Question
Does the sugar cause any complications such as an infestation of ants or bees?  Also, is the sugar you recommend the refined sugar cane sugar or granulated sugar?  You recommended diluting then spraying it which is great! What parts sugar to water do you recommend I use?  I spoke to the landscapers who were hired by the developers to install the sod last year and was told they did not condition any of the poor clay soil.  They simply placed a layer of fertilizer on the ground then laid the sod directly on top.  This most likely explains the poor grass condition throughout our complex in addition to the water running off the grass in the front yard.

Thank you very much for your time and information.
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The text above is a follow-up to ...

-----Question-----
The sugar sounds great I'll start that right away on my lawn, but I have a question pertaining to my slope area.  I have a 20' slope where our developer planted several rosemary plants and I recently planted laurel fig trees to provide a thick property separator.  I would like to find out what I can do to eliminate the weeds on the slopes where the rosemary grows.  It is painstaking to climb up and down pulling weeds that encompass the area where my rosemary is growing.  If I put on the sugar and water it will drain off the angle of the slope is 30 degrees, HELP! I also have a 15 degree sloping front lawn and will be trying the sugar on my yellow lawn but I'm thinking I may have to thatch but don't know what I need to do to accomplish this, I read your recommendation on deep watering can you recommend what I need to do to establish deep rooting without the soaker hoses. Thank you
-----Answer-----
Hi Reynalda;
Well, you can alswys disolve the sugar in water, and spray it on the soil, then water lightly and stop each time it starts to run off a little. and let it soak in before watering more.
It will be a little bit time consuming, but it would work.
Really, if you throw down the sugar and then just water in that same way, it should disolve it and get it soaked in.
The advantage to watering that way, you can stand at the top of the slope, and with a hand held saprayer, water and by moving your hand. move the spray up and down the slope so it doesn't get too much in one place at once.
That should get the sugar, and the watet to the roots, and when the little beneficial microbes wake up and start working, the weeds will start to go away.
You are going to have to water that way pretty much all the time, because slope or no slope, those plants will have to have enough water, so they will survive.
It will take longer to water each time, to get the deep watering you need to encourage a deep root system, but you will have to water less frenquently with a dep root system.
When you are not tr\ying to get an even watering to soak in sugar etc, you can just lay a soaker hoes along the top of the slope, and water till it runs about halfway down, then turn off. let soak in, then repeat, until it is soaked deeply, at least 6 inches.
By turning off the water for an hour or so, the water will continue to saok in further down the slope.
Water for a shorted time when the bottom has enough water, to get it soaked in that deep at the top.
shouldn't have to water but once a week like that.
Mulching will help hold in the moisture so you don't have to water as often.
I would use cedar bark mulch about 3 inches deep.
Cedar repels so many insects, and it takes 2 years for cedar bark to compost. Hardwood bark composts in one year.
Pine bark blows away, moves around and will compost very soon.
I don[t recommend buying pine bark mulch at all.
Hope this helps you.
Charlotte

