How big is your lawn? That usually doesn't make a difference in terms of cost, but if the lawn is small enough, going organic can mean reducing fertilizer and weed control costs to $0 after a one-time purchase of a weed hound.

As already stated, if you can get your lawn thick enough, most weed problems will go away on their own just because the weeds can't compete. That's true of a lawn that is maintained with synthetics, as well, but we tend to forget that sometimes.

Starbucks has a corporate policy of making their used grounds available for gardeners for free. Coffee grounds are a very mild fertilizer, so it takes a lot to be the only fertilizer. I've got a 4k sq ft lawn, and a couple of handy Starbucks, so I can fertilize for free. If your lawn is large, that might not be practical. But you might be able to replace some of your fertilizer needs with coffee grounds.

You said that you've got a tall fescue lawn and are considering adding KBG to it for the spreading. If you like the tall fescue other than the bunch growth, you should be aware that there are newer varieties of tall fescue that are rhizomatous (spreading). They're not as aggressive as KBG, but they will fill in bare spots.

When I wrote the Organic Lawn Care FAQ I had in mind an idea to change the general thinking on the topic. Here's what was being passed around at the time.

1. Organic gardening is expensive.
2. It smells bad...for weeks.
3. You might kill your grass.
4. If you "go organic" it means you'll get weeds.
5. You'll have yellow grass.

At the time the only organic "fertilizer" was compost. Well, compost is not a fertilizer but it is extraordinarily expensive. At the time not many people understood how to use compost (1 cubic yard per 1,000 square feet) so they were using far too much and killing their grass with it. Since compost is not a fertilizer, their lawns were relatively yellow compared to lawns fertilized with synthetic fertilizer. If they were not using compost, they used fresh steer manure and stunk up the neighborhood for 2 weeks while their grass died under the manure. Furthermore, since you are not allowed to use herbicide, organic lawns were doomed to be full of weeds. That was the paradigm for organic lawn care. Please take a look at it and see if you like what you read.

Weeds are a force of nature. You combat them best by developing a dense turf. The best way to have a dense turf is to have enough grass plants, water deeply/infrequently, and mow the grass to make it the most dense. For most grasses, mowing high provides the best protection from weeds REGARDLESS OF WHICH KIND OF FERTILIZER YOU USE, synthetic or organic. Allowing the soil to dry completely between waterings is the other best way to keep weeds out. Weed seeds need continual water to sprout so by not watering every day, or even every three or four days, you prevent the seeds from sprouting.

Your back pond is a serious issue. Did you say it has concrete under it? If not, then you should be able to build it up with soil or sand to divert the water elsewhere. It looks like your lawn is suffering more than the neighbors. Did they already build up their yards? The basic problem is the builder did not do his job properly. At this point the way to fix it is to dig a swale or ditch down all the back fencelines to a real drainage point. There is probably nobody going to go for that idea, least of all the people at the low part of the ditch. I would quietly start bringing in topsoil or sand and extending your high point back. You have to be careful not to flood your house and out building so build some soil up near the building, there, too. You only need enough soil to move the water elsewhere. Technically it is probably illegal to do that, so do it very slowly and without fanfare.

The only organic solution to wild violets and ground ivy is to dig up the entire lawn to a depth of about 2 inches, remove every violet and ivy root, and replant. There is a chemical solution, so if you want to read about that, go to the other lawn forum and ask. You might want to do that spray and get it out of the way before you move to organic. Otherwise you'll never be happy. Then the long term solution to ward off repeat attacks is to install a concrete curb between you and your neighbors. I see that done all the time in the town where I'm working. They put in about a 6-inch wide curb about 2 inches above grade and probably 4-6 inches deep. That gives both neighbors something to mow and edge up against. It looks pretty good. At my house my wife built a ground cover garden on our side of the wall. Our wall is made from local stone and is about 6 inches above grade. It was made back in the 30s when the house was new.

Thanks for your responses.
That "pond" in the back really isn't a pond...it is only like that when it rains heavy. And the previous owners did that! They were attempting to "fix" it but only made it worse. Yes, concrete! And I was told that the previous owners brought in a pile of dirt of their own trying to "fix" the drainage issue as well. The dirt is higher than the bottom fence board on our side of the fence.

It is not close to the house. It is near the back of the property by the shed. We have a fairly large yard for a subdivision. Maybe about 5000 sq ft or a 1/3 of an acre if I had to guess. I'm not good at that stuff.

Well we are still waiting our grass sample diagnosis back from the coop ext. Then we will decide what to do from there. We may try to start organic a bit at a time, at least to try to attack the wild violets and ground ivy, cause there is no way we could dig up this whole lawn!

dchall_san_antonio
I would like to see a pic of the "curb" you are speaking of to try to understand it better. We were thinking of putting in some small rock along the bottom of the fence to help with drainage. But we are gonna need some way to keep the neighbors weeds from invading our lawn.

Since you have already sent in a soil sample to your extension service, your state ag school, you have made a very good first step. Along with that test these simple soil tests,
1) Structure. From that soil sample put enough of the rest to make a 4 inch level in a clear 1 quart jar, with a tight fitting lid. Fill that jar with water and replace the lid, tightly. Shake the jar vigorously and then let it stand for 24 hours. Your soil will settle out according to soil particle size and weight. A good loam will have about 1-3/4 inch (about 45%) of sand on the bottom. about 1 inch (about 25%) of silt next, about 1 inch (25%) of clay above that, and about 1/4 inch (about 5%) of organic matter on the top.

2) Drainage. Dig a hole 1 foot square and 1 foot deep and fill that with water. After that water drains away refill the hole with more water and time how long it takes that to drain away. Anything less than 2 hours and your soil drains too quickly and needs more organic matter to slow that drainage down. Anything over 6 hours and the soil drains too slowly and needs lots of organic matter to speed it up.

3) Tilth. Take a handful of your slightly damp soil and squeeze it tightly. When the pressure is released the soil should hold together in that clump, but when poked with a finger that clump should fall apart.

4) Smell. What does your soil smell like? A pleasant, rich earthy odor? Putrid, offensive, repugnant odor? The more organic matter in your soil the more active the soil bacteria will be and the nicer you soil will smell.

5) Life. How many earthworms per shovel full were there? 5 or more indicates a pretty healthy soil. Fewer than 5, according to the Natural Resources Conservation Service, indicates a soil that is not healthy.
can also help you determine what you need do to get a good, healthy soil that will grow a strong and healthy turf that can aid greatly in suppressing those "weeds".
Ground Ivy, aka Creeping Charlie ("Glechoma hederacea") grows best in compacted soils with a low soil pH and low levels of nutrients, ie poor soils, and the wild violets have other soil conditions that they much prefer that are different than those that a good, healhty lawn would like, so correcting the soil conditions will also help get rid of these "weeds".

Thanks Kimmsr! We will have to do some of those tests when we have time. We are also gonna have the soil tested in the fall for ph and stuff.

I am gonna start a new topic for my lawn diagnosis and questions.