Question
Dear Charlotte, We recently bought a house late last summer in Irving which had a beautiful dark green bermuda lawn. The previous owners and many of my neighbors have their lawns fertilized by commercial companies and thus it is of no surprise everyone except me has thick dark green lawns. Our lawn is sorely different and quite honestly depressing to look at. I used Scott's winterguard and weed a feed in a spring with another treatment of weed and feed two weeks ago. Despite my best attempts the lawn looks awful. The grass near the soil is very brown. When the grass grows the top most portion is green, but still there is more brown grass than there is green. When I cut it it looks very brown again. After reading some responses from prior questions, I lowered the blade on my mower a notch and cut it down to about 1.5-2 inches this weekend. The grass looks like it does when it is dormant in winter as there now is little green left in the lawn. It also looks a bit scalped. I know I am doing something very wrong as there is a sharp demarcation between my brown grass and the dark green grass of my neighbor's. I of course have not watered this summer because of all the rain. I have started bagging my lawn clippings as I thought there was too much thatch from the lawn last year. This has helped a little but there is still something very wrong. What should I do? What do you think I am doing wrong. Too little iron? Do I need Fertilome Lawn Food or sugar (will not ants become a problem with sugar)? Is it the alkalinity you think? I initally thought it may be brown patch but my problem invloves the whole lawn not just certain spots? I am very close to giving the lawn over to one of the big lawn care companies out of frustration. Desperately need your help. Nilesh

Answer
Hi Nilesh;
I am surprised your neighbors have nice looking lawns.
The chemicals those companies spray are terrible on the enviornment, unless,,,,, they are all using that company that uses only organic products.
I am on an organic program, and as you probably know, I live in irving.
Most here mow bermuda to about 2 inchews high or less.
Younhave to mow every other day, and have to water about every day. WAY too much trouble for people who work.
there is one p[atch of bermuda out back of my husband's shop, but he mows that at 3 inches too.
He mows once a week until and on the organic program, you don't get the spurt of growth and slow down you get when you apply chemiocal fertilizer.
If you are going with chemicals, by all means use Fertilome.
chamgers nursery on Shady Grove carries it.
If you want to go organic, which I recommend, jhe carries a few organic products, I think.
Bcause of the high rent situation, Calloways moved out.
I have done business with Chambers ever since he bought that nursery.
I get my alfalfa meal and horticultural corn meal at the feed store in Grand Prairie. It is on Main street over there. Don't remember the name, I went once, and send hubby when I need something.LOL
All this raqi has washed all the nutrients out of my lawn, and it has turned a light green. I applied some alfalfa m\eal a couple of days ago. I am hoping it diodn't drown out all the micro-organisms.
I don't know if they can be drowned.
I haven't been faced with too much water here before.LOL
If I were you, I would apply a good organic fertilizer, also apply some sugar.
Also, stop raking up the clippings. Dep watering prevents thatch and the cuttings compost and make food for the grass.
You need to get some micro-organisms going. The sugar is only food for them, it has no other purpose.
fine a place out back somewhere you can start a compost pile, and start one. Put all the raw vegetable and fruit peels and scraps from the kitchen, any weeds you pull up or cut down, and make some gfood compost.
I bought 2 compost bins when they were on sale from Gardener's Supply. I buy quite a few things from them. You can check out what they have at   
          http://www.gardeners.com/
I have been ordering from them for years, and have never had a bad experience with their service or their products.
Here is the program I am on.
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You will constantly improve your soil if you go on a totally organic program, and don't use any chemicals at all.
I have beenm on such a program for the last 9 to 10 years, after breaking my back and ruining my body trying to maintain a decent lawn, with only mediocre results.
the organics has freed me from about 90% of the physical work, about that much of the expense, and the results are a think, beautiful yard with no weeds or harmful insects.
Man!!! Wish I had known all this 50 years ago !
The corn clutem meal is an organic product.
If you use organics, and then use chemicals, you will cancel out the organics.
Chemical fertilizers kill all the beneficial microbes, nematodes and other beneficial insects and critters that work around the clock improving your soil.
Beneficial microbes enrich the soil. Chemicls do NOT.
If you put a little too muchj chemical products on the lawn, it will burn your grass, and do a lot of other damage.
If you put too much organics on it, all you do is waste a little time and money.
Sugar does absolutely nothing but nourish the beneficial micrebes. THEY do the work.
Weeds will not grow in rich soil. If they cme up, they will start to die out right away.
The first time I use sugar was in the spring. I had not put any chemicals on the yard since the fall feeding, so they were all worn out of the soil.
I had a lawn about 50% full of dandelions, crabgrass, johnson grass, clover, dollar weed and some other shallow rooted weeds like chickweed etc.
a couple of weeks after I put down the sugar and watered it in, I had about half as many weeds. Nobody had pulled a weed or anything. My husband had just mowed.
I went nuts, like a school of sharks in a feeding frenzy, and ran out and bought more sugar, put it down and waterewd it in.
A couple more mowings, and there were so few weeds. In a few more werks they were all gone.
The next spring about half as many weeds as before came up, but in a few weeks they were gone.
All I had done was the sugar in the spring, and I did that again in the fall.
I used baking soda disolved in water for black spot on my roses and powdery mildew n my crepe mytrtles. That works much better then the chemical fungicides I had used before.
I started getting a nice herd of lizards, toads and grass snakes in my yard.
I had a BIG grub problem every year. I haven't had that since, nor do I have those nasty tent catapillars dropping on my head from the trees.
I see lizards running in the trees and along the fence. I never see the grass snakjes, which is fine with me. I seldon see a toad, but they are all there.
Sugar; I use 4 or 5 pounds per 1000 sq.ft. I just broadcast it by hand, and water it in well. If you spill a blob in one spot, no problem. No burning or other damage.

