven't, take a pipe, hammer it into the ground about 3-4', pull it out, and force the soil out of the tube. You will have a cross section of your soil, and be able to better understand your drainage issues, if any. Do this is multiple spots in your yard to get a yard wide picture.
• Put down another does of pre-emergent with fertilizer.

Spring-Summer

• Continue normal watering and mowing. Always mow at least once every two weeks. Grass can get shocked and "burned" if more than a couple of inches are cut at a time.
• Use a high iron fertilizer that claims no "burning". Scotts has a great southern fertilizer. They also have a special Texas blend, that is awsome, but only sold here in Texas.
• Always Mow - Fertilize - Water on the same day. Check your fertilizer directions for frequency of fertilizing.

Doing all this should give you a low maintence yard in regards to brown spots or weeds. The biggest enemy weeds have, is thick grass. It chokes out the weeds ability to grow. I even get weeds in the spring, but maybe half a dozen at most. I don't even touch them. I mow them down with the grass, and after a few mows and the grass is going, they stop coming back.

I know it sounds like a pain, but a good yard takes a little time, at least 1 year of this process.

04acura tl

I use that stuff from k-mart or home depot weed and feed that hooks to the hose a couple times a year. Its about 7bucks and I see the results in 24 to 48 hours.
Scotts is to much cash for me.

Adam_Schwartz

I live in Texas so this info may not apply, but here goes. We have St Augustine and the key to a weed-free lawn is to have healthy grass. You may need to actualll get out there and physically remove these weeds and then apply a pre-emergent herbicide, like Barricade. When we first moved into our house 2.5 yrs ago I had to yank weeds for awhile, but now my lawn it healthy enough to where hardly any weeds can survive. I am not a fan of weed and feed applications because of certain ingredients that can do more harm than good. In fact, I try to not apply any weed killers in general.

Another thing you can do that will really help your lawn is add some compost. We applied some this past weekend and it should do wonders. It will help feed the lawn by adding organic matter and help keep the lawn from drying out by acting as a mulch for your lawn. For a 60'x150' lot, we used about 5 yards of compost and had some left over for our beds. The first app is always thicker, so next year we will need maybe 3 yds.

Also, cutting your lawn higher will help shade out any crab grass or other weeds.

joeshmoe

Buy a goat and let him loose in the yard.