Beautiful lawn and gardens. Very impressive. Bill Hill

And thank you for having a good attitude toward crabgrass. It is not the end of the world and does not have to be treated on an emergency basis.

Very nice! Thanks for sharing.

Thank you for posting.

A few questions:
1) When was the first picture taken?
2) If it was a few years ago, how many times did you apply the synthetic preemergent?
3) How many times did you overseed?
4) What type of grass do you have?

First picture was May 2007, when I bought the place. Didn't close until July 1st, though.

As far as I know the lawn was relatively 'weed free' before being let go like that (the previous owner used synthetic weed control, but during the Spring that he put his house up for sale did not bother) So the crabgrass (and a few random dandelions) was all that took over that big bald spot (which was caused by him parking his truck !!! there because of space issues. So the soil was compacted, too.

I overseeded in the Fall of 2007. After all the crabgrass was yanked out by hand (that chore is a great stress reliever, actually) the soil was fairly churned up, which helped with the new grass. Most of the new grass made it through winter, although I was left with a few bald spots here and there - I suspect due to the compaction. I dug those up and placed sod from other areas of the yard (where I put flowerbeds) there.

I used a pre-emergent only once this Spring. Did a fine job, although I had some crabgrass come up mid-summer. Easily yanked. I put down some grass seeds in those holes, I also put white dutch clover seed in spots where things looked thin.

Over the summer I applied CGM several times (maybe once a month) I went through one 55 pound bag (some went onto the tiny front lawn, too. My preferred method is to toss it about by the handful, rather than use a spreader. I also scattered compost and triple mix as I had extra.

I don't know what type(s) of grass I have. In fact, I plan to post some pictures to find out. There are various patches of different grass - hinting at some overseeding by the previous owner. Along one section (which I did not overseed), the grass is light green and very fine and tends to lie down when it gets too long. It's too thick for weeds. In fact, it's so thick that there is much yellow down closer to soil level (which is not visible from above). Other patches have deep green wide-bladed grass that, in places, grows horizontally in clumps. But for the most part, the grass is garden-variety (heh!) green, thin, regular type grass.

Not exactly scientific lawncare but, heck, it works for me.
My current weeds are some dandelion, and I got rid of (by hand-pulling) any plantain and thistles that snuck in. My main issue seems to be some creepy stuff (bent grass?) that is crawling through the turf in patches.

Are you sure you didn't mean 2006? If you bought the house in 2007, I am confused. But, supposing you are right with the date, here is what I find interesting in your progression:
1) Obviously this isn't an organic success story (in terms of CGM stopping crabgrass) since you used synthetic preemergent and only applied organics for a couple months....if you did indeed start in 2007, not 2006.
2) Rather, I think it is an overseeding success story, as you took a really huge bald spot and grew a nice lawn over the past few weeks.
3) What I find most interesting is that the overseeding worked so well after a summer of throwing down corn gluten meal every time it rained. If what they say about the preemergent qualities of corn gluten meal is correct, your grass shouldn't have survived.

Even if you bought the house in 2006, overseeded that fall, then applied the preemergent this past spring and then proceeded to use corn gluten meal, I think the real success story is that you have maintained a nice green and gotten good grass coverage while using corn gluten meal as a fertilizer. This would support what I have been thinking - corn gluten meal is a very good fertilizer.

I agree that CGM is a very good fertilizer. My experience with it as a weed seed control was not satisfactory.

I think he meant 2006. There are too many springtimes in his description.

I'm sorry.
I have to apologize for utterly confusing everybody with this thread. (To my defense, I am terribly sleep deprived at the moment and my brain is just not working).

I bought the house in 2006. Of course this isn't one season's work. Sorry about that. I applied synthetic pre-emergent once this April because I really doubt that GGM could deal with the millions of CG seeds that are in the soil.

My biggest error in this post, however, is that I kept saying that I used GCM. That is totally wrong. I bought a 55 pound bag of SOYBEAN MEAL that I have been using up over the summer.

My apologies for making such a mess of this post.

My only point here was that SOYBEAN MEAL helped this lawn recover from being one big bald spot to looking really rather nice.

I have no crabgrass now, but I'm sure there are still plenty of seeds in the soil. If CGM doesn't really work that well, I'm not sure how I can avoid using a pre-emergent for at least another season. Wish I knew how many seeds are still left, and how much of a chore it would be to continue to remove seedlings manually.

Chris (Miss Chris :)

From your description of the fine bladed strip of turf that lays over and turns yellow at the base when it's long; you have bentgrass. Soft ain't it?

Greenjeans

And your big clumps of horizontal growing grass is K-31 fescue.

Deanna