Question
I have an extremely large yard (1 acre) in front of the house in Oregon. I wanted a very low maintenance yard. Several years ago, the ground was prepared, grey landscape fabric was installed and beauty bark placed down. (No grass) Now after five years, a green crab grass has spread and the roots are intertwined in the landscape fabric. What to do now? Completely remove a thousand dollars of fabric that now makes removal of the roots impossible or a chemical that will kill everything.

Answer
Hi Mark.
Well, if you have read amny of m6y answers, you know I maintain an organic enviornment, and that leaves no room for weeds.
Weeds only grow in poor soil.Tjhey will not thrive in rich soil.
The crabgrass can be killed by chemicals, but that is going to kill all the beneficial microbes, nematodea,insects, and critters that feed on the harmful insects that are attracted to your lawn.
If you want a beautiful lawn with grass, and you can sit on a riding mower, you can have a beautiful grassy lawn, and only mow it once a week.
Organics CURE problems, chemicals CAUSE problems.
All I used on my lawn and garden for the last 9 years, until last spring, was sugar, put down and watered in every spring and fall.
Sugar does NOTHING to the soil etc, what it does is, it nourishes the beneficial microbes that work round the clock enriching the soil.
Weeds that come up in rich soil, start to die out immediatley.
In the past 7 years, I have not even seen any weeds come up.
I had a yardful of crabgrass, johnson grass, clover, dandelions, and a ton of other tyoes of weeds, that blew in on the breezes.
I don't use poisons because I have pets and grandchildren.
Weed killers attract cats, and my neighbors had cats, that I did not want to be responsible for killing their cats that walked over my yard, and might eat the grass with the weed killer on it.
After 5 years, it is entirely possible the landscape fabric has started to compost.
I put black landscape fabric down around our fruit trees etc, and after several years, it started to break up, and deteriorate.
Dirt blows into your property, and settles down in the barks etc, and makes a nice fertile place for vegetation to grow.
Crabgrass is very aggressive and it's roots will dig theough hard pan clay. so fabric would be easy for them.
Remove some bark in an area, and see if the landscape fabric is still in good condition.
If it is, maybe you want to go with spraying a chemical to kill all the growth.
But if you want a grassy lawn, and especially if the fabric has started to come apart, have it tilled up.
If the fabric is going, it might till up very well, and just add to the soil.
Put down sod or seed in grass, and do just a little to the soil.
If you are in an area that is prone to molds and fungus in the spring, treat with agricultural corn meal, about 10 to 15 pounds per 1000 sq.ft, and sugar, at the rate of about 4 to 5 pounds per 1000 sq.ft. this can all be put doen bfore the tilling or after, watered in and DON'T put any chemicals down.
You could even bring in some earthworms, and maybe some toads and lizards, but they will come if there is a chemical free enviornment for them to live in, and they will eat the aphids, grubs. army worms,ants, all the nasty pests you don't want in your lawn.
Read up on some of my answers on organics.
I worked myself to death for so may years . trying to have a beautiful lawn. I put in 20 to sometimes 40 hours per week on my lawn.
Now, I put in less that 4 hours per week, and they includes planting new flowers, shrubs etc, and I have a thick, lucious, green grassy lawn, with NO weeds, harmful inscts, molds, fungus etc, and I spend my time looking at it, not working on it.
Charlotte