I recently purchased a house in Northern Colorado with a neglected lawn. This lawn has not received water all summer and currently has a large variety and volume of weeds. There are a few green spots, but not many. I've been told that grass is resiliant and can be reovered.
Is this project worth tackling this late in the year or wait til spring? First freeze is a couple months away.
I plan to pick the weeds first, then dethatch, then areate, then water heavily. What steps would you add or subtract from this?
What lawn care products are recommended to help this along?
Impossible to say without knowing what kind of grass you have. It could be an excellent grass that is dormant from lack of water and will come back fine. Or it could be there was not any decent grass there to begin with and what was there is mostly dead.
If you plan on salvaging what's there, I wouldn't dethatch and aerate now, as it will only stress what's left even more short term. What makes you think you even need to dethatch? Did you verify there is a thatch problem? I'd probably just water first, wait a couple weeks, and then decide. I don't know how big the lawn is, but I wouldn't be dealing with weeds by picking them. Use a herbicide.
If what was there was crap even when it was growing, then I'd kill it all with Roundup, then re-seed about 10 days later, after mowing short, raking all loose debris, aerating. Then use a slice seeder. Make sure the soil is decent, or else you may want to till in organic matter first. And check PH.
my house was pretty sad last fall. i applied ph balanced soil conditioner. that was all and it came back nicely in the spring. i can't areate due to a grove of live oaks in the front. for bugs i used a natural oil based insecticide.
as far as weeds. jeeze. start pullin' some people here (this ng) like herbacides. if you go that route use orange oil and garden vinager. the city of austin is finding the active ingeadient in round-up in the city water supply and advised against it's use here.
the good grass will win out over the weeds if you help.
if you have trees don't areate in the drip line (and don't use herbicides in a trees drip line). Areation works wonders but an idiot on an areator can cause a lot of damage. watch for sprinklers. valve hole covers etc.
watering heavely isn't going to do much good this late in the game. I'd stick to a sinsible shedule Once or twice a week depending on rain. 45 min a station. Be sure to water in the soil conditioner. All but stop at the first signs of a freeze. Only if it's dry and warm. I don't water in the winter and I live in central tx.
I would clean up the weeds. Apply a soil conditioner per instuctions. but about 17 to 18 40lb bags for an average lawn. Areate if the yard if needs it. Water in with normal water cycle.
Areation isn't going to stop the weeds it makes it easier for them to grow too. The areator will impregnate the yard with soil conditioner.
You can put in little fertilizer.1/2 dose (you don't want too much fertilizer in the fall) Find one made from natural materials and if you have a lot of rain get fertilizer with something to make it stick around.
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