ugh, sounds like a lot of work.
after it's dead are you tilling the soil and re-seeding because if i actually am able to kill it there will be a lot of bare spots

any time. I really enjoy lawn care. and believe me, you don't have to have a green thumb to have a decent looking yard. you just need a plan and a willingness to get after it. It isn't even that expensive. weed concentrate is pretty affordable and depending on your square footage fertilizer isn't too much either. What can get nasty is the water bill if you try to fight summer dormancy with frequent watering.

once you get the weeds out yes, it is a good idea to rake it up a bit and even top-dress with some fresh soil. using organic fertilizer helps too. if you rake it up and top dress it in the early fall and do a thick over-seeding you will be in good shape. grass is a weed when you get right down to it, you are just choosing it over the other alternatives. Grass seed will take off in the right conditions if watered on decent soil.

Glad to hear that your closing will go through.

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yea Monday is gonna be action packed. Closing on my condo at 10:00, closing on my house at 1:00, moving into the house at 3:00. Tuesday I have internet, Directv and gas company all coming over to hook me up and probably give me ChinaVirus in the process.

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Is it essential that shakes has DirecTV?

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You know me like that.

Our back yard is in pretty bad shape as it got ignored for the most part last year due to a lot of family issues. I know you need to get crabgrass preventer down early and weed and feed not too long after. However, I also know I'll need to apply seed to many areas. How do I juggle all those steps since the killer products will also prevent new grass from emerging, correct?

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“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”- JD Vance
“My god, what an !diot.”- JD Vance tweet on Trump
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy”- JD Vance

cable/internet listed as essential so suck it doc! You can't keep me from The Ocho!

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For broad based weed control, I always use the Ortho spray that hooks up to the hose. The nice thing is you see the weeds wilt pretty soon after, so you can tell it works.


“ Starts working immediately
Kills common and tough weeds including crabgrass, dandelion, clover, ground ivy (creeping charlie), plantains, thistles, field violet, yellow woodsorrel, pennywort (dollarweed), english daisy, wild garlic”

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Hawaii (fuck) You

This is a GREAT question, and YES laying down preventatives CAN affect new seed, which is why I always recommend crabgrass and large-scale weed strategies are Spring projects, and seeding is a Fall project. If you attack weeds and crabgrass and also fertilize regularly all spring and summer, you are setting the table for a much more successful seeding project in the fall. If you seed in the spring, your grass will be competing with actively growing weeds and it’s harder (though not impossible).

Plus, grass is super-resilient. If you can clear out weeds, you may surprised by how hard your existing grass comes back on its own and fills in those bare spots as long as the soils is fertile and moist. By fall you have a better idea what will fill in on it’s own and what won’t.

Thanks, I appreciate your insight!

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“Mr. Trump is unfit for our nation’s highest office.”- JD Vance
“My god, what an !diot.”- JD Vance tweet on Trump
“I’m a ‘Never Trump’ guy”- JD Vance

No prob. Sometimes I think the knee-jerk reaction to a thin or weedy yard is to throw seed on it but very often you already have the grass you need. You just have to nurture it a bit by eliminating competition and enriching the soil. Seriously, it is often that easy. In a year you can go from hopeless to pretty decent and from pretty decent to getting compliments from neighbors.

And oh yeah - MOW TALL. Let those roots dive deep. During the Spring and Fall growing seasons I am maxed out on height. Scalping your yard is a welcome mat for weeds.

Whatever you choose to apply to your lawn, understand that more does not always equal better. Follow the freaking instructions, especially if your little kids are gonna be out there running around barefoot, like they should. You just don't want them exposed to 40X the rate of any chemical just so Daddy sees the dandelions die within fifteen minutes of spraying.

We cut and burned the ornamental grasses a couple of weeks ago, and last weekend my wife filled the loader bucket with old hosta leaves, etc. so now we have quite the display of tulips, violets and crocuses(sp?) up already. Whatever you plan for your plantings, aim for a long range of bloom times, and, of course, low maintenance.

Get rid of the lawns as much as possible. They're a waste of your time.

When is the best time to put a fungicide down? A portion of my front lawn got hit with it in late summer.

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I don’t have a ton of experience dealing with wide-scale lawn fungus and using fungicides but if you do, I would recommend using a preventative fungicide prior to the symptoms arising. If you wait until the symptoms are already evident, there is a great chance that just by mowing you have spread it all over your yard. If I were you, I would invest in Scott’s DiseaseEx early in the growing season and apply it regularly throughout the season, especially in the summer when some lawn diseases can feast on weakened grass trying to go dormant. In spring and fall, the two heavy growing seasons, your lawn can often simply push it out through heavy growth. It sounds like you have a had an existing problem so don’t wait for symptoms and start with an application probably in early May and keep after it to keep the fungus at bay.

