Starting a New Lawn

[dwiall]

Hi,

I have a new property with 1.75 acres and it needs a lawn. It is currently a solid mat of crab grass. The soil is 75% sand and 25% clay. What is the best way to get rid of the crab grass and start a new lawn? I am going to seed. I live in south central WI and will also be putting in an irrigation system at the same time.

Thanks
Dave

[Smallaxe]

With that large an area and the time of the year and the putting in the irrigation system b4 you start - I would say you are not going to keep the CG from becoming an issue.
I would do sod b4 spending too much on pre-m that allows other grasses to grow.

The cheapest most sensible thing to do is kill everything and keep it dead till the weather cools off in the fall and seed at that time, with a topdressing of compost for the grass seed to germinate in.

You could be practicing with various areas in the mean time that you would like to have grass on right now. Once the crab starts any kind of seeding will be problematic.

If you want it ALL now, then you will end up with a problem for a long time.

[joshua]

i would roundup the whole lawn, and keep spot spraying anything that grew until late july- august ( depending on when you fall seeding starts ) . main reason for waiting is if you had to water the lawn this summer the water bill would b huge. to provide one inch of water over 1000 sq ft is 624 gallons of water. to provide 1'' of water over roughly 73500 sq ft would be 45,864 gallons of water a week. basically if you didn't get rain from july 1 - august 30 you would have to provide 8 weeks worth of water to keep you lawn alive. as far as seeding a bobcat with a box rake should provide a nice seed bed when it comes to fall.

[dwiall]

I really need to get the lawn in this spring. I do have enough water available to do the watering. I just really needto know the best way to get rid of the crab grass before preparing the bed. I know I will have to fight some of the CG but the less the better. I do have access to a bobcat for a week and I can rwent the rototiller and hopefully a box scraper. The local John Deere Landscape company has been very helpfull and will sell me all thier comercial chemicals.

Thanks
Dave A.

[Smallaxe]

I really need to get the lawn in this spring. I do have enough water available to do the watering. I just really needto know the best way to get rid of the crab grass before preparing the bed. I know I will have to fight some of the CG but the less the better. I do have access to a bobcat for a week and I can rwent the rototiller and hopefully a box scraper. The local John Deere Landscape company has been very helpfull and will sell me all thier comercial chemicals.

Thanks
Dave A.

Then put it in. Plant the grass and once it get growing large enough put down a pre-m. You might get lucky.

Just don't expect there is a way to get turf grass to come up from a whole new lawn job without CG. There are expensive chemicals that may or may not work well.

[muddstopper]

Scrape off as much of the crabgrass as you can, this will get rid of some of the seed. Crabgrasss is a annual grass and only comes back from seed. Till the soil adding whatever amendments that are needed. Plant your grass seed thick and mow at a height of at least 3 inches, this will help prevent the CG seeds from germinateing. Keep area well irrigated to help get the turf grass established. The thicker the turf grass, the less CG you will have. Spot spray any trouble areas before they become bigger problems. Crabgrass can grow seed heads in a week, so weekly mowing is a must to help prevent a new crop of seeds. One lb of Crabgrass seeds will contain over 2million tiny seeds. it only takes about 3lbs of CGseeds to place one in every sqin of soil on one acre. You wont be able to get them all in the first year.