Earlier this spring, I engaged in a challenge to overcome the bare spots and weeds in my lawn. The battle continues!!! Check out the steps I took initially in my Lawn Start-up blog. Currently, I feel “neck and neck” with this war (such a strange sounding description…neck and neck). Anyhoo, the bare spots are much smaller but the weeds are relentless!
The results are mixed.
I’ve got grass coming up in both my full sun areas and in the areas that are now shaded – yay! But I’ve also got a lot of “other” stuff growing in as well. Grrr, I have another name for that “other” stuff but I’ll keep this clean…and, optimistically speaking, it’s green!
The shaded areas seemed to take a little longer to really take off. But once it did, I liked what I was seeing with the grass sprouts. I did have some seed wash away with the rains we hadn’t gotten, but the heavier clumping that occurred will assist slowing the water through that side of the yard. Every little bit enables stronger coverage the next go ’round! One thing I did notice in both areas of shade…they now have a new weed that wasn’t there last season. Joy-joy! 
The weed seems to pull up very easily so I’m going to try to tackle it manually instead of weed killer. This will give me an opportunity to over-seed immediately and in much smaller spots and will make it more feasible to keep it moist during germination.
As for the full sun sections…I saw similar results only sooner than in the shaded area.
I did see the grass come in, but with it came a lot of clover too! Back to the fertilizing for me! My soil is very acidic (clay)…I do a lot of fertilizing and nurturing but I guess…just not enough!!!
It is time to hit the lawn with some fertilizer again. Because of what I’m seeing with so many clovers in my yard, I’m going to use one of the higher nitrogen fertilizers. Clovers thrive in soil that is lacking in nitrogen. Sta-Green has a couple high nitrogen fertilizers to choose from; I used the Sta-Green Starter fertilizer because I overseeded the entire yard. This time around I’m going to use their slow-release 29-0-5 in the hopes of strengthening the soil against the additional spread of weeds.
After the fertilizer is down for several weeks, I’ll load some more pictures up to show the progress for my problem lawn areas. Also, I’ll let you know my next steps for prepping the lawn for the brutal southern summer yet to come!
The quest to win…I mean for a thick green lawn continues!!! Best of luck to you in your battle! Cherie
Landscape Retreat 