Purchased a new home in late August with a small front and back yard that is green (for the most part) but full of weeds and different types of grasses. I'm new to DIY lawn care (first time owning a home with a lawn), but am very much interested in improving the lawn over the coming years.
So…I have been doing a bunch of reading online and quickly learned that late summer/early fall is the ideal time to overseed. So rather than miss this window and have to wait until next year, I overseeded 3 ½ weeks ago with some Scotts tall fescue and some starter fertilizer. There are a few formerly patchy areas where the new growth is coming in nicely, but by and large, not a whole lot of difference. I didn't really prep the soil or kill off any weeds, so my expectations were pretty low.
Now I'm turning my attention to next spring and the steps I can take to improve the lawn. Rather than wait a full year with a crappy lawn, I would like to overseed in early spring again and get as much growth as I can. This time I plan to dethatch, aerate and then overseed (along with a compatible weed killer like Tenacity?), so hopefully I will have better results. Depending on results, I will probably repeat the process once again in late summer/early fall 2021.
My question for y'all is….Should I kill off weeds right now in the fall, so that the ground is ready to receive seed in April? My concern is that if I don't, April will roll around and I'll still have a lawn with weeds that will prevent new seed from taking off. If I kill the weeds now, the dethatching process in April will clear the dead weeds out and leave nice, open, fertile ground to receive the new seed. If I try to kill it in the spring (instead of killing it now in the fall) prior to overseeding, it will push the new grass growth period too far into the warmer parts of the summer, decreasing my chances of keeping the new growth alive.
What do y'all think? Again - I'm new at this so any and all advice is welcome! Two pics below are included for reference.
Front Yard Pic
Back Yard Pic
So…I have been doing a bunch of reading online and quickly learned that late summer/early fall is the ideal time to overseed. So rather than miss this window and have to wait until next year, I overseeded 3 ½ weeks ago with some Scotts tall fescue and some starter fertilizer. There are a few formerly patchy areas where the new growth is coming in nicely, but by and large, not a whole lot of difference. I didn't really prep the soil or kill off any weeds, so my expectations were pretty low.
Now I'm turning my attention to next spring and the steps I can take to improve the lawn. Rather than wait a full year with a crappy lawn, I would like to overseed in early spring again and get as much growth as I can. This time I plan to dethatch, aerate and then overseed (along with a compatible weed killer like Tenacity?), so hopefully I will have better results. Depending on results, I will probably repeat the process once again in late summer/early fall 2021.
My question for y'all is….Should I kill off weeds right now in the fall, so that the ground is ready to receive seed in April? My concern is that if I don't, April will roll around and I'll still have a lawn with weeds that will prevent new seed from taking off. If I kill the weeds now, the dethatching process in April will clear the dead weeds out and leave nice, open, fertile ground to receive the new seed. If I try to kill it in the spring (instead of killing it now in the fall) prior to overseeding, it will push the new grass growth period too far into the warmer parts of the summer, decreasing my chances of keeping the new growth alive.
What do y'all think? Again - I'm new at this so any and all advice is welcome! Two pics below are included for reference.
Front Yard Pic
Back Yard Pic
