Right now half of the lawn is peppered with light green tall grass several days after I mow.

I had such a Poa trivialis (roughstem bluegrass) problem this year that when somebody says light green and grows fast, I start to worry. :-) I could be over-reacting. Could you possibly post a photo, a good closeup so we can see it?

Will the crab grass interfere too much with the growth of the other grass?

Maybe. Crabgrass grows like a...well, weed. I would, in this one teeny instance, be very tempted to buy some crabgrass killer, close my eyes, and use it. Depending on how much you have, that is. "A lot" seems like more than you want to pull manually. Perhaps if, instead of the chemistry, you work on it slowly over the summer as you have time, pulling bits here and there? It'll still go nuts, but at least it'll be reducing constantly.

I hate to make an inorganic suggestion, particularly on this forum (somebody will certainly get offended and call me to the carpet on it...and they are right!), but sometimes you need a boost until things get going.

You don't want it overshadowing the grass you plant in fall, or using resources that should be going to your turf and seed.

I'm hoping that by August 2008 I've proven them both wrong! :)

By late May 2008 you will have proven them wrong. Guaranteed. By September 2008 they'll be asking you for advice and staring critically at their own, thin, stressed, chemically-addicted lawns.

It happened with me.

Thanks Morpheus. I think I might have to give in on this one point as part of the yard has more crab grass than grass. The more I learn the more questions I have. I can only imagine that the crabgrass was either in the seed mix (I had three different sources as I topped it up a couple of weeks after the initial lanscaper's seeding and my bag ran out in the middle) or in the topsoil the landscaper brought. They are all mixes - should I be taking a stand and buying a specific type?

We just learned today too that a ground hog has taken up residence in the back of the yard.

I'll post a picture in a couple of days when the grass shoots up.

Thanks again.

Here is the picture. I'm afraid you're right. The landscaper wants to come back to reseed in the next week or so. I'm thinking of asking him to come in September. He gurantees germination and we have some patches so this wouldn't cost us. Any advice?

{{gwi:1103599}}

Sorry; will upload the picture in the morning. Can't get it to work just now.

Sure, if you want. September's better--a July first seeding is practically doomed to failure except under really extraordinary situations that don't apply (like living in north Canada).

If the landscaper will tell you what varieties of seed he's using, post it and we'll all be happy to criticize. :-)

I've given up on embedding the pic but here is a link. Hopefully my gardening skills are better than my IT.

The landscaper is coming back after Labor Day.

Thanks for your help!

Here is a link that might be useful: My grass

I just looked at your attempt to embed the picture. I think you were following instructions I gave somewhere, but you left out a step.

I put http://your.picture.here in the example html, but you were supposed to substitute the url where your picture is.

So it would have looked like this:
<img src="http://www.the-examined-life.com/Jen's%20garden%20web%20album/Jensorganicgardenproject/mygrass.html">;

I think that's what I did but it wouldn't work (think being the operative word). Can you see it by following the link?

Yes. I just thought I'd give you the syntax for future reference.

I just looked at it and I see the problem. I should have looked closer the first time. The link is an html page with the image on it. It should have been to the jpg on the page.

Well, that's not it, either. I can't get it to show up using the img tag. I'm not sure what the problem is.

A couple things:
1) I think you are overdoing it with the soil ammendments.
2) Looking at your photo, your lawn is a mess (sorry to be so blunt). I think you have two options:

option #1: Just be really patient. I would apply corn gluten in the spring AND fall every year for the next two years. It will act as a pre-emergent, and your weed problem will slowly go away. At the same time, though, you are going to have to go out there and start pulling weeds.

option #2: Go 50% organic for the first year. I hate to say it, but you could really use a spraying of Ortho Weed B Gone. Spray it, overseed in the fall, and then start off next spring with Halts. I know that isn't organic, but if you do those steps, you will be able to make a much smoother transition to organics, in my opinion.

option 3: Start over. As I type, I forget if you previously stated that this is a new lawn. If it is not, I would consider starting over. Annual bluegrass is hard to deal with, not to mention all of the crabgrass you are contending with.

