Help with lawn! New York

10 years ago

I recently bought a house that had been empty for three years and the yard is a disaster. It is probably 40%+ weeds or bare patches, roughly 40 x 30 feet with dense shade on half of it from a weeping willow on the neighbors lot. Looks like a mix of fescue, some KBG, and Rye (I think) with many different weeds ( crabgrass, nutsledge, dandelions, clover of some kind and other broadleaf weeds)

I over seeded last fall with a sun mix on1/2 the yard and a shade mix on the other then used a new grass fertilizer. Grass grew fairly well on the sunny side but the shade side came in and died (I think the willow sucked all the water out of the soil)

I am wondering should I treat with a weed killer first ( is it to late for a pre-emergent killer already, soil Temp 55 degrees) or should I reseed now then use a feed and seed in 4-6 weeks (or another weed killer). The shade mix I have is fescue mostly, the sun and shade mix is creeping fescue, rye and Kentucky blue grass.

Any help is appreciated with the above and general tips, like watering etc. I am temped to just lay sod but I may be removing the Yew hedges that boarder the yard and build a fence so likely would not want to sod till then.

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Comments (5)

dchall_san_antonio
10 years ago
What watering plan did you follow for the new seed? It should have come in nice and been fairly nice all winter.
tlinden
10 years ago
I would take care of the hedges first. Doesn't make sense to do the rest and then have to re-do the edges. Especially if you can go the sod route.

Otherwise I'd say re-seed it now and then overseed again in the fall to fill in where any weeds took over. I did this when we had our septic done and yeah it didn't look the best but it's better than all dirt all summer ;-)
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Jerreth13
Original Author
10 years ago
I watered daily till the new grass was two inches tall then 2-3x weekly depending on the rain. Most of the bare patches is where I had a nice full lawn of nutsledge. The other bare area is in the shade under the willow, I definitely under watered there. The willow takes up so much water the ground was bone dry when I noticed the grass dying..

I had planned on doing the hedges first but not sure the budgets gonna be right this year, so yeah trying to just not have an embarrassing lawn of mud and weeds for now.
dchall_san_antonio
10 years ago
Especially with the willow tree, you will be much better off watering deeply and less often. Mature grass should be watered once every other week this time of year, but watered with a full inch of water. The tree might need water less often but more deeply. Keep an eye on the grass but start watering longer. Measure the time it takes to fill several empty cat food or tuna cans placed around the yard. That is your inch of water. Deep watering develops deep roots which can go much longer than a few days without watering. That's what you're looking for.
Jerreth13
Original Author
10 years ago
Thanks!