Want to get the lawn into decent shape. It's not too bad but there are spots with some weeds and they seem to be spreading. Also some bare spots and areas I would like to thicken the grass.

I've planted grass seed before but never successfully dealt with weeds in the grass.

Should I use a fertilizer with weed killer? Anyone better than the others? Do the weed killer have to be targeted to the weed or a general one I pick up at HD or Lowes. What about weed killer and pets? If it's just a few days even a week keeping them off the lawn that's easy.

Here are the two weeds I see the most. First is the more prevalent one.

The bottom one looks like a weed that could be eradicated with 24D. The top one looks like more of a challenge.

Your grass looks more like a wild meadow instead of a lawn. What do you have going?

2.4.D. Amine

Kills the broadleaf weeds, doesn't hurt the grass. Mix as per instructions, apply sparingly, doesn't take a soaking to kill the bad guys.

A caveat...I am a Western guy. NO idea what those are, but 24D should work.

quote:

Originally posted by old rugged cross:
Your grass looks more like a wild meadow instead of a lawn. What do you have going?

Not that bad. Those are closeups of the weeds in the worsed area.

I can tell you fertilizer with weed killer is worthless. It should be called fertilizer for weeds.

quote:

Your grass looks more like a wild meadow instead of a lawn.

My lawn needs a safe space, stop that hate speech. Weeds deserve a chance.

If I mow often enough you can't tell what is weed vs what is grass....

looks like a mixture of broadleaf and grassy weeds. I think the one with 2 pairs of leaves growing perpendicular to one another is horseherb a.k.a. straggler daisy.

Would probably be wise to try to identify what the actual turf grass is, the grass you want to keep, as that can determine the type and strength of chemicals you can safely use.

- Some basics like, what's your location? How big is the lawn? What kind of effort and $ you can accept will weigh heavily here...

My two cents:
o The best defense for weeds is a healthy thick lawn
o Your county should have an "Extension Office" that has test kits cheap, start there, and treat that as needed 1st.
o Check/verify the grass you have is ideal for your area/needs/wants etc. if for example were looking at sod a builder laid down years ago, don't assume it is ideal for your situation. i.e. I have transitioned to tall fescue, I like how it is dark green, stays green well into winter, soft and drought resistant. Downside: it does not spread or repair itself well and is a little fragile.
o I gave up on Lowes/HD chemicals and use a local service. Not much more money and MUCH better results with no effort. (I still do some things like lime and overseeing myself).
o I determined what directly was under my lawn was crap/rock/clay. 2 of the last 3 years I aeriated and raked in a couple yards of "Orgrow" (A compost like material.) I think this and re-seeding has made a night and day difference. Your climate, might be too late to re-seed? plus if you re-seed you cannot put down any weed killer for 3 weeks or more.

Where you are determines when you should do what, but generally for cool season grasses (like your fescue, I believe) most of your prep is in the fall. This time of year it's starting to get a little late for pre-emergents to prevent future weed/crabgrass growth, but it will depend on daytime highs where you are and the product chosen. Not too late to green up the lawn a bit with nitrogen in something like a 14-0-0 fertilizer. A liquid post emergent, a.k.a. lawn weed control concentrate with dicambra 2,4D, etc, can be sprayed directly on weeds with a pressurized garden sprayer once diluted. A good idea to ID the weeds to get the right effective chemical, I had violets that really had to be pulled manually to be eradicated. Sounds bad, but there are weed pullers to make it bearable. Soil test is definitely in order to customize your fertilizing mix in the fall. Generally in Sept., you'll aerate, fertilize, over seed, and possibly lime to control pH. Then fertilize again in Oct and Dec. Weed pre-emerge for me in mid Feb-Early March. Local extension service can offer assistance with most of this. Irrigation is key as well, particularly when fescues try to go dormant and brown in the heat of summer.

Not a huge lawn. Not looking to make my spring and summer all about my lawn. Have too much other stuff to do but don't mind giving it some time each week or a day here or there. Spreading or spraying something on the lawn is what I looking for unless there is some better option.

Seems people recommend a separate weed killer and fertilizer. Going to assume I can not use both at the same time. So which is best to use first at this time of year?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: comet24,

Trimec you can find at Home Depot, Lowes, Tractor Supply etc. Comes in smaller bottles if you don't have much to spray you don't have to buy a lot.
Follow the label but for most lawns 4oz of Trimec to a gallon of water in a pump hand sprayer. Don't soak it down, just set the tip to a broader pattern and spray. There is a video at this link showing how to do it.

https://www.gordonsusa.com/pro...ec-lawn-weed-killer/

Broadleaf weeds are the easiest to deal with as they can be killed without killing the grass.
Blade/grassy weeds are another story and are best tackled with pre-emergence products and the age old extraction technique.

quote:

Originally posted by Skins2881:

quote:

Your grass looks more like a wild meadow instead of a lawn.