Watering; I always water to a depth of at least 6 inches. Deep watering like that encourages a deep root growth. That protects from heat, cold and drought damage, and prevents thatch. I water with soaker hoses, and run them till the water is close to the edge and is about to start running off the yard. then I turn it off and wait an hour or so for it to soak in, and turn it on again. I keep doing that until it is wet down to a depth of 6 inches at least. Even here in our Texas heat, I water only once a week, unless it stays well above 100 for a week or more, which it sometimes does. then I look at the grass, and if my St. Augustine is folded up, lengthwise, I know it needs water. It folds the blades up to reduce the area exposed to evaporation. Burmuda, when it gets thirsty, bends it's little blades a little, like it is bowing.
My earthworms and cock roaches etc tunnel through the soil, and that keeps it aerated. Their castings add nourishment. Cockroaches are beneficial. They normally live in the soil and feed on other harmful insects. We put down pesticides, and kill their food supply, so they come in our houses to get food and hide from the pesticides.
I use fresh rosemary to keep them out of my house.

Baking soda disolved in water, about 2 TABLESPOONS per gallon of water, sprayed on top and underneath all the leaves, prevent molds and fungus on plants. You can also use it for fungus in the soil, or you can apply agricultural corn meal and water that in. About 10 pounds per 1000 sq.ft.

Corn gluten meal is an organic fertilizer and weed killer.
It won't interfere with the sugar.
None of the organics calcel each other out.
Alfalfa meal is another good food to add. Just sprinkle it on in about the same thickness the sugar goes on, and water. It is full of nutrients. So is lava sand. Yopu can add it to the top of the soil, dig it into the soil, or add it when you are adding soil, or putting soil in a comntainer for a plant.
Alfalfa meal, as well as generally nourishing the soil, helps promote larger and more blooms in blooming plants and house plants.
You can also make a tea of it for foliar feeding or for watering house plants.
Put 1 cup alfalfa meal in 5 gallons of water and let steep overnight. Still and use to water plants, or strain it and put it in a garden sprayer for foliar feeding.  Be sure, if you strain it, to dump the dregs on the soil somewhere, it is still full of nutrients.
You probably won't need more fertilizert than that. I didn't use anything but sugar for about 8 or 9 years, and last spring, I leartned about the alfalfa meal and lava sand, so I use them.
If you have more questions, write to me.
I am very happy to share what I have learned, and am learning.
Charlotte
Write anytime. I will be glad to help as much as I can