Ok...I moved in almost exactly a year ago.  Suffered a near-crippling injury, so I couldn't do anything about the lawn then.

Then, I healed up...and went whole-hog finishing the basement, which didn't get completed until late spring.

And, this summer was as dry as a bone.  Noone's lawn came out looking great...but mine is the worst by far.

Is there anything I should be applying to it this fall?  Or, do I have to wait until spring?

I mean...my lawn really looks like crap.  Not even sure if there is any grass at all...just drought-resistant weeds.  In my own defense, however, the lawn was in bad shape when I moved in...the people I bought this house from didn't care for it much.

At least my basement looks great...

why even worry about it. mow it when it gets long, keep trees and shrubs pruned, weed any beds, and pick up any debris..branches, leaves, beer cans, and you should be in better shape than most.

i never understood the obsession many people have with their lawns. to me, anything beyond the above is a waste of resources and time.

if you really want to grow something, start a garden or get some interesting plants for around the house. a green lawn is the sign of an idle mind.

If it's green.. [b]Mow It ![/b]

My neighbor spent hunderds of dollars on the chemical man to spray his lawn...6 months after I moved into a house that had a crapty yard, the grass was greener than jade, soft ass a babys ass, and shiny.  The dude asked what I did.....I watered my yard once a week with a couple of beers in one of the hose fluid nozzle attachments.  CHEAP BEER...works wonders.

I to am the neighbor with the worst lawn!

I dont really care, water cost to much to waste on a lawn, I get charged two fees for water, one is the fee per gallon, which is acceptable, then the other is a usage fee per gallon,which is unacceptable, So when the city implemented the usuage fee as a way to get more money, I said screw the city, I will only use water that I have to, so I dont water my lawn.The only time my lawn is green is during the fall,winter and early spring when it rains, and that is it!
I try to keep things weeded, and have only a couple of shrubs,makes lawn care fairly easy!

I think some of my other neighbors have caught on to, because my house and then 3 houses down from mine in a row stopped watering there lawns to, and then the two houses across the street from me stopped watering there lawns to just recently.

Water is to expensive these days, why waste the money on a lawn! Use the extra money to buy more guns,ammo, and accessories!

i used to live in a pretty nice allotment in a pretty nice burb.

if you had one dandelion in your yard...well, all the hoity toity neighbors considered unfit to draw breath. every spring it was dump enough weed & feed on it that the grass would grow 2" while you sat and drank a beer.

every summer...spread the greening agents on it.

every fall...reseed it.

winterize it.

mowed that stinkin' grass twice a week for 8 years!

now, i live in the country on a ranch. not a care in the world for that stupid grass. i just drive the biggest john deere made over it every other week. no neighbors so no fertilizer or weed killer required.

zippy, if had it to do over again, i would take the advice i'll give you...hire a lawnscape company to take care of that stuff. life is too short to spend that amount of time on....grass!

First of all, keeping a beautiful lawn will increase your home value. I consider my home an investment, and if I can do anything to increase its value, I will.

[b]For the weeds:[/b] Scotts® Turf Builder with Plus 2® Weed Control kills broadleaf weeds, such as dandelions, that ordinary weed and feeds miss. After application, the weeds gradually fade away, root and all, as the fertilized lawn grows thicker and greener. Apply any time weeds are active.

[img]http://www.scotts.com/_graphics/cpg_packages/2STBP2WC.gif[/img]

[b]For fertilizer:[/b] Scotts® Turf Builder® Lawn Fertilizer builds thick green turf from the roots up without burning your lawn.

[img]http://www.scotts.com/_graphics/cpg_packages/2STBLF.gif[/img]

[b]For seeds:[/b] Scotts Pure Premium™ Sunny Grass Seed Mixture is a mix of top-performing bluegrass and improved perennial ryegrass that produces a handsome, deep green lawn in sunny areas.

