This is our first spring in this house. It's time to set up the lawn for spring. Typically, at our previsous home, I would lyme the lawn in the fall and then in early MArch, spread Scotts 2+2, followed by Rebel grass seed in April. We live near the Potomac River in Northern VA (e.g. we have sandy, red clay soil). We also get plenty of sun and have a sprinkler system.

I am running a little behind on the lawn prep... i.e. I have not started yet

I was talking to one of my neighbors about lawn stuff and he was taken aback by my mention of lyme and 2+2. He then proceeded to mention a series of special lawn treaments and seeds that can only be bought from the custom yuppy landscaping store.  I am thinking that is all BS, except for the fact that he and the other neighbors that use that stuff have very nice lawns.

At our previsous home, our lawn was fine, good enough for me, but not as nice as my neighbors lawns here. Frankly however, if I can reproduce the results from before, I'll be pleased. My neighbors can brag about their lawns, I can brag about my black rifles.

Should I just stick with my current formula-- can I use lyme now in concert with 2+2 AND grass seed? Do I need to wait intervals between spreading the lyme and 2+2 and seed?

Are there any other alternatives in terms of time, quality and cost?

Thanks!

Use a Top dresser 21-4-17 in the spring. Lime depends on your soil.

My husband has a tonic he puts on our lawn that works very well.  Our soil seems similar to yours in description.  We have the greenist lawn in town by far.  Three things account for that:

1:  I will not allow it to be mowed more than every other week.  It looks like crap the first few times [its fairly shaggy right now since it was mowed last week] but once it learns the EOW scenerio it will thicken up and look greener, thicker and will require less water [which is why I do the EOW].

2:  David's tonic [you'll laugh when you see what's in it.  He's in church right now so I'll have to wait until he gets back to post his tonic]

3:  Every spring we thatch our lawn.  Its a lot of work but is well worth the effort.  We bought a blade that fits on our mower.

You want Turf Trust 24-2-12

Apply now, September, and November

You can get it at Wolf Trap Nursery on Rt 7 just west of the Toll Rd. It's in a purple bag.

"When in rome do as the romans do"
You must outdo the neighbors lawns

Ammonium Nitrate?

Use the leftovers to make Tannerite.

Quoted: Ammonium Nitrate? Use the leftovers to make Tannerite.

LOL-- this is follows part of my rationale for using lyme.

Quoted: You want Turf Trust 24-2-12 Apply now, September, and November You can get it at Wolf Trap Nursery on Rt 7 just west of the Toll Rd. It's in a purple bag.

Thanks! I will give it a try.

Do yourself a favor and run down to the local feed/fertilizer store and buy some 50# bags of corn meal. Use 50# per 5,000 sq ft. Great for the grass, and the earthworms love it.  It's cheap, $8-9 a bag.

Also try cottoseed meal.  Also fairly cheap and a good source of nitrogen.

Kill the weeds
De-thatch
fetalizer and ironite
water really good once every 5 days

anything more than that and you are getting obsessed

Quoted: Quoted: You want Turf Trust 24-2-12 Apply now, September, and November You can get it at Wolf Trap Nursery on Rt 7 just west of the Toll Rd. It's in a purple bag. Thanks! I will give it a try.

No prob...


Also get some Gordon's Speed Zone weed killer....spray on any emergent weeds.

Neither of these products are cheap, but they're both the best I've found - both best pon the recommendations of neighbors w/ great lawns