Weeds!!!

A good healthy Bermuda grass lawn will choke out MOST weeds, however you're still going to get some weeds, especially crabgrass unless you start using chemicals. What you need to do is develop a schedule on the right times of the year to apply the right products, and you can win the battle over weeds. You have a couple of things going in your favor. One is you have Bermuda grass. When you have Bermuda grass, you can use chemicals which would kill other lawn types. The next thing you have going for you is you know how to identify your weed types. If you can identify the weeds, you can kill them or prevent them. Here is my schedule. Keep in mind I live in Dallas, TX so my winters are short. If you live farther north you will need to adjust the schedule accordingly.

1) Mid-February: Apply a pre-emergent weed preventer. There are basically two types. One type prevents only crabgrass, another prevents broadleaf weeds. Some products have both types mixed together. These products prevent weeds, they don't kill them, so it's not going to kill existing weeds if you already have them.

2) March-April. Any weeds that make it past the pre-emergence need a selective post emergence product. I use Weed-B-Gon, but there are others that work just as well. If you have a lot of weeds, the easiest and best way is to use a hose-end sprayer. Weed-B-Gon will not work if the ground is too cold, so if it is early in the season spray a small test area. If the weeds don't start dying within a week, you'll have to wait a little later in the season before it will work. Weed-B-Gon will not kill crabgrass or any other "grass-type" weed. It only works on broadleaf weeds. There are some products similar to Weed-B-Gon which claim to kill crabgrass. I haven't had much luck with them.

3) Mid-May. The first fertilizer is applied in May. You'll notice I don't use a 'weed and feed' product. They do not work for warm season grasses like bermuda. I use a fertilizer which has a high nitrogen content and is slow-release. You need to match your fertilizer type to your particular area. In my area, phosphorous is prevelant in the soil already and potassium is not needed for bermuda till the fall. Also in May I use a product called Image to kill my nutsedge or "nutgrass". This product will also kill crabgrass, but I don't use it for that because it's expensive.

4) June. When the weather really starts to get hot I use one of two products to kill crabgrass. They are MSMA or CSMA. They work very well, but it has to be hot for them to work. They are cheap so they are a good way to kill crabgrass.

5) Late June. I fertilize again using the same type of fertilizer I used in May.

6) July-August. It's hot here in Texas. So I sit back in the shade, sip mint julips, and enjoy my lawn. I have a sprinkler system which takes care of my watering needs. Bermuda is very drought tolerant, so even in the hottest months, I only water twice per week at the very most. Infrequent, deep watering works best because it forces the grass to grow deeper roots. Deeper roots means weeds are going to have a tougher time.

7) September. Time to fertilize again for the last time. This time I use a product which has some potassium in it, because potassium helps with wintering. So I look for a product that has a ratio of something like 10-1-5. You'll notice I only fertilize 3 times per year. If you don't use a slow-release fertilizer, you should use less and do it more often.

8) October or November. I apply a pre-emergent weed preventer again. Winters are relatively warm here in Texas, so weeds start coming back throughout the winter if you don't.