Leeandrew86
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Lawn is 80% to 90% Weeds. What should we do?

I live in southern Indiana. We just moved into our new home (10 year old home) and it appears to have never had grass seed planted. It is literally 80-90 percent weed. See the pics... What in the heck should we do?
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imafan26
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Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

If the groud is compacted as well, I would start over. Kill the grass and weeds. You can use plain roundup, not the extended ones that contain other things. or you can use an old carpet to cover the grass and kill everything, but it would have to be done in sections. Using a weed killer is still a better idea since you have mostly weeds.

After you remove the dead stuff, till and add compost and manure. if you have a composting facility nearby and a truck, you can get a truckload very cheaply. you want to spread about 4-6 inches of compost on the soil and a bag of manure for every 100 square feet.

Grade everything to make sure that water will flow away from the foundation of the house and pitch everything toward the street. Make sure the swale is kept intact. Install a sprinkler system. It will make life easier. Fertilize with grass fertilizer and water the soil to get it settled. Fill in any spots that puddle and fine tune the grading.

Water every day. Pull any weeds that come up. keep watering and pulling weeds until you have gotten most of them out. The soil should be deeply watered now and that is good. Now you can sod, or plant stolons, or grass seed. After planting, I usually toss Big R or compost over the top about 1/4 inch over stolons or seed and rake to cover. Watering whether you plant sod, stolons, or seed should be 4 times a day until the grass has rooted. Depending on your grass and temperature that can be about for 4-6 weeks or more. After the grass looks like it is growing, slowly back off the watering and extend the watering time so that you apply the equivalent of an inch of rain or water a week.

How do you know you have applied an inch? Set out empty tuna cans around the yard every two feet or so from each sprinkler head. Sprinklers do not deliver water evenly that is why you double cover the area with two sprinkler heads. Some cans will fill faster than others, but when the last can is filled, you have at least an inch of water. Make note of the amount of time it took and you can divide that time by two and water every 3-4 days for half the time. Watering infrequently but deeply forces the roots to go deeper and makes the grass more drought tolerant than shallow watering.

This is a lot of work, but it can be done.

Or, you can get an estimate from a few landscapers to kill the weeds, amend the ground, install the sprinklers and plant the grass. It is still a good idea to do some research on what they should be doing and make sure the contract specifies exactly what is included in the price. like cost of materials, sprinklers, fertilizers, grass.

Landscapers can usually get a better deal on materials since they would have accounts which give them discounts. If you sign a maintenance contract with them for a year, sometimes they will give you a better price. the maintenance contract should specify what they will do such as cut grass and landscape plants, trees are usually extra, pest control, weed control, and fertilizing. Landscapers will take care of the grass but you have to take care of the watering and keeping traffic off the grass. If you are going to do your own mowing make sure you get a low maintenance grass. You may have to research that too, and get clear instructions from the landscaper on how to take care of the lawn, preferably write it down.

While the grass is growing you want to avoid walking on the new grass as much as possible. New grass is fed monthly, after it is established it should be aerated, topdressed and fed once or twice a year. According to my extension agent it is normal to renovate grass every 7 years. Most people here have grass for twenty years or more before they even think about it.

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pinksand
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Joined: Thu Aug 23, 2012 2:13 am
Location: Columbia, MD

I'm dealing with the same issue in my yard. We're on 3/4 acre so it's honestly too much for me to start over. Last fall I raked and hand weeded a section of the lawn that was in particularly awful shape and then overseeded. This spring the sections where I did this are looking really nice and filled in. I'm planning on doing more areas this weekend.

Honestly, I've also learned to embrace a polyculture lawn. Even the grass seed I planted in the fall contains clover and other mixed ground covers. The idea is completely appalling to some people, but everything I've read on the idea just makes sense to me.

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Gary350
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Location: TN. 50 years of gardening experience.

I use to live in southern Illinois it is a lot like southern Indiana grass was never a problem it just grows everywhere. Get a good grass seed mix put it on the yard now. If you have a rain problem washing it away then it will all end up where it is not wanted or in the street. You can rent a thing that pulls be hind a riding mower to poke the seeds in the soil but you have to own a riding mower. Call a lawn service to plant grass. If it were me I would be glad there is not much grass to mow.

imafan26
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Posts: 13947
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

Pinksand, what you did is renovate the lawn. Lawns age and get compacted and need renovation. Renovation is not the same as starting over, and it can be done in sections to make it easier. But it usually requires that you at least have a good base to start with and aerate, add organic material, fertilizer before seeding. If what you have is mostly weeds, it may be too far gone for just overseeding. But a polyculture lawn will actually be a healthier lawn as long as you don't mind the mowing and weeding out the undersirable persistant weeds. If you want a uniform lawn, than that will require starting over.

imafan26
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Posts: 13947
Joined: Tue Jan 01, 2013 8:32 am
Location: Hawaii, zone 12a 587 ft elev.

I have eliminated most of the grass from my yard except for what the HOA requires. I had Emerald zoysia until the tennants did not water the yard for 3 years and the grass became infested with nut sedge. I tried to dig it out for over a year and failed miserably. The soil was so thick with nuts.

I killed what I could and amended with compost and fertilizer. I had a large city tree shading the yard, so the zoysia did not grow very well. Emerald grows slowly anyway. I ended up with dwarf St Augustine because it was the most shade tolerant grass. It grows fast and has long runners. It keeps invading my borders.

It is still full of nutsedge, but I use image to control the nutsedge and some round up since I also have wild grass growing in it as well. I have to mow more. I have not kept up with the dethatching and the thatch is over 2 inches thick. I need to renovate again. The lawn is over 10 years old now so it is time anyway. I am not in a hurry to do this and it is only 19 ft x 20ft so I can do it in sections and save runners from the existing grass. I rarely ever water the grass. Although I did feel sorry for it last year and fed it. It was very dry from the heat and drought last year. Now, that it is raining it is green and the weeds are coming out again. I have to mow more than I like to. I am regretting feeding it. The only good thing is that St. Augustine is a wide bladed grass so it hides nut sedge well.



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