[kirridam]

Folks,

Please help in the direction.

Here's my situation. I moved into a new house last month and the yard was not in the best shape. See attached pictures. Now that it is spring I want to do something about the patches and crab grass. Can someone advise me. I'm new to all this so I don't know where to begin. Is there is any website or article that would give help me.

Thanks,
kirridam

 

[gma2rjc]

You will find a lot of good info on this forum.

Another place to check is www.backyardlivingmagazine.com Their magazine is pretty good too, lots of good information.

Check your local library (books and magazines).

This time of year, book stores will have their gardening books on display.

If you have a used book store nearby, they usually have a nice selection too.

 

[gante]

I am not expert either but that grass looks dead. How big is the grass area?. Best bet for faster results is to replace the whole thing. I could get expensive though. If you plan seeds, that may take a while and you really have to take good care of it. I would say, just water the yard and maybe a little bit of fertilizer and see what results you get.

 

[downunder]

kirridam
Always give your location (and preferably site information) when asking for landscaping information. It is impossible, or at least highly difficult, to give accurate information otherwise.

For example, weeds in bermuda in the Atlanta transition are different from weeds in bermuda in Orlando, FL. IF temps are cold enough that the bermuda is still dormant, you can use almost any contact herbicide. But the bermuda has to be absolutely dormant. This time of year is questionable.

gante
Just looks like dormant bermuda to me.

OK, off my soapbox.

The pics look like fescue and some goosegrass (and maybe some broadleafs) in there. Could you shoot a couple of close-ups for us?

 

[kirridam]

kirridam
Always give your location (and preferably site information) when asking for landscaping information. It is impossible, or at least highly difficult, to give accurate information otherwise.

For example, weeds in bermuda in the Atlanta transition are different from weeds in bermuda in Orlando, FL. IF temps are cold enough that the bermuda is still dormant, you can use almost any contact herbicide. But the bermuda has to be absolutely dormant. This time of year is questionable.

gante
Just looks like dormant bermuda to me.

OK, off my soapbox.

The pics look like fescue and some goosegrass (and maybe some broadleafs) in there. Could you shoot a couple of close-ups for us?

Downunder,

I'm in Grayson, Georgia. I just moved into this new house and the only thing I know about the grass is that it is Bermuda Sod. This is my first spring doing any landscape. So I don't know where to begin.

As you can see there are lot weeds/other kind of grass growing and there are lot of patches.

Should I start sparying some weed killer before I start mowing? Also, how can I repair the patches? Seeds or buy new bermuda sod to fill the patches?

Any advice would be very helpful.

thanks
ki

 

[downunder]

I know of a Grayson community in the east Atlanta/Stone Mountain area. I will presume that is where you are. FYI- You are in zone 7b, or just zone 7 for general purposes. That is a temperature range rating. I might suggest that you stop by your local county extension office and get to know them. They have a world of information that you will find useful for learning about landscaping, gardening, and a lot of other things. Your tax dollars at work-use them.

If you can find a garden center that carries a herbicide called Revolver, that would be a good choice for you. A note of caution, you need to be careful about measuring, calibrating your sprayer, etc. You might want to get a local landscape contractor to hit a couple of treatments for you instead. If you can afford it, my suggestion would be the same for you as I gave a neighbor whom I used to work with. She had a new house, new bermuda sod, irrigation system, etc. She had a lot of new weeds coming up the first summer after she had the sod installed and I recommended that she get a lawn care service for one year: to fertilize properly, spray for the weeds, a pre-emergent treatment, etc to get this investment off to a good start. That might be a good choice for you. A couple hundred dollars but you can get your lawn in good shape with the proper maintenance by trained staff with the proper chemicals/fertilizers. Then you can maintain it and catch things as they come up. Just a couple of suggestions. I could offer others, but you would need to have a little more knowledge to follow them safely.

 

[Dugger52]

Old Geezer from Atlanta is right

Good council. The thing that's really going to make or break is soils and while they all tend to be good old Georgia clay in that area you really need a good soil analysis and the get someone who knows what they're doing read it for you. If you can get the soils straightened out everything else will come along.

 

[downunder]

Dugger52
Thanks for the kudos, but while the soil is important those weeds have got to go.

PS I couldn't help noticing the lawn on a TV commercial for an electrical contractor here in the Atlanta market. Seems that the prospective customer is getting outside landscape lighting done with all the other work inside. The commercial shows this really nice middle class brick house with flower beds, shrubs, and all that and then the sod lawn (of course, in this neighborhood!) looks twice as bad as kirridam's. :thumbup:

 

[Dugger52]

Hey Geezer

I'm looking at the pics again and it looks like he's got nut sedge mixed in with fescue. That would be Image based on my experience. What's the AI in Revolver?

 

[KHouse75]

Looka like my bermudagrass at the moment here in the Charlotte NC area. I usually put down a Pre-emergent herbicideand hit weeds that already started to grow with glyphosate while the Bermudagrass is dormant but I'm too late this year. The bermuda has already started growing. It looks like your's mave have started growing as well.

To get rid of some lingering clumps of tall fescue, I use Image Nutsedge killer. It takes a month or so to start to brown but once it's gone, I hasn't come back.

I pull all the weakly rooted weeds by hand or hit them with a weed killer that doesn't harm the bermudagrass.

Be careful with the bermudagrass if you use a weed killer. Some of them can be harmed by the weed killers. For instance, I have tifsport bermuda in my backyard and weed killer will turn it yellow for a few weeks. The common bermuda in my front yard is uneffected by just about everything except glyphosate.

 

[gnipacsdnal]

Bermuda grass maintenance begins and ends by following a feeding time table that has them fertilizing every 45 days or so and you have to water deeply.

 

[downunder]

Bermuda grass maintenance begins and ends by following a feeding time table that has them fertilizing every 45 days or so and you have to water deeply.

And nothing else?

What's the AI in Revolver?

My mind is blank right now. I can look on the label when I get back to the shop but a quick Google should tell.

BTW- I like the AI reference.:thumbsup:

 

[downunder]

Try this:
http://www.supremeturfproducts.com/PDF/revolver.pdf