[img]http://www.scotts.com/_graphics/cpg_packages/2SPPGSY.gif[/img]

[url]http://www.scotts.com/lawncare/FAQ.cfm[/url]

This fall apply a thick layer .5" - 1" of heat treated cow manure.  Water 3 times a week for 15 - 20 minutes each time.  If you like you can over seed the area before putting down the manure.  Manure again in the spring with a good combo chemical fertilizer weed killer in late spring early summer.  If you can find ammonium sulfate or ammonium nitrate use that in the late spring to make the grass turn dark dark green.

Now is a good time to re-seed.  If you are going to dig it up and start over then make sure to put a lot of mulch, manure, and peat in the soil.  This will help to keep your lawn drought tolerant by holding in the water that you apply to it.  It will also keep your water bills down as you will need less water to have a healthy lawn.

I have been a semi organic gardener for the past 25 years having been taught by an award winning gardener of 50 years.  

Good luck,

a

Whatever you do, don't hire the ChemLawn guy!!! [;)]

[i]edited to correct the name. And I knew it wasn't right as I typed it. [BD] [/i]

LOL!...I remember this, someone on the board pulled a gun on the Chemlawn guy...Made him shit in his pant.  LOL!

I remember the Chemlawn thread.I beieve the fellows name was Mohawk or something like that.

Hilarious thread.

Ortho Weed-B-Gon does a great job killing off broad leaf weeds (dandelions etc) without hurting the grass- (if used as directed). The stuff is right from love canal though, so don't eat the grass! Aside from that just fertilize fall and early spring, and seed in the early fall. Cutting close in the spring will help too- the lawn pushes rizones (new shoots) horizontally during high growth periods if it is kept trim. The beer thing really does work, by the way, and even better if you mix in some dish detergent!

[8d]

Hey AR, are you an employee of Scotts, or just a shareholder? [:D]

don't forget to use these products as well...

[img]http://www.scotts.com/_graphics/cpg_packages/2SSG3.gif[/img]

[img]http://www.deere.com/en_US/scotts/images/products/new_equipment/ne_tractor_image_l2548.jpg[/img]

I embrace my dead lawn.  I dance on the highly-flammable remnants after a couple of 105 degree days in Texas.  Sadly, it rarely cracked 100 this summer so I actually have some grass left.  I will never win our town's Yard of the Month award.

My wife loves to mow for some reason.  I usually don't have to touch the mower anyway.

Get any brand of fertilizer with a "triple" rating, 15-15-15.
Wet the lawn down, dump this stuff on it, water the lawn. Repeat every couple of days, make sure you water the lawn down good before and after you apply it.
It'll be green.......

Sidenote, while I was renting a house in Kalifornication one of the requirements of the lease was that the lawn was to be kept up. Of course I didn't want to waste water (and money) on a lawn I could care less about.
A month before I was ready to move the property manager came by and told me that I needed to water the lawn and get the grass growing or else I was going to have to pay for a landscaper to come out.
I went to Home Depot and bought every last open and broken bag of fertilizer I could find.
I fertilized the lawn and water soaked it every damn day for almost a month. It came in green, near the end I was having to mow it every three days. The day I left I spread what was left of 4 bags all over the front and back lawn.
I ran into my old neighbor who had seen me dumping the fertilizer on the lawn, he laughed and told me that the property manager was pissed off since he had to hire someone to keep mowing the lawn.
[x]

Don't listen to the horticultural morons, [b]Zippy![/b]

The very [u]first[/u] thing that must be treated is the soil.

If the soil is working right, the rest will follow.

If the soil is not working right, all of those expensive fertilzers that everyone's saying to use, will be of no use.

First, determine what type of soil you have, clay, sandy, rocky, chalkey, whatever.

Next, go to Howard Garrett's Organic Gardening website:[url]http://www.dirtdoctor.com/index.asp[/url]

Here's his [b]Basic Organic Program[/b]:

STEP 1: Stop using all synthetic fertilizers and pesticides.

