Crabgrass Chronicle

My flickr pic of crabgrass is very popular, I've seen it on lots of other websites. It was time for me to get some use out of it! :-)

My summer has been spent obsessing over eradicating crabgrass without resorting to scary chemicals. To remind me of what I did, here's the list:

• Early spring - a double dose of Gardens Alive corn gluten weed killer. It did a good job. But I should have applied it again after about 6 weeks. The remaining crabgrass seed took over all the bare patches by mid-summer.
• All summer - hand pulled weeds whenever I was out in the garden. No serious back breaking weed pulling sessions, just a nice way to spent some time in the sunshine whenever I wanted a quick break.
• All summer - mowed at least once a week, mowed as high as the mower would allow and mulched the clippings right back into the lawn. Though while we were out of town, there was one far too low mowing by a neighbor, followed by a drought, left some areas brown and nearly dead.
• All summer - while mowing, pulled up clumps of crabgrass as I mowed. Was hoping the mowing would keep the crabgrass from going to seed. No such luck, it finally went to seed and there's a ton of seed waiting to sprout next spring.
• August - while digging up some good lawn to expand a garden bed, I transplanted the sod to some major bare spots. After 6 weeks, it seems to be growing nicely.
• Late August
• Got really serious about pulling out the weeds. This was the back breaking version of the chores. Big swaths of weeds of came up, leaving lots of bare patches. 
• Gradually lowered mower height over several weeks, till I could do one last really low mowing right before reseeding. 
• Also a good deep raking and scratching up of the soil to give the seed something to grow into.
• September - Time to reseed! Used a mixture of Hewitt's Sandy Soil seed and Gardens Alive Northern Turf seed.
• Sept 4 - Reseeded the back yard - lots of watering!
• Sept 11 - Reseeded the front yard - lots of watering!
• Sept 18 - Weeded, regraded and seeded swath of neighbor's lawn that we messed up when new wall went in. That area was covered with my seed mix and topped with lawn patch stuff to keep it moist. That area wasn't near our sprinklers, so it needed help staying moist.
• Results?
• Back lawn - some areas in back are still a bit thin, competing with freshly sprouting clover. But areas I covered wtih a bit of topsoil and the area in shade of house are doing well.  Mowed lawn for first time after 3 weeks.
• Front lawn - again, some areas coming in nicely. Others a bit thin. Added some more seed and some of the lawn patch stuff in bare areas on Sept 25. 
• Side patch - amazing! Watered it once a day, even though it probably didn't need it. The patch stuff was way too thick, but the seed underneath grew like crazy and pushed the patching right up. I've broken up the patch stuff a bit and it looks gorgeous so far. I suspect the seed IN the patch mixture didn't really add much to the mix, but the moisture retention was terrific.
• Etc: 
• Sept 25 - Used some lawn starter fertilizer out back. 
• Sept 30 - decided to try making my own patch mix by shredding newspapers and mixing with water. Used that and more seed on the bare patches out back.
• Sugar - this may sounds nuts, but I figured it couldn't hurt. People have suggested that adding sugar to your lawn helps it. Who knows. Will the squirrels start racing around like they're high on sugar? Wait, they already do.
• Will use Fall Lawns Alive in a week or two.  

Next year!

• 2 rounds of corn gluten weed killer with fertilizer in spring and early summer.
•  New battery powered mulching mower. Happy Birthday to me.
•  Spread lots of compost on the lawn. I have enough of it! 
• More overseeding in the fall.

So why have any lawn at all? I know, it's totally silly to grow lawn. What's the point. I could have one gorgeous veggie garden out front, it gets tons of sunshine. Can I admit that I actually like nice green lawns? Kind of like getting a tan, I know that's not good for me either, so I do try to avoid it, but I still like the way the way it looks. So, if I do everything I can to do the lawn organically and with very little watering, can I reduce my guilt?