The grass at my house needs so much work. It’s splotchy, the weeds are plentiful, and crab grass rises to dominate the skies over Bermuda. You see, that is what we have at the house…Bermuda grass. Laid down as sod some 4.5 years ago, it had ambitions. “I am going to send runners here and there to grow through your mulch beds, it said. I will grow so thick and green that every time you cut me, I will stain your white high socks with chlorophyll it said. Well fast forward to the present and imagine a sad, flaccid, and mottled display of curated land. That picture above? It’s not my grass…but it is the consistency and color that I hope to achieve.
In search of help
I have never felt great about using chemicals for the sake of having a nicely curated lawn and I definitely do not feel great about watering the lawn. However, I don’t want to have a shitty lawn either. So, what is a homeowner to do? I decided that I would see what sort of advice was out there to help me on the journey towards lawn care. I first started off on the North Carolina State University Extension website to peruse some Bermuda grass assistance (https://content.ces.ncsu.edu/bermudagrass-lawn-maintenance-calendar). While the information was nice to read through, I felt it was a little bit advanced for me with the soil testing and the use of pre-emergence/post-emergence herbicide. I had never used these types of products before and I didn’t feel like calling the Coop to learn which products to use – at least not immediately. So, I went over to Youtube to find some guidance. After thinking long and hard about search terms, I typed in, “Bermuda grass” where upon I stumbled across the Doc…and holy smokes does he have a bunch of videos on the topic (https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PLPra7NxLfiZizgRlwPwSx_N6xqHvalR6A&si=EIZ4LpvM2RkutJYa).
Learning with Doc
After spending hours watching his videos, I went over to his website to explore everything he has to offer and most importantly see which products he recommends (https://www.howtowithdoc.com/). From this, my next step was to build out a plan. I was going to follow Doc’s plan in 2024 to have the best lawn possible.
- First Step – Early March: Apply a pre-emergent herbicide granulate: Amazon – Andersons Barricade Professional-Grade Granular Pre-Emergent Weed Control
- Second Step – Mid March: Mow my lawn with the lowest possible setting. The correct term is called scalping the lawn, but it was more or less a 1 inch cutting. So basically a buzz cut rather than a scalping. This was done at the end of Feb/early March
- Third Step – End March: Apply a pre-emergent herbicide liquid: Amazon – Dimension 2EW Herbicide
- Fourth Step – Early April: Apply first round of Fertilizer – Amazon – Andersons Professional PGF Complete 16-4-8 Fertilizer with 7% Humic DG
- Fifth Step – Early May: Apply second round of Fertilizer
- Sixth Step – Early June: Apply third round of Fertilizer
- Seventh Step – Early September: Apply fourth round of Fertilizer
- Eight Step – End of November: Apple another round of pre-emergent herbicide granulate mentioned above
Final Thoughts
I have no idea if this approach is going to work, but I am eager to try. When I look out at the grass today, it definitely appears like the pre-emergence has worked to some degree. There are still quite a few weeds out there, but the diversity of those weeds is minimal and anytime I see a dandelion, I zap it. Plus when I compare our grass to neighbors, we are certainly on a path to a decent looking lawn. I will report back after the growing months to see how well things are going.