STEP 2: Start recycling organic matter, building SOIL health with organic products, composting and mulching.

STEP 3: Use native plants and well-adapted introductions.

Continue reading this program at:[url]http://www.dirtdoctor.com/article.asp?id=1027&Parsed=true&Param0=soil&Param1=improvement[/url]

You simply must go organic, especially if you have young children and pets running barefoot in your yard.

Take this test. Cut a clove of garlic in half and put the garlic into your sock and put your shoe back on. What happens? In a few minutes, you will beging to 'taste' the garlic in your mouth, in the following minutes, the garlic will be on your breath.

The garlic is being absorbed through the skin in your foot.

Now, imagine that's not garlic, but some chemical agent that you put in your sock.

You want your kids running around barefoot in stuff you have no idea what it might contain?

Eric The(RememberAgentOrange?)Hun[>]:)]

The first thing you need to determine is how bad is the weed population.  If it is over 50% then you should seriously consider total renovation which involves killing everything and starting over from scratch which I usually recommend.  The second thing you should do right away is take a representative soil sample and get it tested by your local cooperative extension service so you know what is going on in the soil.  You really don't grow grass you build healthy soil and create the correct niche for the type of grass desired and nature takes care of the rest assuming rain/irrigation is consistent.  For the soil test you will need about 1/3 of a small paper lunch bag of soil  taken down at about 2.5" below the surface and in small amounts(table spoons full) from all over the complete lawn area to get a representative sample of the whole lawn.  Get your soil tested and then you can do the necessary things (like adjusting ph and adding organic matter and minerals if necessary etc. to build good soil and then you just have to choose the appropriate seed mixture for the type of lawn you want and prepare the soil, plant the seed and keep it lightly watered several times a day till germination.  I know this sounds like a lot but believe me its not rocket science and really is easy.  I am a golf course superintendent, this is what I do and it is my profession.  Talk to your local county cooperative extension agency and they can help you out with soil testing and will most likely have lots of free literature concerning lawn establishment and after care.   Get the soil test done and if you like e mail me the results and I'll be happy to help you set up a program to either renovate your existing lawn or kill it all and start over from seed.  Good luck and don't hesitate to e mail any questions I don't mind I can't make money shooting my AR's so turf if my life!

Thanks for all the advice guys, really.

And...I'd love to hear the "Chemlawn Man" holdup story.

Oh...one more thing...what's the minimum number of pink flamingos one should have in one's front yard?

I was thinking along the lines of 70-80...

My last house, in Delta, Pa., was on 2 acres of what was once a big farm. The first spring, I noticed that my lush, green lawn grew almost faster than I could cut it. As summer came, we had a pretty dry spell, almost but not quite a drought, and all my neighbor's lawns turned brown. I couldn't help but notice them, sitting around on their decks, enjoying a cold beer while turning their steaks, almost never having to mow. Meanwhile, I had to mow twice a week, or it would get too tall and my mower (18HP John Deer) could not manage it. I wished my lawn would die too. I TRIED to kill it by mowing it almost completely down to the dirt. A week of burning sun later, my grass was 6" tall again. Finally, I asked my neighbor what the hell the previous owner had done to make my lawn so damn fertile, and he told me that my property was situated on what was once the pig pen on the farm. I lived there for 10 years, never ever weeded, treated, or God forbid, fertilized it, and it just stayed lush and green and grew faster than I could manage it.
Thankfully, I have moved.

My new house is also part of an old farm, but I am in an old corn field. 3/4 of my 2 acres grow just barely noticeable in a weeks time, and the rest (the part in the shade of the house) needs mowing once a week in late spring and less the rest of the year. This year, with the drought, I bet I haven't mowed but 5 times all year. It's brown, and it's BEAUTIFUL!

I think I'll go pop a beer and grill me a steak....

