I have crab grass and weeds in my lawn and I would like to know how to get my grass back.

MML Staff_Erin H EXPERT April 07, 2008

You can use a hoe to scrape the dead crabgrass off the surface, and then loosen the soil with a garden rake. Sprinkle fresh grass seed on the bare spots and keep the soil moist until the grass is a few inches high. That usually means sprinkling the seeded spots with water twice a day -- there's no need to water deeply at this stage. To slow the soil drying, toss a few handfuls of straw over the seeded area.

As for getting rid of weeds, the answer depends a great deal on how many you have and what kind, but here are some suggestions:

1. To encourage your lawn to grow vigorously so it can choke out weeds, keep it at the high end of the height range suited to the kind of grass you grow. For most grasses, that's about 2.5 to 3 inches. When you mow, don't take off more than 1/3 the height of the grass. You can get an idea by mowing a strip and then getting down on your knees and eyeballing it to see the difference between the mowed and unmowed parts. Yes, this does mean you have to mow more than once a week when the grass is growing like crazy at the start of the season.

2. Fertilize once or twice a year. If you do it once, fall is best. If you do it in spring and fall, use half as much fertilizer each time as you would use if you feed just once a year.

3. Dig out dandelions before they go to seed. It's easier to get the whole taproot if the soil is moist, but it's ok if you don’t get the whole taproot. Each time you remove the above-ground growth, the taproot gets smaller.

4. Use a preemergent weed killer to keep weed seeds from sprouting. Timing is critical, as is application rate. For an organic one that also feeds the lawn, apply corn gluten meal at a rate of 20 lbs per 2500 square feet in spring when the crocus and forsythia bloom, and again in late summer.