rhody
09-10-2008, 10:36 AM
Hi everyone. I have been fighting an ongoing battle with my front lawn, it is a sloped lawn that is in FULL sun all day long. The lawn would always burn out in July and get taken over by crabgrass, I would scratch it up and overseed in the Fall and the cycle would repeat again the next year.
At first I thought the water I was putting down was mostly running off the lawn into the street so last Fall I rented a plug aerator and ran that through, this seemed to loosen up the soil and I saw less water out in the street. In the Spring I put down lime and later a pre emergent crabgrass killer, I also raised the height of my lawnmower to keep the grass around 3" high to choke out the crabgrass. I put an automatic timer on the grass and watered it every morning for 15 mins, I even tried twice a day for 10 mins each but the lawn again burned out and crabgrass took over.
With Fall approaching I was thinking of renting a split seeder (power seeder?) and overseed with that but don't want to waste the money if the same problems come back next year. What can I do to solve this problem? What is the best type of grass for zone 5 (Rhode Island) in full, and I mean full sun?
Since the lawn is so far taken over am I better off tilling the whole thing over and power seeding then or should I wait a few more weeks until the cooler weather hits? I want to fix this problem once and for all, any help is appreciated.
At first I thought the water I was putting down was mostly running off the lawn into the street so last Fall I rented a plug aerator and ran that through, this seemed to loosen up the soil and I saw less water out in the street. In the Spring I put down lime and later a pre emergent crabgrass killer, I also raised the height of my lawnmower to keep the grass around 3" high to choke out the crabgrass. I put an automatic timer on the grass and watered it every morning for 15 mins, I even tried twice a day for 10 mins each but the lawn again burned out and crabgrass took over.
With Fall approaching I was thinking of renting a split seeder (power seeder?) and overseed with that but don't want to waste the money if the same problems come back next year. What can I do to solve this problem? What is the best type of grass for zone 5 (Rhode Island) in full, and I mean full sun?
Since the lawn is so far taken over am I better off tilling the whole thing over and power seeding then or should I wait a few more weeks until the cooler weather hits? I want to fix this problem once and for all, any help is appreciated.