[Milefl]

Hey everyone, I am new here. I just recently found this site and was hoping I can get the help I need to get my lawn looking great.

I have uploaded a bunch of photos of my yard that I need guidance on fixing.

Here is the background.... my property is divided into two parts, the level part of my that surrounds my house and a steep hill in the backyard.

The hill I am pretty sure needs a complete kill and rehab in the fall. I do not know a lot about weeds past dandelion and crabgrass but I know that slope is so full of weeds, tall grassy weed, check pictures below.

The level part surrounding the house was completely tore up when I had a septic system installed last year. I think they used some sort of weed seed mixed with a little grass seed when they seeded and put straw down. You can see in some of the other pictures of the front there are dark patches mixed with large patches of light green. The lawn is very thin. The light green patches is not grass. At least I do not think so. It is more of a stalk that if it grows to about 6" has a seed head.

I am not sure if I should do a total kill and reseed with a quality grass seed in the fall or not.

Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

 

[nocsious]

Honestly I would just nuke it late summer with glyphosate and do a complete renovation. Water it every other day for two weeks. Mow it and then spray glyphosate again to kill any remaining weeds and grass. Wait another 2 weeks.

Buy some sod quality grass seed appropriate for your area. Buy online if you can't find a supplier nearby. You have some choices for turf type living in Maryland, but tall fescue would be a good choice. There are various methods to seed and get good results. I like to use peat moss as a thin topdressing, but you'll get various responses on what's best, but remember that your seed needs good contact with the soil in order for high germination rates. That means you'll need to prepare the soil surface somehow.

 

[probasestealer]

1. Kill it all.
2. Decide when you want to kill it. I'd recommend you fallow. Kill it soon, keep it watered and spray it every 1-4 weeks. You want weeds to germinate and then kill them
3. At this point I'd skip pre-emergent. But Halts might be an option of you do it soon.. anyone else have an opinion on this?
4. I like mid August to seed. In NC I did my last Reno 8/13
5. Decide on seed. Kentucky bluegrass, hybrid bluegrass (my new favorite) of tttf
6. Water, water water

Basics... Plenty of info on this site. We're happy to help

 

[Milefl]

Thank you for the input. I was thinking to just kill the whole yard. Should I aerate the yard before I seed? And what is the reason for watering the yard? Is that to get the weed seeds to germinate so they can be killed before seeding?

 

[Milefl]

Sorry you guys already answered the last question I asked. If I start this in June that will give me 2.5 months before I would seed in mid to late August.

 

[probasestealer]

Sorry you guys already answered the last question I asked. If I start this in June that will give me 2.5 months before I would seed in mid to late August.

Don't aerate if you can help it (resist), you risk bringing weed seeds to the surface. Kill, kill, rake the dead/thatch and continue killing. I typically kill a few times, scalp slowly bringing down the deck as low as it will go and bag the clippings. That cuts down on raking and soil disturbance
I personally think 2.5 months is enough. I did 1 month last year, tons of crabgrass pressure last fall. Crabgrass dies as the weather cools.
Read about Tenacity at seed down. You can spray it, or Scott's has mesitrione + starter.

 

[social port]

@Milefl I really like the Scott's starter with mesotrione.
It is convenient to apply a nice fertilizer and the tenacity at the same time. The granular form has worked very well for me, and my yard was exceptionally weedy (especially with grassy weeds) before my reno.

 

[probasestealer]

I agree with the above. But remember, mesitrione is a better post-emergent than pre-emergent