Found out today my company (currently shut down due to the health crisis, thanks JB) permanently laid off 40% of our workforce, and that the rest of us will be off for at least another month. What that means is that my lawn will be getting the TLC it craves for most of the spring, and today I contemplated life and my career while raking the lawn. I also threw down some crabgrass preventer and a load of Milorganite at a slightly higher rate than normal. If I have to be home dealing with this kind of stress, my lawn is gonna look fucking awesome at least.

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Rick Hahn is the best GM in baseball.

Could not agree with you more.

We had a patch that was destroyed from our dogs so we said fuck it and laid down mulch and some stepping stones. Our backyard looks horrible compared to what the norm is and I could care less.

I've been growing grass in Arlington heights for over 30 years and it really is pretty easy. MOFO pretty much said it all. Especially the part about cutting it a little bit taller. You don't need a putting green and slightly taller grass is more healthy and keeps the weeds out.

Only thing I would add is I don't mess with watering. If it gets hot and dry in the summer I just let it go dormant. It always comes back in the fall.

It gets lots of compliments and really is not a lot of work or cost.

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

Yes, fighting dormancy is pretty much a losing battle. I do however water once a week during the heat of the summer For about an hour which totals maybe half an inch. It is better to do deeper watering once a week then it is more frequent lesser waterings. If you are going to water you need to water deep so that the roots actually benefit. Unless you are in a severe drought, one deep watering a week will usually keep you greener than most. Then again, if you are in a severe drought, it is irresponsible to be throwing a bunch of water at your lawn in the first place.

Unless you're in the city on a non metered account!

City wins again!

(I probably haven't had to water my lawn in over two years though)

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There are only two examples of infinity: The universe and human stupidity and I'm not sure about the universe.

If you don't mind a higher upfront cost you can use a product like Tenacity (Mesotrione). It is a liquid application you can apply when you seed and it will provide both pre-emergent and and broad range post-emergent weed control for you while still allowing the new seed to germinate. Its pre-emergent window is about 4 weeks so you may have to make a second application depending on the seed you are trying to grow. About $65 for an 8oz bottle but depending on your yard size it will last you for several years and it's cost per application is slightly cheaper than a big box weed killer.

Creeping Charlie in the lawn I can handle. But what about when the Creeping Charlie is all mixed in with Pachysandra? Whatever weed killer I use will kill the Pachysandra along with the creeping charlie, right?

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"I honestly don't see a good bet on the board here."

Cutting it high is the key especially as we enter June. I never water, and cutting it high keeps it green much longer. It goes dormant as you said and always comes back strong in the spring.

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Hawaii (fuck) You

That’s a tough one because many of the active ingredients that kill creeping Charlie (triclopyr, Dicamba) also will kill Pachysandra. One thing you could do (depending on the amount of infestation you have) is literally paint on Glyphosate onto the creeping Charlie. Glyphosate is the nuclear war of weed killers and will definitely fuck up your creeping Charlie for good if applied carefully directly to the leaves. And since Charlie is a ground ivy attached to an above ground root system, painting it on one section could yield large scale results over time. I’m not aware of a selective herbicide that will kill one without the other. You could easily uproot and pull the Charlie out, but it will rebound. If you stay on top of it and continue pulling it by hand over time you will definitely make some serious headway.

Tenacity is an awesome weed killer that works on all kinds of things but it is super important you follow the label. It is so concentrated that you need very little mixed in to achieve results, and putting in just a little too much or going overboard by a hair can affect your lawn. I totally recommend this product, just be careful.

So would I be a bad guy for going to Lowe's to get some fertilizer? It is on sale in their flyer.

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Lay off that whiskey and let that cocaine be.

Why would you be a bad guy? That stuff is expensive, might as well get a deal.

Since the golf is done I am going to start doing a deep dive on the yard work starting tomorrow. There is a lot to take care of. Looking at it as a big challenge. Looking at getting an 80 ft tree that is rotting and hollow inside cut down in back and stump ground out. Gotta convince my wife to spend the money. I got three quotes and I have a winner but $1400 is a bitter pill to swallow for something I really get nothing for, except maybe having a tree come down on my house.

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Flew too close to the sun on wings of pastrami