Question
Hello,

Last September, I rented a bobcat and pulled up my old lawn which was full of clover, dollarweed and crabgrass.  I brought in 125 yeards of good loam.  I only got half the yard seeded (raking out out seeding by hand) before the cold set in.  I've used all Scott's products. In May, I rototilled the remaining top soil to take out any weeds that grew, raked it out and applied starter fertilier and Scotts Premium Bluegrass Blend.  The grass I planted in the fall came in great, but the new section planted in may is 90% crabgrass and weeds, and the rest brown dead grass.  The soil looks sandy too - even though I bought good stuff.  I'm not even going to go into the $$$ and time I've spent, but I'm very upset over the results to say the least.  I'm stuck as to whether I wait until Sept amd rototill, rake out and re-seed (basically starting over for that part of the yard!) or should I keep mowing and do something to kill the weeds?  If so, what product (s) should I go with?  I'm a little south of Boston and have full sun all day long...

Thanks in advance!

Answer
My friend, I don't know what you mean by 'all Scott's products'.  They have a very big line of products, firstly.  That doesn't narrow it down.  What do you mean by that?  Crabgrass killer?  Fertilizer?  Which ones?

Let me add that I am dead set against most of that Scott's line.  These things were invented back in the Dark Ages.  I've composed a whole rant on it:

www.helium.com/items/1028660-ways-to-maintain-healthy-lawns-and-gardens-without-using-harmful-chemicals

Next, bear in mind that a Bobcat weighs 2 1/2 tons unloaded.  That's a lot of pounds to put on your Soil.  Some compacting is bound to happen.  If the ground is wet, the compacting is even worse.  If you have clay Soil, the compacting is even more worse.

I appreciate the great amount of detail you provided about what exactly you did to this plot, Barbara.  But I must admit still to a little confusion.  Please confirm or correct me if I'm wrong: You 'tilled your entire plot last Fall, then raked and hand removed debris and uprooted Weeds all over the property, and finally dumped a layer of quality loam all over the whole plot...

Over HALF of this, you put Scotts Bluegrass Blend Seed.  Then you stopped...

In Spring, you saw there were new Weeds growing, so again, you tilled the part of the plot that had not been seeded, possibly including the newly spread layer of Loam covering it (or possibly not)...

Then you put down 'starter fertilizer' and you seeded THIS side of the plot with Scotts Bluegrass Blend Seed.

Right so far?

Half the plot looks great -- the side that you planted last Fall.

The other half looks like the 'Before' commercial for Weed B Gone.

How'm I doin'?

And the question is: What went wrong?

And (assuming I have all the ducks in a row above) the answer is:  You brought Weed Seeds to the surface when you 'tilled the plot in the Spring, and left them exposed to the elements.  This allowed them to sprout all over the place.

Barbara, there are BILLIONS of dormant Seeds down there right now.  Maybe TRILLIONS.  All you have to do is bring them to the surface, and when the sunlight hits them, well, it's show time.

The OTHER half of the plot -- the good looking half -- was first spread with a layer of light-blocking loam.  Trust me, if you churn that Soil again, you'll have a lot of unwanted visitors growing over there, as well.

I hate when that happens.

So this is a good lesson.  Right?  A DRAMATIC lesson.  I'd say you should take pictures of this and study them.  Have a good look at what grew, and what it looks like.

This is ONE reason modern soil science says DO NOT ROTOTILL your Soil.  There are other reasons, too.  My perseonal favorite reason is that it upsets the Earthworms.  And Earthworms are really good features to have in your Soil.  But that's a long story.

The other reason, the one that gets the most attention from scientists, is that 'tilling wrecks the Soil structure.  It physically alters the Soil molecules.  But people don't usually reaslize that, and Organic Magazines keep getting ad dollars from companies that sell Rototillers.  So they continue to push them, and don't give them the bad publicity they should be getting if they were to tell the truth about Rototilling and how much damage it does.

But now you know!

LIGHT tilling is OK.  Well, actually, it's not OK, but it sure is better than HEAVY tilling, which is really bad.  Sometimes you just have to do it.  The way you did it in the Fall, you did a great job.  You had a lot of Weeds and you wanted to get those out.  So you tilled.  And you succeeded.

One of the things I do usually like about Scotts is their Grass Seed.  Scotts monitors the R&D activities of the biggest, best Grass hybridizers in the country, and bids on their introductions while they're still being tested at the Turfgrass Research Institute.  They do sell a good Grass in most of the places I've checked.  This is NOT to say they sell the BEST Grass that money can buy.  But their Grasses are high quality.

Next:  You have full Sun?  You need that for the Bluegrass.  If you have LESS than full Sun, as in, you have Shade, let me know and I'll clue you in on the best Bluegrass for SHADE.

Moving right along, I have a warning for you.  DO NOT LET THOSE WEEDS SET SEED.

Except the Clover... IF it is Clover.  Yellow flowers are not Clover.  Yellow flowers are Black Medic.  You want Red or White or Pink Clover.

Clover as you probably have heard (but never really thought about it) fixes Nitrogen.  This is great for your Grass.  If you have lots of Clover and lots of good, healthy Soil, who needs fertilizer?

I'll bet you're thinking, Well, it won't hurt, that fertilizer, so I'd use it anyway.

CORRECTION: That stuff is HIGHLY bad for your Soil and your Grass.  I have a longwinded speech about it that I'll save for a rainy day.

There.  I hope that was worth waiting for.  Any questions?

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER