Tom Newton wrote:

Hi Folks -

I live on long island, Ny ... and the temps are just about ready to start
dropping below 80 consistently... I have nearly a 1/3 acre of lawn, and have
a sprinkler system

As a first year homeowner I'm relatively new to this game. Here's my
problem: I have clover, lots of clover, and I'd like to know the best
strategy to rid the lawn of it and replace it with nice grass.

Currently, clover and various other weeds (perhaps chickweed) make up about
50% of the lawn, although its dispersed pretty evenly with nice grass... or
I'll say decent grass. The house is 90 years old, and the lawn landscaping
had been neglected for quite a few years. I get good sun.

Anyway, on a recent trip to Home Depot.. the gentleman there pointed me
towards using an Ortho product called "Chickweed / Clover / Oxalis Killer"
... which is used with a sprayer, which I also bought. I tried one bottle,
which took care of test area about 25X50 ft. That was two weeks ago. Wow.
This stuff is serious! The product wiped out 100% of the clover and killed
not one blade of grass. Cool.

Anyway, now that that proof of concept succeeded, and I only tested it on
perhaps 1/10 of the area that needs fixing, I have a few questions about
timing, and the steps I should take:

1) It's August 28, should I go out, buy nine more bottles, and nuke the
whole place right now? Or is it too early? Given the fact that fall growing
season starts mid-late september here, isn't it a good idea to nuke the
place of the clover now?

2) After its all brown and dead, with all that fluff... what should I do? My
gut tells me that when everything's dead, I should a) rake up all the dead
and fluffy stuff with a stiff metal rake so the surface is fairly clean and
the top layer of soil is looser, b) overseed the whole place on September
15th or so, c) and put down starter fertilizer with that seed, and d) run
the sprinkler system at half the run times, but nightly (instead of the
normal every other day) untill germination

Is this a good attack plan? Any help on methods, timing is appreciated.

Thanks

Tom Newton

Well, actually, a mixed-species lawn is likely to be healthier,
stay green longer, and require less maintenance than an all-grass
one. But, if you are fixiated on pursuing the icon of an
all-grass lawn, and are willing to put in BOATLOADS of work and
money, here goes:

Yes, go kill all the clover now. Then, water very well for the
next few weeks; this will cause unsprouted seeds to germinate.
Repeat the killing-off. Now, get delivery of enough compost --
guaranteed sterile -- to cover your lawn about an inch deep.
Spread it out and rake it in. Don't remove the dead material; it
will provide protection for the grass seed and in-place
fertilizer. Next, overseed the lawn in the last two weeks of
September. Use about twice the recommended density of a
good-quality mixed grass seed. Gently rake that in. Water the
whole lawn every single day for 15 min until the ground freezes.
Hand-weed diligently. Keep everyone off of the grass. Next
spring, start cutting the grass when it reaches 3". Cut to 2"
and repeat every time it grows to 3". Weed diligently. Spread
an inch of compost every fall, and lightly overseed. Make sure
the lawn gets an inch of water a week; preferably in one or two
big doses rather than several small ones. And, most of all, keep
everybody off the grass . . . it reacts poorly to compacted soil
and being walked on.

Chris Owens


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