If it was me - and I don't mean to impose my beliefs on you - I would break the organic rules for a year and start dropping things one by one. In other words, in the first year, I would do all of my normal organic fertilization but still apply WeedBGone and Halts. In year 2, I would try to use corn gluten as a pre-emergent, but keep a spray bottle of WeedBGone handy for some spot treatment. By year 3, you should be set.

This is a new lawn and I'm hoping that I can start over, perhaps in September.

When we bought the house the back yard was in a state. Believe it or not, this is better than what we had. The terrain was so uneven that we had it graded and then seeded. We even paid the premium to go with the organic landscaper. He guarantees germination - although he didn't specify germination of what LOL - so I'm hoping that he will fix it in the fall.

He had said that he would reseed now but I really don't see the point. At least we can use the lawn for now, even if the kids are playing on crabgrass, and it seems like we have a better chance of success in the fall. I can close off the lawn completely then.

I still have a couple of questions though. The first - is there a way that I can keep the weeds from spreading? About 2/3 of the lawn is growing in beautifully and I want to at least contain the problem. Would corn gluten help now to keep it in check?

Secondly, if you overseed in the fall, then when (or should) you add corn gluten? Essentially, how can I stave off weeds when I want the grass seeds to germinate.

Thanks for the advice - bluntness welcome.

You have a SERIOUS nutsedge outbreak!!! Not good... Not good... Might be time to consider chemical control, I hate to say (ie. Sedgehammer)

Yeah, I agree with everybody else as well. Nutsedge is tough to stop and just keeps going and going and going....

Ortho Weed-B-Gone would certainly help.

For linking the image, this should do it:

{{gwi:1103601}}

Thanks. I feel more than a bit naive as I didn't know what nutsedge even was. Now that I've looked it up I can see that what I actually have is a bit of grass in my nutsedge. So, off to store.

Do you think I have a case to get the landscaper out again or is this just tough luck?

The problem when you plant a new lawn is that you don't know what seeds are sitting in your soil in the first place. So, while you often get grass, you often get weeds - a lot of them.

Like I said earlier, you could go completely organic and just pick the weeds while nursing the grass that is there to health (and overseeding several times), or you could take a 1-year break from your organic gardening and get the lawn established. I hate to say it, as this is an organic forum, but in the end I think you would be better by killing every last weed right now before they have a chance to go to seed and overseed in the fall.

If you want to really make sure that you get the grass established this year so you don't have to use the chemicals again next year, my advice would be to consider overseeding twice if you can afford it:
1) overseed August 15
2) overseed September 15
3) then use some Patchmaster where it doesn't come in

I would still consider a round of Halts in the spring to get you through one summer with limited weeds while your lawn is still building up, but that is a decision that you have to make. In my opinion, organic lawncare works a lot better when you have an actual lawn to start from. Until the grass can smother out the weeds, the weeds will smother out the grass.

My bad. I did not catch that you seeded this past spring. Like Rutgers1 mentioned, seeds in your soil are ready to spring up...especially true in the spring and summer. Although you may see a lot, much of it may die this winter and not return after your lawn gets established.

When I seeded late summer, I saw weeds galore, including stuff I've never seen in the yard before: nutsedge, spurge, plantain, crabgrass, etc. etc. The next spring, I used pre-emergent early and most of the lawn was weed free and growing thick.

I agree with rutgers: control as many weeds as you can and then overseed this fall. Next spring, put down chemical pre-emergent. Thereafter, you hopefully can go all organic if you wish.

I know I'm in bad shape when no one has jumped in with the opinion to stay organic. So, I'm going to reach for the herbicide, be ready with seeds and make sure the landscaper comes as promised in the fall.

Thanks for the advice.

Jen