My lawn needs a safe space, stop that hate speech. Weeds deserve a chance.

If I mow often enough you can't tell what is weed vs what is grass....

I’m with you Skins, I live in the country and happy if anything green is growing in the yard.

quote:

Originally posted by comet24:

Do you have oak trees on your property? Some of these look like the little oak trees that start out in the spring as I can't seem to get up all of the acorns in the fall, especially the red oak ones, being so small.

Whatever you decide, READ THE INSTRUCTIONS! You can get a fertilizer, a weed killer, or even a weed & feed. Some goes on wet grass with no rain for a day, some goes on dry grass and needs to watered in afterwards. Tall, wet tall grass will clog up a drop spreader. Ask me how I learned this.

One more bit of advice: Call it a "yard," not a "lawn." You'll have higher expectations if you call it a "lawn."

Recent-ish thread here: Identifying Weeds...This Website From The Universty Of Tennesse Is A Great Source...

A thread about weeds from late last summer: Lespedeza is a vile weed.

Different weeds need different herbicides. So first you need to know what it is. I ended-up using three different herbicides last season: Weed B Gon + Crabgrass Control, SpeedZone, and Tenacity. All liquids.

Our lawn (20-25,000 sqft) was thin, and weed- and clover-filled. Between power raking last fall, remorselessly ripping-up (literally) bent grass, over-seeding twice (last fall and this spring) and aggressively seeding the bare spots: It looks like I may be about 50% to where I want the lawn to be.

This fall I'll power-rake and overseed again. Possibly aerate. In the meantime, over the season, I'll continue the weed and clover control efforts.

Be VERY careful with that "weed & feed" stuff. I basically destroyed my front lawn last summer by putting way too much down and it's only about 70% recovered now.

I'm being told by multiple sources, including Lawn Doctor which I'm now a customer of, that the FALL is the optimal time to re-seed a lawn, not now. Right now your new grass will have to compete with weeds and in the fall, they are going dormant or dying off and it's still warm enough to germinate grass seed.

Also, it feels counter-intuitive to me and apparently I've been doing it wrong for years now but the best way to stop weeds is to not give them a chance to grow which means cutting your grass much higher than you may be used to. I've started doing this and it does seem to work, the grass gets taller and thicker and crowds the bad stuff out. I used to almost scalp my lawn to a golf-course-like close cut but now am just taking off a little bit each time I mow and leaving a good 2.5-3 inches of grass leaf there. My mower is now set to the second to highest setting where in the past I'd have it at the second to lowest or even lowest setting.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Be VERY careful with that "weed & feed" stuff. I basically destroyed my front lawn last summer by putting way too much down and it's only about 70% recovered now.

I remember that. Yup: You can cause a lot of turf damage over-applying either herbicide or fertilize - not to mention both.

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
I'm being told by multiple sources, including Lawn Doctor which I'm now a customer of, that the FALL is the optimal time to re-seed a lawn, not now.

That is correct. I re-over-seeded and did more bare spot seeding three weeks ago--as soon as the soil temperatures were approaching 50°F, because my fall seeding attempts didn't go as planned. (Long story.)

quote:

Originally posted by PASig:
Also, it feels counter-intuitive to me and apparently I've been doing it wrong for years now but the best way to stop weeds is to not give them a chance to grow which means cutting your grass much higher than you may be used to.

Also correct.

And leave the clippings on the lawn if you can. If they're too long or contain a lot of weed seeds: Then collect and dispose of or compost them. I did "clean up" cuttings the first two cuttings this spring. The remainder of the year I'll leave the clippings.

quote:

Originally posted by comet24:
In Maryland.

Not a huge lawn. Not looking to make my spring and summer all about my lawn. Have too much other stuff to do but don't mind giving it some time each week or a day here or there. Spreading or spraying something on the lawn is what I looking for unless there is some better option.

Shortly after becoming a homeowner I spent a lot of time on my lawn, and it was nearly perfect. As I got older and developed better ways to spend my time, I discovered I could do 20% of the work and get close to 90% of the results.

Calibrate your lawn mower and cut your fescue no shorter than 3.5". That will help crowd out the weeds.