Question
My lawn is completely overgrown with weeds. There is a low growing ivy and lots of violets and lots more weed. The existing grass is partially dead, especially the zoysia grass is dying off gradually, you can kick up dust where it was. Several types of grass seed are in my lawn. I really don't like the zoysia because it's brown in the winter. I have been fertilizing with the 4 step approach for several years. Can you advise on how to proceed. I probably have to remove the old lawn first. How do I best do this? My backyard is quite big. I suppose I have 5000 sqft of lawn. Should I rent a machine? Thanks so much for your advice and your time.
Angela  

Answer
Hi Angela;
That is about the size lawn I have.
I BATTLED my lawn trying to grow grass for some 40 years, trying to have gorgeous grass.
My roses and other flowers and plants were fantastic, except for the ^$*%*% aphids and insects. I sprayed with insecticide, and fungicide once a month, and still had black spot on my roses, and aphid damage to almost every rose that opened. I crawled around on my knees pulling and digging up weeds, because I don't use weed killers since our precious kitten was poisoned by the stuff many years ago.
I wore out a pair of knees and a perfectly good back.
About 8 years ago I decided to try organics.
I had read a lot about the organic things to use. It sounded like a lot more work and a lot more expense, and I already spent at least 20 hours a week just on yardwork, and we practicaly gave our nursery a blank check.
I tried the sugar to enrich the soil, because weeds won't thrive in rich soil. They like poor soil.
In a couple of weeks about half the weeds were gone, and all I had done was throw sugar all over the lawn.
So I did it again. within 6 to 8 weeks, you could see no weeds in my yard.
I had crabgrass, johnson grass, dandelions, clover, dollarweed, and a bunch of others.
Since putting that sugar down, and doing it again each spring and fall, I have put nothing else on my lawn, and all I have is thick St. Augustine grass, and no weeds, and I haven't reached down to pull even one weed.
Sugar ( or dry molasses or any other form of sugar)keeps alive the beneficial icrobes that enrich the soil. Fertilizers kill these microbes, so you put down feed for the vegetation, that will wearout and have to be put down again, and kill the microbes that will work all year round enriching your soil.
If you make rich soil, you will have no weeds. If you make a healthy enviornment for lawn critters, you will have no insects. toads. lizards, grass snakes and beneficial insects will eat all the grubs, and bad insects.
Toads love fat juicy slugs, and my lizards keep the aphids off my roses.
Baking soda disolved in water and sprayed on the new growth on my rose bushes and shrubs that are subject to powdery mildew works much better than the once a month sprayings to keep down the fungus that I used to do., and I only do it on the first new growth, and again after the rainy season in the spring, then the weather is hot enough to keep down fungus.
Every rose that opens is perfect, thanks to my little lizards.
In the spring I broadcast by hand, 1 pound of sugar per 250 sq.ft of lawn and garden. Flower beds and eggie garden and all. I water it in well. My husband mows and edges, and i take care of the watering. I always water to a depth of at least 6 inches to encourage a deep root system. that protects the roots from heat, cold and drought.
shallow watering makes the roots come to the surface to get water, they die and that is what makes thatch.
so I never have to dethatch. Actually I have always watered that way, so I have only had to dethatch once, when we first moved in here.
Since I am on an organic program, my earthworms and cockroaches keep the soil aerated, so I don't even have to do that anymore. NOT a job I miss.
I put down sugar in the fall, and aside from planting and ppruning, that is the complete lawn care program, and we have a thick, green, weedfree lawn.
The violets you see are a weed, they will go the way of the other weeds with rich soil. I actually liked them, but they won't grow in my yard anymore.
the vine sounds like a ground cover vine. rich soil will help that grow, so if you don't want that, best tear it our by the roots. You will probably want to keep it in any area that doesn't get at least 6 hours of sun per day, and grass will probably not grow there.
You would probably have to tear out the Zoysia too.
If you decide to just start from scratch, I would hire someone to till it all up, or rent a tiller and do it yourself.
till the weeds into the soil, let them compost and feed the new lawn.
They are not going to go to seed now, and any seeds they have dropped are already in the soil, so tey will come up, anyway, so use those weeds for food.
If your soil has too much clay or sand, it needs to be amended to have the proper drainage, so if you need to amend your soil, till those things in as you are tilling all that up.
then seed or sod in yur new grass. throw down some sugar and water it.
If you wnt to give the new grass a boost, get some good organic fertilizer and still put down the sugar and water everything in together.
I know your ears perked up when I said cockroaches in the soil.
ther are great earators, even better than earthworms, and they eat a lot of harful insects.
I can't abide one in my house though, so I put a small sprig of rosemary on each cabinet and cupboard self, and under each appliance etc, once a month to keep them completely out of my house.
I use herbs and other things to get rid of every bug inside and out that the lawn critters don't take care of.
I don't have insects inside my house, and i don't use poisons in there either.
write if you have any other questions or want clarification of any of this.
Charlotte