How do you best get a green lawn? Would like to do this without chemicals.?

Question

Just moved into a new place, and the lawn has not been watered, thus turning brown. So I started watering it, however crab grass is the only thing that is turning green. What should I do? Also could I put wheat grass seeds on my lawn?

Answer 1

This grass is an annual in most areas unlike most other lawn grasses. This grass is killed by freezing temps. The goal is to keep next years seeds from germinating. Healthy grass will out compete crabgrass. The presence ot this weed indicates the grass was probably mowed to short. A healthy, thick, 3 inch turf will shade crabgrass out. So a preemergent treatment of corn gluten applied before forsythia blooms and at the recommended intervals will keep the old seed from spouting. However if 50% of your current grass is crabgrass this is a bit futile. You will find it easier to start over.
But Doug Green's site says "I have also read the interesting technique of covering the lawn with a layer of black plastic for only ten days when you see crabgrass germinating or heavily infesting a lawn. After the ten days of darkness, it will be dead. The other grass will be yellowish but not dead and will recover fairly quickly once the poly is removed. I haven’t tried this but it is worth a try if you have a heavy infestation and don’t want to use chemicals."


Crabgrass was introduced as a forage grass and research on its use continues today. Current "data indicate that crabgrass shoot and root growth was insensitive to soil pH values ranging from 4.8 to 6.3." So this annual is happy on any thing from very acid to slightly acid. Lawn grasses like a pH closer to neutral at 6.5 - 7.0. While dandelions like a pH of 7.5 best. Universal pH strips are very cheap and with a bottle of deionized/distilled water are all you need to take your pH. Add lime if it is below 6.0.

There is a product that says it is an organic crabgrass specific herbicide. Postemergence control of crabgrass.
http://www.crabgrassalert.com/
http://www.cleanairgardening.com/crabgrass.html

Answer 2

Hello

There are two ways to get rid of crabgrass without chemicals. You can either pull it all up by hand or you can spray it with organic herbicides containing citric acid, vinegar, guar gum, and clove oil. Although this will kill everything it gets on. Your best bet is to test the PH of the ground and add lime to raise it between 6.4-6.7 then around the end of August spray everything down with the organic herbicide and replant the grass in the first week of September. It will be hard to reseed without chemicals at this point in the season due to the fact that your lawn will germinate slower then crabgrass and even if you rip it all up the crabgrass will take over the new seedling because it is much faster growing. If it must be done rip everything up and remove all the organic matter. Throw down your grass seed on freshly raked out soil and one week later throw down a starter fertilizer plus crab grass preventer. It contains a chemical called Siduron that will allow your seeds to grow but also prevent crabgrass. It's not exactly what your looking for but it will allow you to redo your lawn immediatly. Goodluck

Greenman

Answer 3

The guy before me sounds real knowledgable.

You dont' need weed and feed. Mulch mow your grass it provides 40 percent of the food that way. Apply cottonseed meal, alfalfa tea(alfalfa in water with epson salts and let it sit) there is a enzyme in alfalfa that encourages root growth. You can use compost as well.

Basically you want to feed your soil. Also depending on where you live, you may want to research good tough grass. My neighbors grass is a fine grass, that he uses chemicals on. Mine in mississippi is some type of centipede stuff that I don't ever worry about. I just have to take some time to yank it out of beds.

Answer 4

Try this!

Kick-In-The-Grass Tonic

After you've dethatched, mowed, fertilized, or seeded, apply this tonic to get your lawn off to a rip-roarin' start:

1 cup Epsom salts
1 cup of antiseptic mouthwash
1 cup liquid dish soap (use lemon Dawn - mosquitoes HATE citrus!)
1 cup ammonia (use lemon)
1 can of beer

Mix all the ingredients together in a large container. Then apply with your 20-gallon hose-end sprayer. But don't get carried away - nobody likes a lawn that's drunk on its grass!

Answer 5

I like to use sulphate of amonia, completely natural mineral. Works wonders!

Also something to think about.....Crab grass naturally goes brown when it's not in season (i.e. winter, spring, fall) depending on where you live it may not be warm enough for the crab grass to start turning green.

Don't use a weed and feed because the "weed" chemicals will kill the crab grass.

Answer 6

very very hard to get rid of the crab grass or green up your lawn without chemicals. Why are you afraid of them? As long as you use the right amount, your lawn will absorb all of them and the runoff from rain won't go into streams or groundwater.

Answer 7

use weed and feed, and more grass seed, it worked well at my house