Can I get advice/tips for my lawn after the winter? ::Updated with pics:::

Start by reading this Louisiana Lawn Best Management Practices - 2 or 3 times - and follow the posts on the H&G board that you think might pertain to your lawn. In a couple years you’ll be an “expert” like all of us.

What type of grass do you have? What do you feel like your biggest problems are? Here are my thoughts in a nutshell and all are discussed in the above publication.

1. Pull soil samples from your lawn for base-line info soil fertility.
2. Cut your lawn at the recommended height for the type of grass you have.
3. Fertilize at the recommended amount on the appropriate schedule for your type of lawn grass.
4. Apply lawn-pre-emergent herbicides in late winter and early fall.
5. Learn to identify the most common lawn weeds and what herbicides to use to control them.
6. Long term - if you have low spots, drainage issues work to correct them.

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What type of grass do you have?

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I don't even know the answer to this.

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What do you feel like your biggest problems are?

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I don't really have any problems. Just want to get a better looking yard.

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Can you take some close up photos of the lawn grass and post them here? Need a close pic of grass blades, something like this

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Sure. I'll try to remember to do that Saturday. Won't be home much until then.

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Grass cutting heights, fertilization amounts/frequencies, etc all depend on what type of grass(es) you have

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Thanks. I'll try to read more into those links that were posted tomorrow. What I have read so far is Greek to me though. I even tried to look up pictures of the type of grass I have, but they all look the same to me.

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Is there anything you do now other than cut the grass?

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No. Cutting is all.



I really appreciate the help. Or at least the willingness to attempt to help. I'm a dumbass when it comes to this, but it's something I'm certain I would enjoy if I knew what I was doing.

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I have st. augustine. There are patches of clovers and other weeds growing, I know when the grass starts to grow again it will take over these. But I would like to start putting some care into how my grass looks. Just what herbicides and a general fertilizer to use?

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What I use this time of year for lawn weeds (St Aug, Centipede, Bermudagrass and Zoysia), and most of what you are seeing now are cool season annual weeds, is the winter weed cocktail of 8.6 ounces of Atrazine, 1 ounce of Weed-Free-Zone and 2 teaspoon of spreader sticker (surfactant) mixed in 1 or 2 gallons of water and sprayed over 1,000 sq ft. But I’ll spot spray it as well.

Fertilizer - just any brand high nitrogen lawn fertilizer that you might like, something with about 29 to 34% nitrogen. Don’t apply until you see active growth in your grass, and a good rule of thumb is apply after you’ve cut your grass twice (and that means cutting the grass, not the weeds, to make your lawn look tidy). That will likely be in March in the Lafayette area. St Aug responds well to fertilizer and you can apply up to 3 or 4 times during the year if you want.

Also cut the St Aug at a height of 3 to 3 1/2 inches - don’t scalp it - that goes a long way in keeping a healthy lawn and suppressing weeds.

I don’t use Weed & Feed nor do I recommend it. Timing for treating weeds and fertilizing lawn often don’t coincide so you are often not going to get the benefit of both products. Weed and Feed is a convenience product, but your lawn will benefit by keeping lawn weed control and lawn fertilization as two separate activities.

Thank you very much. I had heard weed n feed was not good to use just never knew the reason. That’s makes a ton of sense!

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Is this regardless of my type of grass?

And should this be done at a specific time of the year?

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Yes. 13-13-13 is an all purpose fertilizer. So it will work on all grasses. I would put it out around the 2nd week of March when your grass is greened up, try to spread it right before a rain.

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Lime

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Get a Soil pH test kit or Soil pH Test Meter and test your soil. gather 4-6 soil samples from different sections of your lawn. Blend the soil together and test the pH. It should be near 7(neutral). Most soil is acidic(below 7) meaning you must add lime to raise the pH. Some soil and plants(like azealas and blueberries) prefer acidic soil(below 7) here you would add aluminum sulfate to lower the pH to below 7. Test your soil,if you need to put out lime. Go to Tractor Supply and buy a few 40lb bags of pelletized lawn lime. It can be put out with the spreader like the fertilizer. It's around $4.00 for a 40lb bag, but sometimes its on sale for $3.00. A general guideline is to apply one bag per 1,000 sq. ft. to maintain soil pH and two bags per 1,000 sq. ft. to correct acidic soils.


LINK

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Your primary grass in that picture is St. Augustine. It's known as carpet grass

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Carpetgrass is not the same thing as St Aug

Those pics help. You’ve got a tremendous amount of lawn weeds, including annual bluegrass (Poa annua), ponyfoot (dichronda), lawn burweed, catch-all bedstraw, clovers, others. Looks to be some St Augustine under all those weeds and I think I see some common Bermudagrass. The last pic I wasn’t sure so I sent it to the weed specialist in the LSU AgCenter and he thinks the grass on the left is bahiagrass and he’s not sure about the plant on the right. Hard to ID some plant from photos without seed heads.

Where are you located - what parish? Your lawn not drain well? Ponyfoot is pretty characteristic of moist areas. Anyway, i ain’t gone to lie, its going to take you a while, few years, to get this under control but you can do it, and you’ll see significant improvement each year.

I’d spray the lawn now with the winter weed cocktail of 8.5 oz of Hi Yield atrazine + 1 oz of Fertilome weed free zone + 2 teaspoons of Hi Yield spreader/stricker mixed in 1 or 2 gallons of water and spray that over 1000 sq ft. Then repeat in about 3 weeks. When it warms up to about 85 F, spray weeds with metsulfuron methyl (MSM Turf). Then in the fall, mid-September I’d apply preemergent herbicide either prodiamine or Dimension (read the other thread on this), and then begin applying pre-emergent next spring. You can also apply pre-emergent herbicide in the next week or 2 if you are able.

Fertilize the lawn in mid-late March with a lawn fertilizer with repeat applications for St Augustine - check the chart in the lawn management publication I posted earlier for timing of additional applications. I’m not a big fan of weed & feed fertilizer and generally don’t recommend it but in your case I might make an exception, at least for your first fertilizer application. I’ll think that over.

Also, set your lawnmower to cut the grass/weeds at a height of about 3 inches. That is the recommendation for St Augustine.

Unless you live in the piney woods area, it’s not likely you’ll need lime, but pulling lawn soil samples and having them analyzed by the LSU AgCenter will help. Soil sample boxes should be available at a good retail plant nursery, and certainly at the parish extension office.

I’ll let you digest this, others can weigh in with their thoughts/suggestions, and you go from there.