Answer
Hi Reynalda;
Boy!! That landscaper is a doozie. ANYONE who knows beand about planting should know you don't put down a layer of frtilizer then lay sod on it.
That would almost certasinly burn the roots.
GEESH!!!
The sugar doesn't attact anything.
Because it is watered in and disolved into the ground.
I would just throw the sugar down on all of it, then stand at the top of the slope with a hand held sprinkler and spray down there, moving it along so it didn't have a chance to run off. When the sugar gets a little wet, it is going to start disolving into the soil.
With fertilizer, if you don't get it watered in well enough, it will burn, sugar won't.
If you get too much, all it does is waste sugar, it won't hurt your grass or soil.
With chemical treatments of any kind, if you get a little too much, you can cause permanent damage, with the organics, it is no big deal.
None of the things you use organically will hurt anything if you get too much.
You want about 4 pounds sugar per 1000 sq.ft, but if you put it a little heavier, it won't hurt, and it may even work things a little faster.
If you don't get it even, that is no problem either, because those microbes will move around.
Where I had wild violets growing between stepping stones, and wanted to keep them, I didn't put sugar there, but in about 2 or 3 years, the microbes had moved into that soil too, and the violets died.
African violets would take too much care and would not grow there, and I think those wild violets are beautiful, and they looked so pretty in the stepping stones. I really wanted to keep them, but they are really a wed. so they won't survive in rich soil.
Nasturtiums require poor soil too, so I can't get them to grow. LOL. I have to plant them in a container, and put crappy soil in there, and not let anything nourishing to the soil get in those pots.LOL
If you want to disolve the sugar in water and spray it, I would put as much per container of water as will disolve in it.
Maybe put the sugar and water in and stir it, and leave it overnight.
It would cost a little more, but you could get white karo syrup ( or molasses) and pour that in the sprayer with the water.
Molasses is pretty dear, but black strap molasses might do a lot more.
I would try about 1 pint of light corn syrup per 2 gallon sprayer of water, and cover about 200 sq.ft.
I don't really know how much sugar to water corn syrul you buy is, but I know 2 cups sugar to 1 cup water and boiled for a little makes simple syrup, about the same thing.
So, I guess you could sue that recipe.
at a rate of 2 cups sugar to 1 cup water, disolved in tha sprayer, till you have used the amount of sugar you need to cover that much area.
Does that make sense, or did I just confuse you?
LOL
32 cups sugar per gallon of water.
I think it may take setting overnight for that much sugar to disolve snough to spray.
Easier to just throw down the sugar, and them water lightly with a sprayer till the soil is wet, then wait for it to soak in and go again, till you get it wetted down deep enough. That's the way I would do it.
I would also get some lava sand and throw it down. It doesn't matter if you water it right away or not. It isn't going to blow away, and the nutrients from it will soak in a little every time you water. That will help condition that clay a lot.
Because of the clay, and the need to break it down into better soil, I would recommend you get some organic fertilizers and put it down. There are a lot of good ones out there.
Also, buy some earthworms, and just throw them onto the soil. They will tunnel in and start working.
I think the worms they sell for fish bait are earthworms.
I don't even look at them closely. Can't stand to look at worms and snakes.
It really doesn't matter. They would tunnel into the ground, and work around, and their castings will fertilize, and the tunneling will aerate the soil.
Cockroaches , would you believe, are beneficial insects for the soil.
The normally live in the soil, and they make larger tunnels, so the aerate better than earthworms even.
We use chemicals that kill their food supply ( harmful insects), sand threaten their lives,so they move into our houses to get food and get away from the poisons.
I put fresh rosemary sprigs all through my house. Rosemary repels roaches. I put it under appliances, on pantry shelves, in the closets, anywhere roaches can come in and/or hide.
It chases them out of my house, and out into the soil where they belong.
I never see a roach, ant, silverfish,spider etc in my house.
I use rosemary and cedar oil inside the house.
I buy cedar oil in a little bottle at a health food store, and paint a little line along the clothes poles in the closets, and along the baseboards, and up the door frame.
Keeps moths and other critters out of my closets, the rosemary all over. I put some of it under the beds, under dressers etc.
I put fresh rosemary once a month, I use the cedar oil about twice a year.
I have 5 closets, and a very small battle of the oil. I think it is a half ounce bottle, lasts me a year for both treatments. It is about 7 dollars a bottle, but that is about a year's treatment.
If you have more of a problem with moths, it may take more than 2 treatments per year.
Cockroaches also eat clothes and carpets.
I use cedad oil furniture polish ( Old English) so I am sure that helps to get the cedar smell to critters I don't want in the house.
I keep everything away with natural things, and my Asthma is about 90% better since I went organic.
I even make my own bath salts and carpet dusts.LOL
Much cheaper, and I have more choices of scents.
Write anytime you have questions about any of this.
Don't be concerned that you are writing too often, or not getting something I say, straight the first time. The way I state it may not be that clear to everybody.LOL
Charlotte