Pond Boss Forums GENERAL QUESTIONS Pond Boss nice grass.

I know this has nothing to do with ponds but I need advice on how to grow some nice looking grass. I have crab grass covering most of my front yard and I would like to get rid of it as easily as possible. Then I would like to plant some new Kentucky Bluegrass fescue mix. Any advice on fertilizers, crab grass killers, grub/mole killers etc would be greatly appreciated. Unfortunately the green thumb is not something that is a common trait in my family.

I guess this could be linked to ponds in that good grass will prevent erosion and runoff into the pond. There I related something to ponds that is completely unrelated to ponds. My wife says I'm getting pretty good at that.

I normally disc the area Im going to plant and mix the seed with rye.It grows quick and gives"cover"to whatever grass your planting.

Let me talk to my brother, he grows grass for a living. Only mostly for ball fields. Hopefully he will reply tomorrow.

New front yards can be alot of fun. First off the crap grass if you want to start from nothing, scrap the top inch of soil off the lawn and through it in a compost pile. Other option is glyphosate (Roundup) according to lable insructions. Next my recomendation is airate the yard completly, Plant seed and cover with an inch of compost. Doing this you will use less fertilizer later. In my yard I would add lava sand to the compost at 40lbs per 1000sqft this will help with the moisture level in the soil. I'm organic so I will give you that first, fertilizer I would use a humate to start and a balanced organic fertilizer after. Chemical method would be 20-0-0 seed starter then the recomended fertilizer in your area.

As for grubs only about 10% of grubs are harmfull but are easily treated with benifical nematodes.

Moles on the other hand are more difficlut treat use hot pepper tea (dirtdoctor.com). This will chase them off.

The mixture for ky bluegrass in ballfields is bluegrass and perennial rye. Rye grass will take higher traffic than the fescue.

Wow Chuck, Thanks for the advice. I tried to scrape the whole front yard last year and only got about 1/4 done before I gave up (That's hard work with a shovel). The crab grass grew back in the spot I doug up anyway. I obviously didn't go deep enough. I think I'll go with the roundup instead of the manual digging.

Thanks for the suggestion of the Rye and Bluegrass. My yard gets a lot of traffic.

I'll have to try that hot pepper tea.

Brett, If you are establishing cool season turf consider a 4 way of 10% Hybrid Thermal bluegrass and 3 adapted TTTF (turf type tall fescues)for your area.These blends have great heat and cold tolerance and require less fertilizer.Crabgrass is an annual the reproduces from seed and dies off in the midwest with the first frost, If it still has a green cast it is not crab grass, When you seed with heavy crab pressure the only pre emergent that will not hamper (kill) the germ on the desireable seed is a product called "Siduron" after lawn is established the following year switch to a pre emergent like Barricade or Dimension.(they cost a lot less)Thick grass is the best crabgrass control. Crabgrass seed is viable for up to 12 years so you have a good seed supply in the soil already. Consider a high P205 fertilizer for seed establishment like 18-24-12 and then after established switch to a no phosphate fertilizer. (21-0-7)Getting rid of grubs will not rid moles as they are after earth worms but to rid them look at a bait called "Talprid"If you want to rid grubs look at common controls like Merit,Mach2 also common grub prevention products.Good Luck !!

Go low maintenance and plant buffalo grass. If you are okay with 4-5 inch tall grass you only have to mow about once a month.

All good points. One that did not get discussed...
If you have quack grass, preparation will be vital. Quack grass is the worst. Nothing will kill it except the strongest veg killers like round up. Worse, the seeds it drops every year can lay dormant for a couple years and still germinate later.
I goofed on my front lawn some 14 years ago. I did not prepare by veg killing the entire zone first. I also did not know about the "never say die" quackgrass characteristic. The first year, after the rye, fescue, and bluegrass came in, it looked great. By about the 2nd/3rd year, the quackgrass came back with a vengeance. We live with it cuz I ain't gonna start from scratch on an acre of lawn.

Remember that crab grass is an annual, if you put down a pre emergent you may be able to prevent the seeds from sprouting this spring...

Brettski, Quackgrass is indeed a different animal altogether. A lot of time in bed prep you actually increase the population by chopping it up as the rhizomes left that are 1/4 or longer can re establish into another viable quackgrass plant.Rhizomes from a single plant can be several feet long.Gly products such as Roundup do an OK (at best) job but normally one does not wait long enough for the product to translocate throughout the entire rootstock.Then as you mention you have to deal with the seeds.The golf market is starting to have some products introduced that are selective materials for quackgrass control that many of us are watching for the results.Nimblewill is another tough one in an established lawn.

You may have to live with it one more year. When it greens up, hit it with a heavy dose of gly., after about 2 wks. till, let the seeds sprout, hit with gly, wait, till, etc. you will eventually get it all. tough stuff. Or, keep it mowed often; it all looks the same then. Not a good choice. As noted, good fertilization programs chock out the weeds, of which crabgrass is one.

Thanks again for all the advice. I'm trying to get an early start on the lawn this year so lawn care time doesn't cut into my spring fishing time. Last year I was working on the lawn during the height of the LMB bite.