Question
I have to say I love this site. I just stumbled onto it last night. Okay that out of the way.
Here is my question.
I have in my back yard, which faces east, a problem with "dirt spots". You know the kind of area that does grow some grass but then in the summer it dies off. Well, I need help. I need to know what I can do to get that grass growing fast. I have put down seed and nothinng but a couple of sprouts show up. I also have water that is standing in it when it rains and it doesn't drain properly. I have read sugar and then water will help get things just started.

Is it possible to dilute the sugar in water and then spray it out on the lawn. Or do you have to do it by hand and then water?
I have thought of buying Texas Tea, because well I am in Grapevine, Texas and there is an all natural store that cares it. Is that stuff good for it?

Please help.

Answer
I used orange peels fopr years to keep the fire ants out of the yard.
I used to get a large bag of oranges when it was time for them to swarm, and have the grandkids and some of the neighborhood kids over to eat the oranges for me.
Then I would chop the peels, and they would help me scatter them.
That was a real fun thing for them. That was their "Green Patrol" party every year.LOL
I haven't had to use them for the last couple of years, because there have been no fore ant hills show up. Apparently my lizards, toads, and grass snakes eat them all.
Several years ago, the nurseryman at Calloway's told me the main ingredient in the effective fire ant controls was orange oil.
I had used chopped lemon peels to keep neighborhood cats from using my flower beds and containers for little boxes.
I read that lemon peels also repel ants, but before I switched to organics, and was using the lemon peels, I had ants in my flower beds.
C


Hi Mike;
You CAN disolve the sugar in water and spray it on, but you need a very large sprayer.
You need 4 to 5 pounds per 1000 sq.ft, and it would take a lot of water to disolve that much sugar.
It is much easier to just broadcast it by hand, and then water.
The bare  spots coule be several different things.
One thing, it is not warm enough now to plant burmuda.
Fungus could also be causing the dead spots, or it could be too much shade over those areas, if they are large spots.
IOf it is just smapp or different sizes spots that go bare, look under the soil and see if there are rocks under there, that are shallow enough the grass won't grow.
Ok, read the last half of you letter, you are just down 121 from you, in Irving.
I have heard of compost tea and Garrett juice, but the Texas tea I have always heard of is oil.
Alfalfa meal is very good, so is lava sand and Texas green sand.
Horticultural Corn Meal is a good fungicide, and Corn Gluten Meal is a good weed and feed.
I just use the sugar. Howard Garrett says use dry molasses, but sugar works best, I think.
they do the same thing, but you apply 10 to 15 pounds of dry molasses to 1000 sq.ft, and 4 or 5 pounds of sugar to the same space, and they cost about the same amount per pound.
Also, the bags of sugar are a lot easier for me to handle than the 40 pound bags of dry molasses.
If that store sells only organic things, then anything they sell should not HARM your organic program, how much good they do is sort of try them and see.
I started using alfalfa meal last year, and also lava sand. Up until that time, all I used in the previous 8 or 9 years was sugar,to feed the microbes, and baking soda disolved in water for fungus.
Charlotte