What is the best way to regrow my lawn which is now 80% covered with carb grass and weeds.?
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Crabgrass is an annual in most areas unlike most other lawn grasses. This grass is killed by freezing temps. The goal is to keep next years seeds from germinating. The crabgrass seeds germinate when the soil temperature, at 4" deep, holds at 55°F. This soil temperature can coincide with the time the forsythias are in bloom.
Healthy grass will out compete crabgrass. The presence ot this weed indicates the grass was probably mowed to short on a regular basis. A healthy, thick, 2 1/2 - 3 inch turf will shade crabgrass out. So a preemergent treatment of corn gluten applied before forsythia blooms and at the recommended intervals will keep the old seed from spouting allowing the lawn grass to spread. Ajusting your mower blades to their highest setting will allow the grass to grow thick & dense. HastaGro 12-4-8 Liquid Lawn Fertilizer will encourage grass and weed growth but grass can tolerate frequent mowing as long as it has enough green to photosynthesize. Meanwhile the weeds are having their apical growth region removed forcing them to grow to death with as frequent a mowing schedule as you can tolerate.
Adjusting your pH will help as crabgrass likes from 4.8 to 6.3 best while lawn grass likes a pH closer to neutral at 6.5. Adding lime if you have an acid soil may help some.
There is a product that says it is an organic crabgrass specific herbicide.
http://www.crabgrassalert.com/
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/crabgra...
I have not tried this myself but I have heard you can cover the lawn with a daylight blocking tarp for 10 days to kill the crabgrass but the lawn grass will recover if only 10 days have elapsed. Spread a fine compost and overseed. Keeping your grass thick by overseeding will help control crabgrass by crowding it out. Shade is lethal to crabgrass. When the lawn is thin so that light can penetrate and reach crabgrass seeds on the soil surface crabgrass grows. Then in winter the crabgrass dies leaving large bare patches ready for next springs weed seed crop to germinate.
In the Fall aerate and plant grass seed.
In the Winter fertalize
In the Spring apply a pre-emmergent (this will halt the spreading of the weeds)
In the summer keep it watered and fertalize
It will take about two years to have a good lawn if you do this every year.
The best way? Kill everything with a herbicide. Level the yard with fill and put down sod. This isn't the cheapest way to do it but it is the fastest and best way.
The best way and less time is to just start over with fresh new lawn because by the time you put fourth that much time trying to bring back a lawn thats 80% gone it would cost less with money and your time to just start with a new lawn
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