# New to the Forum. Advise on my Lawn.



## softwire (Oct 12, 2021)

My wife and I recently purchased a house with .85 of an Acre. We have never owned a house with a lawn before so this is all new to me. I have the mower situation handled now but our yard is a mess. There is a rectangle brown spot in the back yard that has been there since we moved in a month ago. Not sure what happened there. The spot is about 10 feet off the house. The yard has no trees and no shade other than a little from the house during the day. The Invisible Fence guy commented that our yard had a lot of crab grass and weeds but at least its a yard. I tried to do some research on google to figure out what I could do to help the lawn grow better next year and to have as little crab grass as I could but I got rather confused. I was wondering if anyone could give me some pointers on what I should do. I had been looking at Fall Season Weed and Feed but I don't have any experience. We Live in the upper part of North Carolina.


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## 01Bullitt (Aug 31, 2020)

Welcome to TLF & congratulations on your new home. To take care of the crabgrass apply a pre-emergent next spring in early March. I like prodiamine and I spray mine with a battery backpack sprayer. You can find a granular version if you prefer to spread. Spreading will be easier if you are new to lawn care. You can start fertilizing your yard now if you have mostly fescue. Fall is the best time of the year to fertilize a cool season grass like fescue. If you have bermuda grass then it is a warm season grass and is fertilized in late spring when it begins to green up from being dormant. Post some pics if you can with some close ups of the grass and it will help us to determine what type of grass you have. Upper NC, what town or county? I'm located in the Mebane area.


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## softwire (Oct 12, 2021)

Thank you. Weeksville NC is where we are. Ok so early march next year spread the pre-emergent awesome. I'll take some quality photos later today and post them.


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## softwire (Oct 12, 2021)

I took some pictures of the lawn and the weeds I have.

Grass Pictures - I looked around and tried to find a spot that didn't have weeds to hopefully get a good picture of the grass.













Weeds - Different types of weeds in the yard.


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## 01Bullitt (Aug 31, 2020)

From the pictures and the fact you live on the coast of NC it appears you have common bermuda grass. I do see a lot of crabgrass along with other weeds. The bermuda will need to be fertilized next year when it comes out of dormancy. I will tag @Ware to see if he can move this to the warm season subforum where you will get better visibility and help.


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## softwire (Oct 12, 2021)

Awesome Thank you.


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## 01Bullitt (Aug 31, 2020)

You're welcome.


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## BigTlawn (Oct 15, 2021)

I know not everyone is a fan but this is a good video to help you get started in the right direction and then as you learn more and get more advanced there are other methods and better products but this helped me go from what you had to something you can start to fine tune.

This is part 1 after that continue to follow the videos.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FC1voe18JYM


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## MasterMech (Sep 24, 2017)

@softwire I'm seeing a bunch of dandelion and perhaps dollar weed. Perhaps a bit of crabgrass and spurge mixed in. Most of that looks like it'll succumb to a season of the Bermuda Bible and the Bermuda Triangle.

You will be shocked how fast the Bermuda fills in and takes over the weeds once you reduce the initial weed pressure and start pushing nutrients to it. Get ready to mow!


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## softwire (Oct 12, 2021)

Thank you all for the advice and links. I will review everything you've given me. I like to do a lot of research on everything I do so this is perfect. I'll look forward to lots of mowing. As a kid I hated mowing the lawn (push mower on the farm). Now that I've bought a house and have the zero turn I can't get enough.


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## Bombers (Jul 14, 2020)

Take in everything you can but if you're going to put down anything right now, you should put down a pre-emergent to prevent winter weeds from slowing down your bermuda next spring. Spraying is the way to go for your real estate size(more economical, better control/coverage), but a granular product (ala Lesco Stonewall 0-0-7) from box store would suffice for now.

Also, you said you have .85 acres but measure out your actual usable turf. You can do it manually or use an online tool for a fairly accurate estimation.


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## FATC1TY (Jul 12, 2017)

Yeah I wouldn't worry about any of that, and just put down a pre emergent now. That's quite the salad bar, and the cold will eventually take care of majority of it for the time being.


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## softwire (Oct 12, 2021)

I had an issue with the mower deck on my zero turn and ended up cutting the lawn a little shorter than I typically have been doing. I cut it at about 2 inches and ended up with alot of clippings. I got a lawn sweeper and swept up the clippings (it was alot since the grass was about 4-5 inches tall) and put them on the very back of the property where its primarily very little grass, dirt and weeds and smoothed it out. We don't have trash or debris pickup so I didn't know what else to do with them until we start a compost. I smoothed them out best I could however will this stay and create problems next spring or will it be fine? Also for liquid pre-emergent is this the correct stuff? Prodiamine 65 WDG


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## Mikeyp_1284 (Jul 23, 2021)

softwire said:


> I had an issue with the mower deck on my zero turn and ended up cutting the lawn a little shorter than I typically have been doing. I cut it at about 2 inches and ended up with alot of clippings. I got a lawn sweeper and swept up the clippings (it was alot since the grass was about 4-5 inches tall) and put them on the very back of the property where its primarily very little grass, dirt and weeds and smoothed it out. We don't have trash or debris pickup so I didn't know what else to do with them until we start a compost. I smoothed them out best I could however will this stay and create problems next spring or will it be fine? Also for liquid pre-emergent is this the correct stuff? Prodiamine 65 WDG


Well you did spread crabgrass seeds everywhere but it should be fine if you get your pre m out in time next year. And yes prodiamine 65 wdg is correct if you intend to spray liquid.


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## Bombers (Jul 14, 2020)

Make sure you measure out correctly for your size yard. You should be good with half the yearly max rate until you have to apply again in March/April. That is the basic and bare minimum pre-emergent practice and should prevent 90% of weeds if applied correctly. 
I see you have a natural area in the back or side. You can just dump your clippings there instead of on your lawn.


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## softwire (Oct 12, 2021)

I plan on having a tow behind sprayer by March next year which I plan to use a liquid pre emergent. I quickly realized that walking the yard with a Scott's DLX spreader today was gonna be a bit much for me since I have some medical stuff with my back. I did try and spread some of the Lesco 0-0-7 today and filled the spreader up with a 50lb bag. I read on the website that it said to take the number off the bag and match it with the spreader. I definitely had the setting wrong since that 50lb didn't last but one side yard and a few rows of the back. I think the correct setting was supposed to be 4 and not 7. I was worried about the crab grass seeds but hopefully it'll be alright with putting the pre emergent down. Interestingly enough that natural area behind our property is the neighbors backyard. I used the online tool to get a rough estimate of the yard but I bought a measuring wheel and am going to measure the yard tomorrow to get a accurate reading. I looked at the yards on either side of us and I noticed that they have the same lawn issues as us. If I get the Bermuda growing well and the pre emergent down will the weed pressure from the other yards creep over?


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