going organic with the lawn food --

[Unregistered2013]

I just bought a hefty amount of Espoma Organic lawn food -- it's 18-8-6 --

-- will use it 4x this year -- once in a couple of weeks, and then every 60 days thereafter.

i have dogs who love to eat grass, roll in it, play in it, etc., so i am trying this method -- plus, i overseeded last year and i keep my blades up as high as they'll go.

i'm gonna pass on the crabgrass poison this year, and see how she turns out -- wish me luck!

i got the 50 lb. bags for $26 through my feed store --

 

[Podunkadunk]

If you like "organic", give Milorganite a try. Made from recycled and processed human-dung sludge from sewers, organic and won't burn your yard.

I use triple 10, but I have used Milorganite before. It's roughly 20-25$ for a 50lb bag.

Podunk

 

[4720 OWNER]

I think Modern Marvels just covered how it is made. They only heat the sludge up to 160 degrees. I thought the mad cow pathogens were from feed that was only heated up to 165 degrees? Cannot imagine that humans are much better than other animals? But they were talking about how safe it was but do not remember if they actually did random batch sampling or not to check.

 

[srjones]

I haven't done it this year, but you might try "Corn Gluten Meal" as an organic pre-emergent weed control.


Corn gluten meal - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

 

[Unregistered2013]

i am going to pass on the corn gluten --

-- for my lawn, it's $1600 an application, and needs to be done twice a year -- i simply can't afford that.

instead, i am going to try a lot of fertilizing the grass, and maybe weeding the crab-grass out.

 

[marks]

This past winter I had been searching on ways of controlling crab grass. The checmical herbicides weren't too effective, and had come to understand that their use in conjunction with chemical fertilizers were harmful to the naturally occuring microbes and the like in the soil. Hence for all intents, the soil is dead, so to speak, and the thus it was easier for the crab grass to spread. The discussion, centered on why white granular sugar was so benefical at restoring the health of the soil, and at eliminating the conditions that are favorable to crab grass.

Last week, I made the first application of four pounds per 1,000 sf, and watered it in. The recommendation was for two feedings per season, I'll wait and see how things go...

 

[meadowlarkponds]

I've never really understood the reasoning behind using fertilizers on lawns.....when I lived in the big city, I never fertilized my lawn, but always, always mulched the clippings back into the grass. My lawn wouldn't win yard of the month, maybe, but looked as nice as 95% of neighbors' lawns.

Fertilize the grass, promote more growth, pollute the environment, and perhaps worst of all, increase the need for mowing the lawn....just never made sense to me. Now that I'm in the country 24/7, I wouldn't even consider fertilizing the lawn and actually don't know anyone around me that does so...just does not make a lot of sense to some of us.....no offense intended to anyone, just my opinion.

 

[srjones]

i am going to pass on the corn gluten --

-- for my lawn, it's $1600 an application, and needs to be done twice a year -- i simply can't afford that.

instead, i am going to try a lot of fertilizing the grass, and maybe weeding the crab-grass out.

You've got lawn bigger than two acres? Yeah, I could see how that would be expensive...and take you all day to mow.

 

[Podunkadunk]

Ahhh crabgrass, it's a pain in the rear. Anything you put on it that will kill it will kill your lawn too (immediate area that is).

Pre-emergent stuff has worked for me. Scotts makes a crabgrass halt that doesn't kill stuff that's up, it just prevents a lot of the stuff from coming up in trouble areas. It's not fullproof though and it's pricey.

The best way to get rid of crabgrass is to pull it up, root and all, then get your existing lawn up to par so it has to compete with already established, thick, lush lawn.

Podunk

ps. I said above that I used 10-10-10 on my yard, I meant 13-13-13. Oops.

 

[4720 OWNER]

Best ever used was bunny pellets. Usually just before holloween so the little creatures did not want to cross the grass. The bigger ones were more interested in what kind of TV i had or vcr or what the dogs we had at the time: teeth clicker, face biter, snarly, ankle biter etc.

If i remember correctly, crabby grass is an annual so it is reseeding itself each year so any pre emergent should work.