Question
Hi Charlotte B. I have been using a fertlizer service for the past two years and my lawn looks no different than the other lawns in my neighborhood. I live in Southern Louisiana, My front lawn is Centepide and the rear is St Augustine. Where do I start? Store bought fertilizers or Compost?

Thanks
John B.

Answer
Hi john;
I don't know diddly about Centipede, but i have St. augustine, and burmuda, and have had Blue grass in the past, and in another climate. Grass is pretty much grass. different varieties have a few HAVE-TOs, but most of them respond pretty well the same.
I used to work myself to death on my lawn,as did several of my neighbors. We had gorgeous lawns, but now we are old ( I think all that yard work speeded that up.LOL)
I awitched to organics several years ago, because i was just concerned about my children and pets on all that grass with poison sprayed on it.
I have the best, thickest, and darkest weedfree lawn I ever had, and I hardly ever do anything to it.
First. fire that fertilizer service. then go to the grocery store and buy a bunch of sugar.
The article I read said to use dry molasses. but none of the nurseries in the Dallas aea carried it then. It said sugar would work too. I broadcast sugar at the rate od 1 pound per 250 to 399 sq.ft.
I had a yard full of weeds. my nextdoor neighbor thought they were a cash srop, I think, because that was about all e had in his yard., His weeds seeded my yard every year..
iI had johnson grass, Crabgrass, dollar weed, Dandelions, clover, you nameit, I had it.
I didn't use weed killers, as they are sttractive to cats. Cats will eat the stuff, and too many cats roamed across my lawn. I didn't want them eating it and dieing, so I pulled the weeds, or dug them out with an asparagus cutter. REALLY hard on the knees and back!
After I put down the sugar, and watered it in good, in about 2 weeks, only about half as many weeds were showing. a coyuple of mowings more, and there were no weeds. Neither my husband or I had pulled any.
See, weeds love poor soil. they won't thrive in rich soil. fertilizers feed the vegetation, but they kill beneficial microbes that enrich the soil. dry molasses, sugar etc, keeps these little microbes alive.
I had been putting fertilizers down for about 30 years, so the soil had plenty nutrients. You can still use fertilizers, if you feel you need them, but after you put down the fertilizer, put down the sugar, and water them bioth in together. The sugar will counteract the killing the microbes.
I did use fertilizer that year, but I haven't used it since, and my lawn is darker green, thicker, and stays green longer in the fall, ad greens up earlier in the spring, than the other yards except the ones where my neighbors have jumped on the sugar bandwagon.
That was aboit 8 years ago.
This is our entire lawn care program.
Sugar down in the spring and fall, top dress with compost in the spring, most years. My husband mows and edges, and I water. we leave down the grass clippings.We d rake most of the leaves in the fall, and add them to te compost pile, but a lot of them, we just go over with the mower to mulch them up and let them compost on the lawn.
Other than planting other shrubs, flowers etc, that is all we do.
A couple of years, when my back was really bothering me, I didn't get the sugar down, still no weeds though.
I let my lawn livestock take care of bad bugs. i have a good sized herd of toads, lizards, and grass snakes. They keep the sphids off my roses better than the insecticides I used to use. I would spray my roses once a month, and still when the blooms opened up, there would be aphid damage in them. No more, and i think they even smell better since I am not putting that stinking insecticide on them.
I used to spray once a month with fungicide for blackspot and powdery mildew on my roses and other shrubs. Now, i spray with baking soda disolved in water, when the first new growth shows in the spring. as soon as this Texas sun hetas up, that takes care of it. I don't have blackspot on mt roses anymore, or powdery mildew on my honeysuckle and crepe myrtle.
The sugar doesn't attract ants because you water it in well.
I always water to a depth of at least 6 inches, to encourage a deep root system to protect from heat cold and draught damage, and t avoid thatch.
I grow my own herbs for cooking and aroma terapy, and there is an herb to solve any critter problem you have.
I put a sprig of rosemary, about 2 inches long, on each pantry and cabinet shelf. I put a piece about 4 inches long under the fridge, washer and dryer, and other appliances, and stick one in the hole where pipes come through te walls (under the sinks etc,) You NEVER see a roach on my house!
They are all out in the yard, tunneling in the ground, keping it loose. they are great litle aerators, just don't want them in my house.
I sprinkle cedar bark mulch all over my ard a couple times a year, to chase away ticks and fleas. Cedar repels a whole host od insects. I put a perimeter of cedar bark mulch around the foundation of the house, when it is time for termites to swarm. Termites won't go where there is cedar.
Either the cedar bark mulch around the house and yard, or the rosemary in the house, has chased all the spiders, because I used to ae a bunch, but don't anymore.Don't have silverfish anymore either.
Lavender in big pots beside each entrance keeps houseflies out of the house. My husband is bad about leaving the doors open, and i don't like screen doors. A big planter of lavender is a beautiful entrance plant, smells nice, and keeps flies away  (put some on the picnic table b the food to eep flies away)
I chop fresh emn peels and scatter them in my flower beds, and te neighborhood tom cats don't leave mesdssages on my shrbs, and the kitties don't use my flower beds and potted plants for a litter box. Lemon scented lures don't work. tried them. I chop up the peels from about a dozen lemons (and freeze the juice) in the spring, when they start writing letters on the shrubs, and then every lemon I use, I chop the peels and scatter them. that keeps the lemon peels renewed to keep the kitties out.
Since i stopped using all those chemcals, my Asthma is about 90% better. i seldom have a hard attack (except when the mountain cedar pollinates).
If you have fertilized as early as last fall, I would just put sgar down, and water it in well. Chances are there are enough nutrients already in your soil to sustain a good lawn.
Is your soil nice and loose?
yoo tight soil will stunt growth of grass and everything else, and no amount of fertilizing will loosen it up. there are topical treatments you can do to loosen it though. If that is a problem, write me, and i will tell you how to loosen it without having to till up the yard.

Write me anytime you ave a question you feel I can help with.
I am very glad to share when I have learned over the years.
Charlotte