Question
I live in North East Ohio in the country.

My lawn is a mixture of various grasses.  The soil is mostley clay.  It didn't look too bad at first but now it seems that nimble will is taking over.  Is  this common? In the past I killed small areas of it but it is making a comeback.
Most of the lawn get sun about 70% of the day.

Should I kill the lawn and start over?  The yard is about 200 by 100 so it would be a lot of work but I don't like the way it looks now.

HELP

Answer
Nimblewill - Muhlenbergia shreberi - also known as the perennial WEED FROM HELL.

I feel your pain, John.

Nimblewill slips into dormancy when cool-season grass is turning greener and actively growing, in spring and fall; day by day, it fades into ugly patches of dull light brown.  Some people describe its appearance at this stage as looking like a tan Brillo pad.  The contrast of the Nimbleweed brown with the green of the lawn at different times of year is the dead giveaway and why we consider it objectionable.  It is found throughout the Northeast.

You'll find lovely illustrations of Nimbleweed at Weedalert.com (www.weedalert.com/weed_pages/wa_nimblewill.htm).

To fight this menace, you need to grow thick, healthy turfgrass.  That means your choice of seed must be impeccable.  Maintenance must be flawless.  TLC utterly unconditional.  There must be no problems with moisture and drainage.  You need the biggest, brightest sun on earth.  The grass must be stronger than the Nimbleweed.

Chemically-dependent experts love to tell people to pour Roundup on their grass to get rid of Nimbleweed.  Being anti-herbicides, I see no reason why you can't just dig up the Nimbleweed if you're going to spray the ground with Agent Orange or whatever.  This is the perfect problem you can solve with the balance of Nature.  Strong, healthy grass will outperform Nimbleweed any day.  But you can't get strong, healthy grass if you're killing it off with Roundup, not to mention wiping out all microbial flora in the soil at the center of the Nitrogen cycle.  Forget the Roundup and dig up those Nimbleweed patches; they are easy to identify by their ugly brown color in the middle of your verdant green Kentucky Bluegrass.

Like most unwanted invaders, Nimbleweed is opportunistic.  It will kick in at the slightest thought of shade or drought.  If your grass is getting 70 percent sun, it might not be tough enough to fight the Nimbleweed.  Get a good shadetolerant grass to win this war.  A soil test will give you the precise formula of amendments you are going to need to grow the ultimate lawn - the kind that will look down at the Nimbleweed and step all over it.  It may not seem like much, but this is the kind of action that you need to make intelligent decisions.

Sure, you can throw pelletized lime down, and maybe some gypsum to loosen the clay.  But it would be better to build up your grass.

If you cab, try to purchase compatible sod to fill in the patches where the ugly Nimbleweed has established itself after you yank that stuff out.  Above all, don't let it set seed.  It will only make your headache worse.

Good luck, John.  And please keep in touch.