Question
Tired of having a poor lawn with doing all the fertilizing/seeding myself, I handed over care to ChemLawn a few years ago.  They come every so often, and spray something.  However, the lawn still looks poor with lots of crabgrass, some bare areas, other weeds, and some areas of browning grass.

What can I do?  I am going to cancel the lawn service now.  Should I put more seeds down now, or use a spring fertiziler?  What organic measures can I take?  Please advise.

Thanks,
Abhijit  

Answer
Hi Abhijit;
That stuff they sprayed down was just a lot of harmful chemicals.
Those chemicals killed every beneficial microbe, insect, and animal that lived in your yard and soil.
For every harmful insect in your soil there are hundreds of beneficial ones that will eat the harmful ones.
Make a healthy enviornment for these beneficial things and they will take care of the harmful ones, and do it MUCH better than the chemicals did.
Make rich soil and weeds will not grow and thrive in your soil, and they will cease to be a problem.
All I have put on my yard for about 8 years is sugar.
Just table sugar like you use for cooking and sweeting tea etc.
I use 1 pound per 250 sq.ft.
I just open the bags and walk broadcasting by hand as i go, and then water it in well.
If I were you, I would water thoroughly, at least 6 to 8 inches deep, a couple of times, maybe 3 or 4 days apart, unless you have a lot of rian in that time. flush out a lot of those chemicals, then put down the sugar and water it in well.
Switching to organics and getting all these beneficial things back in your soil and yard is going to take a little time, but by the end of this season, you should have healthy soil and it should be pretty rich from the sugar and the microbes.
The sugar should be enough, because as the soil enriches they grass will grow better and if it is a type of grass that grows and spreads by runners, Burmuda, St. Augustine etc, it will thicken up nicely.
Water deeply to encourage a good deep root system, and mow when you will cut off no more than 1/3rd the blade height of the grass. setting the blades lower and mowing at about 2 inches for awhile will caye it to produce more roots and seen out more runners and thicken up faster.
When the temperature gets into the upper 80, set the mower blades back up and leaving the blades 3 inches high at least, will help protect against heat damage.
The chemicals need to be flushed out of the soil before anything can be healthy.
Fertilizers kill these beneficial microbes, and the sugar keeps them alive. The microbes do the work, not the sugar. The sugar just feeds the microbes.
The microbes work round the clock enriching your soil, and weeds love poor soil. They will not live and do well in rich soil.
Wait about 2 or 3 weeks of waterings before you buy earthworms, if you want to buy some to get the population started faster. If you put earthworms, toads etc in your lawn right now, the chemicals that are still in the soil wil just kill them.
when you are watering, power wash your shrubs too. It would be good to put soapy water in your garden sprayer and wash them down by spraying and then power spraying them with the water hose, either with your thumb over the end of the hose to make a forceful spray, or a gadget you put on the hose to adjust the spray .
I always water to a depth of at least 6 inches, and rewater when the top 2 inches of soil are dry. I use soaker hoses, and I have a timer attached to my faucet to turn it off when I want it to.
I lay out the pattern I want to cover, with the soaker hose, turn on the water and set the timer for long enough so the water doesn't start to run off on the sidewalks. After a couple of times, you will be able to tell how long it takes in that area for the water to start to run off.
I turn off the water ( or let the timer do it) and let it soak in for an hour or so, then turn it back on again, and keep doing that until it is wetted 6 inches down.
These beneficial insects and animals will gradually return to your yard, when it is free of poisons that will kill them, then you can have a nice lawn and garden without breaking your back to maintain it.
Write anytime
Charlotte