Question
Charlotte--I have a beautiful healthy lawn of Bermuda grass.  I live in North Louisiana and it grows well.  Problem is I have "Nut grass" in it and can't seem to get rid of it without doing real damage to my bermuda.  It gets unsightly because within a day after mowing, it will be 1" taller than my bermuda. Can you recommend anything to help me get rid of it without damaging my bermuda grass?  Thank you

Answer
Hi Jerry;
I haven't had to deal with weeds since I went on a totally organic program.
Our organic columnist in the dallas paper wrote an article about dry molasses on the lawn.
Fertilizwes kill benegicial microbes that enrich the soil. Putting dry molasses ( sugar works jusr as well ) keeps them alive.
Weeds like poor soil, and will not thrive in rich soil.
Enrich the soil, and the weed problem will go away.
Nut gtrass also loves compact soil.
if you have clay soil,you really aren't going to get a beautiful lawn, until you loosen up that clay. We have a bad clay problem here too.
I struggled with that clay for years, and finally just tilled stuff in to loosen it. I have had good, loose, soil ever since.
Surprisingly both my St. Augustine and Burmuda came back after the tilling. We didn't have to replant, but just startinf from scratch will save time and frustration over battling with it for years.
Go to the nursery and get cedar bark mulch. I use cedar because it repels so many insects, like termites, fleas, and ticks.
Put this combination together and till it in.

To 4 bags of bark mulch. put 1 bag peat moss and one or two bags of humus. You want when you have finished tilling, an equal amount of this and existing soil. You wsnt to till down at least 6 or 8 inches.
Careful with the peat moss, because a little too much, and your soil will become too acidic.
If your soil is pretty loose, you can add a larger percentage of soil to mix. If your soil is already acidic, leave off the peat moss.
Cedar also takes 2 years to compost, as hardwood bark mulch composts in 1 year, so it holds your soil looser while you have more time to improve the soil.
You can still fertilizer, if you want, although I haven't put a grain of fertilizer fown in 5 years.
BUT,,,, when you put down the fertilizer, put down the sugar and water them both in together. That will keep most of the microbes alive.
They work 24/7, all year round enriching your soil.
For the last 5 years, I have only put sugar in the spring and fall, and my grass is dark green, thick, and weed free.

All the weed killers and insecticides you pur down also kill the good bugs. I let my lizards, toads, and grass snakes eat them. I make a poison free enviornment for them, and they eat more bad bugs than the isecticides used to kill, and no work or expense for me.
I put sugar out in the alley, where the poison ivy would sprout up, I have no more poison ivy.
the pooer the soil, the more weeds you will have.
A few weeks after you put down the sugar, you will see fewer weeds. With a few more mowings, they will be gone for the season. Some will seed in next spring, but fewer of them. A couple of years after you start using the sugar, they won't even bother to coma up anymore.
My next door neighbor still has a weed patch for a lawn, but his weed seeds that blow on my lawn, don't germinate.
It will not keep sapling tr4ees from seeding onto your lawn, trees love rich soil too.
The only drawback I have found to this is, my wild violets I likes stopped growing and comong back too.
I have no more dandelions, grabgrass, johnson grass, dollar weed, henbit, clover, and a bunch I was not sure what they were.
If you use the pre-emergents, bulb flowers like Irises, lilies etc will not come up and bloom each year.
I use 1 pound sugar to each 250 tp 300 sq.ft.
Hope this helps. If you need more clarification, feel free to write me anytime.
Charlotte