Question
We live in NJ. We have a new lawn seeded in April with a fescue.The soil is construction grade as was the seed. At the time of seeding weeds were already present. We have installed a sprinkler system and tried very hard this season.
We are left with very little lawn, crabcrass and other weeds that I cannot name.
We have tried weed and feed recently to no avail.
and have been told the only way to handle is to round up the whole lawn and kill it then start over. A suggestion we really are not fond of.
Can you suggest anything else? thank you for your response.

Answer
Hello a. in NJ.  Although it makes me nervous when people won't even post their First Name with their question, at least you have provided the state you live in.  Can't be too careful these days w/ the internet.

That said, let's see what we can do about your lawn.

First, you absolutely postively must not ever "round up the entire lawn".  Time and again I hear people casually advising their next of kin to turn the house into a Superfund Site.  There is no excuse for that - or for "WEED and feed" which basically does the same thing with a different label.

"Construction Grade" soil and seed will give you a Construction Grade lawn as you have found out.  You - and a thousand other homeowners unfortunately.  What disturbs me most is that you clearly gave this your best shot.  It sounds like you just got some bad advice.  I hate when that happens.

The good news is that it is the best time of year to fix this problem.

I have a feeling you will not be doing the heavy lifting yourself here.  But you can supervise.

Ignore the Weed N Feed/RoundUp crazy people and have your landscaper (a) get a REAL soil analysis (as quickly as possible) from the local cooperative extension.  The USDA website
(www.csrees.usda.gov/qlinks/partners/state_partners.html) posts a map that you can just click on to find out who your NJ Coop Extension is - my guess is Rutgers University is probably involved.  Find out exactly what your "Construction Grade" topsoil is made of.  You can't grow first rate grass without first rate soil, and this is going to give you the data you need to make an intelligent decision.

While you are waiting for the results to come back, mow the Construction Grade "lawn" low, to minimize weed seeds, and hoe up everything growing there.  If you can Rototill without damaging the automatic sprinklers, go ahead, but it is probably something that can be done by professionals in a few hours.

Sure, it's more fun for them to spray Roundup all over everything.  They get to charge you an arm and a leg, and no one breaks a sweat.  Tell them it is against your religion to do that, tell them your mother hates it, tell them you're allergic - whatever, just get them to do the weed removal the old fashioned way.

Throw the removed weeds and Construction Grade grass in a nice big pile and start a compost pile.  You can add this back to the lawn next summer.  It is packed with Nitrogen and other terrific things for your grass.

Your soil analysis should include detailed instructions on what you need to add for close to perfect soil.  Rake or till it in - or have some local garden guys do that for you.  You will probably be adding pelletized lime along with Humus and Compost.

Get some nice seed.  Don't get any more Construction Grade stuff because you are not going to get anything impressive no matter how much sweat and money you pour into your Construction Grade lawn.  It's just a law of Nature.  I like the seed on the internet from Seedland (www.seedland.com).

Most Northeasterners pick out a strain of Kentucky Bluegrass.

If you get top notch seed, my friend named a. from NJ, you will be getting a grass that was bred to elbow out foreign grasses and weeds, is drought tolerant when needed, and resists various problems your neighbors are going to be facing down the road while you lie in your hammock reading the Sunday Times.  Get good grass seed.  It pays to get that.

Unless of course you had a good reason to pick up Fescue.  In which case I would like to hear about it.  You can get great Fescue at Seedland too.  And it won't be spiked with miscellaneous seed surprises.

Now it is time to sprinkle the seed on your beautiful dirt.  Have the landscaper do that.  It's easy and hard to mess up.  It has to be done by the end of September for your NJ real estate zone.

Water daily using your handy dandy sprinkler system.  Since you have great soil, you won't have to worry about fungus attacking your new grass.  Your neighbors with the bad stuff in the soil will.  They have destroyed the soil structure and the microbes that control fungus naturally.  But you won't have to worry about that.  Your grass will be beautifully fungus free.

Going back to the weeds that have sprouted from the Construction Grade topsoil, some will be annuals.  Some will be perennials.  

The annuals won't return, by definition.  

The perennials can't return because you have yanked them out of the lawn.  But their seeds will.  Annual seeds also will.

So in the spring, put down a few bags of Corn Gluten Meal, or a product containing that.  This is a nontoxic preemergent spring herbicide that keeps seeds from germinating.  As it decomposes, it generates Nitrogen.  So it is perfect for new grass.

Let's talk for a second about a phenomenon that people write about from time to time when they turn over a new grass-growing leaf.

They ask me, I never paid attention to my grass before.  I had some weeds, and I had some grass, I never fertilized, I never watered, I never paid much attention. All I did was mow.  And I never had any problems.  But now, I am applying crabgrass killer in the spring just like I'm supposed to, and I put down grub killer, and I put down a Nitrogen fertilizer, and then I apply Weedkiller for the broadleaf weeds, and instead I have brown patches all over the lawn.  I water the grass, I have an expensive automatic sprinkler system that goes on every night and waters the grass faithfully.  But there are brown spots and it's one problem after another.  I don't get it.

That's what they say.

And it is really very simple, my friend in NJ.  Putting down the Scotts and Ortho is a bad idea.  It creates problems you will never have to deal with if you stay away from those.

And instead of ignoring your lawn, if you put some intelligent effort into your grass, you will have an even better lawn, with a few carefully planned tasks.  Your grass will win the local grass beauty contest every time, but not if you spray and dust with weapons of mass destruction.

This is really quite important.  No lawn in the Garden State should be Construction Grade.

That's the deal.

Any questions?