How to have lush, weed-free grass in the fine town of Lowry Crossing

By Blair Thompson, Settler’s Creek V Resident

My wife and I enjoy working in our yard. It's kind of addicting because the more we put in to it, the more it rewards us with beauty and tranquility. Sure it's hard work, but the kind that makes you feel good once accomplished. Our main goal here is to have a nice place to come home and relax to after a hard day at work in the big city.

We are often asked how we keep our grass looking so good. Well, it's not rocket science. It's more of a diligent determination to get it that way at first. When we first moved in, our yard was just dirt and construction debris. We seeded the whole yard with Bermuda grass seed. The first three years were discouraging. Now, we are at seven years later, we have grass like we imagined and then some. Now that it's covering the entire yard, we have it professionally treated by Grogreen® located in Plano.

For one acre expect to pay 150.00 to 195.00 per application. They recommend eight applications per year to achieve a weed free, thick green lawn. One of the things we found that off sets the cost is savings on your water bill. A healthy yard needs much less water to look awesome.

As a home owner we have found this to be somewhat cost effective versus doing all the work ourselves. If you want to do the work yourself, below is what you'll need to do. Just bear in mind that store bought treatments work but don't last as long as professional grade treatments.

Weeds: The main things that seem to really make a difference on the weeds are the use of pre-emergent herbicides over weed and feed fertilizers. They should be applied in late Summer to keep the fall weeds from germinating, late winter to eliminate early Spring weeds, and late Spring for the Summer weeds. If you can kill them before they sprout, you'll find that the very few that do pop up are far easier to spot treat to control instead of trying to kill them all after they have all germinated and taken hold. That is how we've found to be the best way to deal with these unwanted guests.

Fertilizing: Our soils here are deficient in nitrogen. The use of good quality high nitrogen or an all nitrogen fertilizer should be put down every four to six weeks during growing season. This gets the grass growing thick, choking out most of the few weeds that get through the pre-emergents. We use 28-0-0 on ours and it works very well.

Mowing: Is one of the most important things you can do. It stunts the weeds re-seeding and aids the grass to spread as well as keeping your neighbors happy. Mow it low in the early Spring to help the soil temperature rise faster. Cut it higher as the hotter months approach. This helps shade the roots from Summer heat and slows water evaporation which means less watering. We cut ours at 4 inches by the end of June. By the end of August we cut it somewhat lower to prepare for new Fall growth. From there, it's back up to 4 inches till frost. Just remember this, an un-mowed lawn is an un-happy lawn..........

Watering: Is essential to keeping things green. We usually water only through the extreme hot months when the grass just starts to look like it needs it. However you'll find that if your grass is healthy, it will need far less watering to stay green than neighbors that don't treat their grass. Always water after applying fertilizer or pre-emergents.

Spot treating weeds: Depending on what kind of weeds you're spot treating is dependant on the product you should use. Our biggest problem weeds in our yard are Dallis, Johnson, and Nutsedge grass. For Bermuda grass yards (which is mostly grown here) the use of  "MSMA®" works well killing Dallis and Johnson grass as well as other broad leaf weeds without killing your grass (for Bermuda only). For Nutsedge, use "Image®". These products can be obtained at your local home improvement store.

Everyone you talk to is going to tell you their way is the best; however we've personally found this way to be the best approach for us and works extremely well for living in the big L.C. We do have lush green grass that we are proud of and can't help but think it increases our as well as our neighbors property value. We hope this information will give good guidance to those wishing for a happier yard.