The organic matter(pig manure) built up a tremdous beneficial microbe population in that soil and you now know how important building healthy soil is to growing quality turf.[beer]

ReconByFire's right. Beer is good for the lawn. Check out jerrybaker.com for more crazy, natural "tonics" for your landscape. I've been dying to try them.

Two Words:  [b]Astro Turf[/b]

One thing about "natural" fertiliers...pig, cow, chicken shit and that is if it is cheap (meaning it has not been processed) then the sodium content of the aformentioned shit will do more harm than good for your lawn, not to mention your neighbors will not like the freshly mucked barn smell most likely.

Eric the Hun is right on the chemical stuff, however, I subscribe to the "Without Chemicals Life Itself Would Be Dull" or something like that.

I could give you the entire lesson guide that I have from Scotts, I went to a 3 day training class when I worked at Home Depot. Soil preperation is the key.

Just remember that the goal of lawn preperation is to make your lawn bed into one big planter box. [x] A tiller, a rock screen and a strong back are your friends.

First off, let me tell you, I have absolutly zero experience caring for lawns... I live in an apartment.

However, my brother does.  He went to a local turf company (they install and care for turf/sod/whatever) and had soil tests done.  They analyized it for him and sold him some of the fertilizer they use that met his needs.  He had to buy a huge bag, but it was really cheap compared to store bought stuff.  His yard is 20+ years old and looks good.  It's not golf course quality, but requires little work (I think he has to fertilize twice a year) and looks nice.  

Just an idea for you

If you really, really want to continue to use chemicals fertilizers and pesticides on your yard, the yard your growing children play on, then you'd better read up on the long term effects of such chemicals on developing children.

I say, 'Why risk it?'

My yard is totally organic, and it's the prettiest yard on the block, with the greenest color you've ever seen.

My trees are taller and fuller than everyone else's and I've never even lost a single bush to freeze.

And it all comes from being organic!

Read this link on the effects of chemical fertilizers and pesticides on children:

[url]http://www.chem-tox.com/[/url]

You'll never look at chemicals the same way again!

Eric The(Organic)Hun[>]:)]

I saw screw it... I live in a nice place and I only cut mine when it gets REALLY bad, really tall...
Water it, forget it... Edge ? Yea right, maybe twice a year. Plants ? Your kidding right ?!?

I went out to plant something nice in my flower bed (after 2.5yr of it being weeds/grass)
$40, $40 friggin bucks, for some sidewalk lining nice plants, some mulch, and that black mesh stuff. Screw that.

I look at people around the block and most of them must have spend 4-5 grand on plants and their lawn.. I say screw that.

Plus, if your lawn looks like sh!t, maybe people will think you don't have crap and they'll think about robbing someone else's house.

My backyard is even better, I really don't care about it... It looks like Vietnam... The weeds are waist high.

I'm not making a joke either...

edited for typos

Well, having had to deal with what would be some folk's "dream lawn", I will strive to keep mine brown and barely alive.
Granted, a nice lawn adds to the curbside appeal if you're selling your house, but even a scorched brown lawn can be made to turn green and pretty in less than a month. My current strategy is to keep mine gasping for life until right before I sell the dump. Time is money. Think of all the time saved, not to mention cash blown on stuff that actually makes the wretched shit grow FASTER (something I cannot fathom). Not that I'm lazy, just that I've dealt with a "super lawn" and you can friggin have it! I love my slow growin', minimal hassle lawn. Then again, I don't live in some suburban crap-hole, trying to keep up with the Jones's, with some association keeping their watchful eye on me. My lawn looks nice, it doesn't have a lot of weeds, but it is not a golf course either. A few weeks of over watering and careful mowing, and it would look like friggin Camden Yards.

Hey, just be damned glad you don't live in the UK and have a screwed up yard  [:D]

[url]http://www.derbyeveningtelegraph.co.uk/displayNode.jsp?nodeId=64387&command=displayContent&sourceNode=63914&contentPK=2689047[/url]