[jreger]

I will try and make this as quick as possible with trying to give as much info as I know haha..

Intro: We moved into this home in northern Ohio (Marion Ohio exactly) November. It is 10 years old, two thirds of the lawn was sodded.. and my lawn is MUCH greener than the other neighboring lawns, but its not as uniform.. the sod looks to me to be a bluegrass.. the neighbors and the 1/3rd in the back looks to be tall fescue.

I like the dark green color of the sod but its bumpy and I am mowing it all at 3.5 inch length and cutting it when its around 4.5-5... I have some thick which looks to be crabgrass taking over the front yard with the bluegrass but it has been treated professionally since the beginning. (and when I say sodded it was sodded in 2007)

Here it is against the neighbors yard

Neighbors light green on the right.


Here are a few more images of it all together to help you identify it






This shows what I believe is the crabgrass or other broadleaf that they aren't killing with the professional treatment.




This shows the bumpy texture and the crabgrass


Here is my questions

Can I make it a uniform look? or is that just how it is.
Am I right in cutting it high at the 3.5inch mark?
anything I can do about the crabgrass or whatever it is?

Thank you for your help!

 

[Stegs]

ok so those seed heads you have is kentucky blue grass...really good stuff.

the wider blade grass could be kentucky 31 which is a really cheap, horrible turf type tall fescue (if you can call it turf type)

both of which is a cool season grass. Tough to kill it without harming the KBG.

That would also explain the bumpy lawn (tttf is a bunch type grass) so it grows in clumps

to get it bump free, you have 2 options

1. bring in soil, fill in the low spots and let the grass work thru
2. kill it all off and start over, rake smooth, pick your seed (or sod) and start over.

depending the size of the lawn, you may want to live it this summer, apply milorganite or organic fert to build the soil, and kill it all off this august, and reseed for a fall renovation

 

[jreger]

I thank you for the response! That was what I was afraid of. Haha

I REALLY don't want to kill it all just yet, may wait a few years haha

But I think I will make in a bunch of good soil and seed with KBG.

 

[LawnNerd]

I've got worse news. That's not Tall Fescue, but i do believe that's quackgrass, and the only way to kill it is to use glyphosate. Unlike fescue Quackgrass has rhizomes that will spread and send up new shoots in a new location. IE spreading like the Kentucky Blue. glyphosate on a q-tip works pretty good, but is laborious work.

 

[jreger]

Believe it or not I love that kind of laborious work!!
Looking for my local glyphosate dealer now! 😂

 

[ryeguy]

The key indicator of quackgrass is the clasping auricles:

Which it appears that grass has at least from the second to last pic. But take a closer look yourself and confirm.

 

[Rucraz2]

I would personally not bring in new soil if it were me. Your just asking for new weed seeds to germinate. Unless your ready to reno now. And thats to level low areas not trying to level clumping fescue. Getting soil without weed seeds as far as I'm concerned is impossible. Sand is your best option. But again with the fescue it's going to clump again. If it were my boat...deal with it till you do a reno. Then level and prep like no tomorrow. Good lawns dont come overnight.

 

[jreger]

Here it is up close

 

[g-man]

That looks like barnyard.

 

[jreger]

Same help for barnyard? Use the qtip to paint glyphosate on it?

 

[g-man]

I think you could use quinclorac or tenacity or hand pull it.

https://turf.ces.ncsu.edu/weeds-in-turf/barnyardgrass/

 

[jreger]

thank you! That site is my new obsession!!