Fall lawn care?

[atgcpaul]

I don't think a lot of you guys live in my plant zone, but curious what ya'll are doing for fall lawn care. Seems like my whole lawn was overridden by crab grass this year and it's been losing ground to creeping charlie, too. Towards the end of summer, I found a series of YouTube vids from a guy calling himself The Lawn Care Nut (LCN). https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCSj...hLKO-ISsrHE7ng The videos can be a little annoying at times, but it seems like he has a lot of legit information.

I've been waiting for rain to soften up the ground a little before I do the core aeration and I want to overseed, too. I may have to break down and get some sprinklers, though. I followed the LCN's advice on killing creeping charlie with borax (I've seen it elsewhere, too) and my test patch seems to be doing well. I've got a lot more to treat.

Hopefully next year I'll get the pre-emergent down at the right time.

Paul

[capncarl]

Aerate before the rain so the rain will soak into the soil rather than run off. It won't do as deep of a job but it will pay off.
I'd jump on here crabgrass an "nip it in the bud" before it takes over.
After years you put in sprinklers aeration becomes harder because the aerator always seems to find the heads.
capncarl

[TB Roye]

I live in Northern California and our front lawn is almost gone the trees in front are stressed and I will probably take one down. Back yard we worked to save as that were we spend our time. Watered on days we were allowed still the lawn could use some reseeding in spots if not just killed and to get rid of the weed and redo the whole thing. It is an area 15x50 right off the patio and in front of the shop. The side yard is crab grass and is as green as can be kept in under control with Roundup and basically leave it alone. That is the dogs potty area so they can't hurt it. just make sure it doesn't spread. It will go dormant soon and turn brown. Hope we have the rain they said we may have with El Nino that will determine what we do in front. Another dry year and the other tree will come down as the stress will be to much for it.

[capncarl]

I have 3 acres of centipede grass and 50x50 garden that I try to grow in the south ga. heat, drought, weeds, insects and red clay as hard as a brick. I've tried to stick to the organic meathods as much as possible but have found out the hard way that bugs will eat everything you grow and weeds will take over the world if you don't put these teachings aside when necessary and pull out the pesticides and herbicides and take care of business. That said I'd put the borax up and apply a weed killer that contains triclopyr. The crab grass must be handled with a pr-emergent, and maybe spot treat it with round up.
capncarl

[atgcpaul]

After years you put in sprinklers aeration becomes harder because the aerator always seems to find the heads.

I've only got 1/3 acre. I was just talking about the sprinklers attached to hoses you drag around the yard. The in-ground ones would be great, but no spare cash for that.

...weeds will take over the world if you don't put these teachings aside when necessary and pull out the pesticides and herbicides and take care of business. That said I'd put the borax up and apply a weed killer that contains triclopyr. The crab grass must be handled with a pr-emergent, and maybe spot treat it with round up.

I have no qualms with using pesticides and herbicides. The borax is for the creeping charley, not the crabgrass. We've had a lot of false start Springs where I'm not sure if winter is done and spring has officially sprung and I invariably lay down my pre-emergent too early. I try to go by the whole "wait until the forsythia blooms" thing but that hasn't worked out. As suggested by the LCN, I'm also going to stop using the Weed and Feed stuff, and either go for weed killer in my sprayer or try to find the weed killer in a pelletized form.

I'm busy this coming weekend, but rain or not, I'm going to try to do the aeration the following weekend. The one nice thing about the lack of rain is I haven't cut my grass since Labor Day weekend and it still looks pretty short.

[TB Roye]

I only use the round up around the Crab Grass area to keep it from spreading. Have decomposed granite path that I use it on also to keep weeds out. The front and back lawn off the patio are full of weeds because of the drought and the lawn being stressed. A lot of people have let their yard die for lack of watering and pure laziness. Drought = good excuse to do nothing as Code enforcement won't bother you now. Haven't really though about what I am going to do with the front yard if we get some good rain and snow this winter. Maybe Green Concrete and Plastic plants.

Tom