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Norminn

wrote:

Ok, year #2 in the beautiful newly built house in the NE with the
crappy lawn. Builder half-assed it and the lawn is sparse with a lot
of crabgrass. I don't need a "home and garden" lawn but I'd like some
grass !
Questions:

1. My thought is to use a slit-seeder rented from home depot since
previous attempts by just chucking down seed and watering has failed.
Make sense? Other ideas?

2. Is now a good time to seed or should I wait 2 weeks or a month?

Thanks for your guidance!

The best resource I have found for my Florida lawn/gardening questions
is through the U. of
Florida extension service. Your county or, at least, your state,
probably have the same. You
might save yourself a lot of grief, some money and considerable effort
by using extension
service.

Early April in the north is likely too early you don't want a freeze
after new seelings emerge. Fall seeding, or later in the spring, is
better. Depending
on what your builder left for you, you might want to look at either
scraping away the whole mess or
putting down sod. Did you get topsoil with sufficient depth? Any sod?
Got a plan for the whole
plot? How much area? Planting islands of something other than grass
might be more attractive and less work.

Crabgrass, unless you remove it by hand, should be treated with
pre-emergent herbicide. The
timing is crucial and the products are not enviro-friendly. It is
probably the toughest weed to get
rid of, but it can be done. With a lot of bare soil, you are inviting
weed seed to germinate, so
be prepared to treat other weeds later.....broadleaf herbicides
generally are effective used one
time, assuming there is grass to fill in. Spot treating later, along
with some hand weeding, after
all-over treatment, can often keep them down to manageable levels.
Proper mowing and
watering also help a good deal in keeping weeds down.