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| We just got a new sprinkler system put in, and last year our lawn totally died. There is still grass there, but it's FULL of weeds, mostly dandelions and the like, but there is also bindweed and I believe it's yarrow.
My question is this: Do I spray weed killer then reseed, or reseed and water and wait for it to get established before I spray the broad leaf killer? Also, in the back the ground is very lumpy and patchy (where there is grass it's thick and lush, but where there isn't, it's bare dirt). Is there a way to fix it without tearing the whole thing up? Maybe add top soil and rake it through to help level the low places before over seeding back there? I'm not after perfection, just a nice place for my kids and dog to play. |
Follow-Up Postings:
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- Posted by bassplayer7 6 (My Page) on Fri, Jul 1, 11 at 15:54
| If it were me, I would probably spray with a pretty strong, but selective, herbicide, then renovate (plant or overseed) in September. You will likely have to spray twice and things will be pretty dead in the mean time, but that would basically give you a fresh start, and might even keep some of your current grass if it's not too hot when you spray. Read the label to see when you can plant after it's been sprayed. Then again, some of this would depend on whether you are planting warm season or cool season grass. What kind of grass do you have? |
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- Posted by todds_sweetpea z5 UT (My Page) on Fri, Jul 1, 11 at 17:27
| No idea bassplayer. We're in Salt Lake City, and it doesn't go dormant in the heat, so I'm guessing warm season? |
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| It's unlikely that you have warm season grass. The reason it doesn't go dormant in the heat is that you're watering it enough to keep it green. The most common lawn grass for the Wasatch front is Kentucky bluegrass. A lot of "drought tolerant" mixes, especially cheap ones, have a high percentage of K-31 (sometimes called KY-31 or Kentucky-31). Stay away from these. Despite the fact that the name has Kentucky in it, it's not Kentucky bluegrass. It's a pasture form of tall fescue. It's very hardy, but it's wide bladed, grows faster than other lawn grasses and tends to get clumpy over time. Picking a time to seed is tough. You need to wait until the heat of the summer breaks and that may not be until some time in September. Then, you want to make sure you plant 6 weeks before the expected first frost, which is early October. Oops, only 4 weeks after heat broke. In the spring, if you wait for all the snow to melt, you'll almost certainly be planting too close to summer heat, so the grass won't have a chance to establish before the heat kicks in. I've had the best results with dormant seeding. To dormant seed, wait until just before the first good snow and seed at a slightly higher than normal rate. The normal freeze/thaw cycles and any snow melts will carry the snow into the soil. In the spring, the melting snow and occasional rain will provide enough moisture for the grass to germinate. |
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