Hi all,

My completely exposed front lawn is in dire straits - moss, bare spots, and weeds. The lawn around the house that is shaded by the woods isn't too bad.

In any case, any ideas on how I can rectify the situation mid-season? I live in New England. I had the lawn aerated and fertilized in early spring, but it didn't seem to do much good. Now that we have summer weather, I'm afraid there is not much I can do until the fall. I have a sprinkler system, but not sure it even makes sense to use it at this point. Should I just let it go dormant and mow as necessary and then renovate in the fall?

 

Have a soil test done. My county's agricultural extension office performs the testing for free. Once you have the results you'll have a much better idea of what's going on.

 

Another vote for a soil test. It may take a few weeks to get the results back, but it's going to take more than a few weeks to fix it anyway so may as well let them get you headed in the right direction.

 

yeah, soil is prob acid (pine trees i bet)... I had a place in Maine with trees shading everything, so I used lime and moss killer, planted grass, etc. Turned out it was too shady to keep the grass growing, so the moss came back and at least the yard was green. Thing is, the neighbors loved the look... can't tell the diff from the road and you don't have to mow the mossy area. Used weed n feed 2-3 times a year for the weeds and grass.

 

Thanks everyone for your suggestions. I will get the soil tested. I'm guessing Maarkr is right because we have pine trees all around our house.

How often and when should I apply fertilizer? As mentioned, I applied in early spring already. I thought about using TruGreen, but isn't 8 annual applications overkill?

 

Generally you apply fertilizer in spring and fall while avoiding summer.

 

What type of grass do you have?
If you apply an organic fert. like Miloragnite there's a schedule on the bag that corresponds to major public holidays, applied 4 times a year. If you can find it at this time of the year or use Ringer.

No do not, not do something. What you need is a game plan to get your lawn out of the doldrums, while you get the soil test done. The game plan will have to incorporate what you can do in summer, fall and next spring. To put together a game plan watch some utube's, people are gonna knock these guys but you watch and take what you find beneficial. HowToWithDoc, the lawncare nut, bermudagrasscentral, ryanknorr, connorward, gci turf, etc.

For 2 years I was so frustrated with my lawn but no truegreen for me. For less than their cost, UTube vids and a couple of hours, my lawn is looking decent.

In summer you can dethatch, re-seed, top dress, water new seeds 4+ times a day but you can't fight weeds. Most weed killers will prevent new seeds from germinating. Or you can do those steps plus fight weeds but not re-seed. Either way right now a 10-10-10-ish fertilizer is what you need to first apply in an adequate amount, and kill weeds separately.

In fall definitely re-seed, and in early winter lay down a pre-emergent like prodiamine. Some folks apply round up in winter to kill weeds when grass is dormant. I didn't do that. I prefer to fight weeds.

In late winter apply another pre-emergent. In spring scalp, dethatch, aerate, re-seed, fertilize.

Read up on some products like humic, super juice, Next biostimulants, image kills nutsedge type, fertilizer numbers, etc. As you can see it's a whole lotta info. Basically there is something you can do in each season. Setup a game plan and you will be off the blocks. The biggest take away I learned was how supreme timing is to lawn care.