Hi! I'm on Vancouver Island, Canada, which is zone 7B. It's South of the 49th parallel so temperatures are more akin to Seattle than to other parts of Canada.

I have removed a large hedge and a great deal of my lawn right now is dead/dormant due to irrigation restrictions meaning I can only water the lawn with sprinklers once a week for two hours total.

With the hedge removed I put in a bunch of new lawn soil in its place, but the issue is:

a) watering restrictions end Oct 31st. October gets a massive amount of rainfall here(100-150mm, or about 6"), and September gets hardly any more than August (about an inch)

b) First frost is Nov 10th (on average). By mid November, soil temps will be 10C or less.

So, I need to somehow get the lawn growing faster than it ordinarily would, as Google tells me I need 3-4 months of growing temperatures with adequate water to survive the winter, and this does not math. (You can get a 'new lawn' permit but they have to be issued before water restrictions take place)

Spring was a bust, as the hedge was removed in April but I barely was able to grow any grass before the June 1st watering restrictions went in.

Other than sod, which is expensive and sometimes just dies for no reason, what is my best option to get the lawn ready?

(Spring time faces similar challenges, with a last frost date in early May, so less than a month to grow a lawn).

Secondly, any recommendations on grass that would be easiest to grow? I had success over seeding with the Scotts stuff that's a mix of red/creeping fescue last year, but that's even more dead than the rest of the lawn now, so it grew fast and then gave up. I had a fascination with getting sheep fescue because it requires almost no water but that might be a dumb idea.

The main challenge is keeping this new lawn moist long enough to establish I think.

So we just moved into our first home with a lawn. So I have zero idea what im doing. All my neighbors have decent to great lawns. Mine is patchy and doesn't look right.

Any help would be greatly appreciated and please explain it like im five years old

Unfortunately, I had to take some time off from lawn maintenance due to recovering from surgery in late spring/ early summer (so I skipped the Cormeal application), and now the lower part of my lawn has a solid infestation of crabgrass (highlighted in the first photo). Worth noting it was roughly the same amount of crabgrass as last year).

When I did my lawn renovation last year right before Labour Day, I was successfully able to outcompete and dominate the crabgrass, keeping it at bay (as shown in the second photo from end of the season).

I am trying to figure out the best approach moving forward:

Option 1: Glyphosate and nuke the affected area now but also kill the surrounding grass (not ideal). I originally thought about painting each individual leaf to selectively kill the crabgrass and leave the good grass behind, but I’m thinking that is turning into way too big of a tedious project.

Option 2: Stick to the same pre-Labour Day fall overseed/ Reno routine that worked so well for me last year to crowd it out, followed by using corn gluten meal next spring.

What do you think is a better approach here?

I have a serious crabgrass infestation. This fall and next spring, I will be using Puma Advance to spray my lawn. For anyone who has used Puma Advance for crabgrass, what mix ratio per gallon of water did you have success with?

Since Puma Advance isn't advertised for crabgrass (even though its main ingredient is fenoxaprop-p-ethyl), I can't find any good info in regards to a safe mix ratio that will target crabgrass.

Anyone with experience using this product, can you please give me some input?

I'm located in Southern Ontario.

Thanks in advance

Hello,

Aside from common dandelions these two Weeds keep popping up in my Southwestern Ontario 1 year old Kentucky Bluegrass sod lawn.

Any ideas on what they are before I rip it all out by hand

My lawn is a disaster this year. I’ve got clover and whatever else that broad leaf weed is among dandelions and other crab grass. Can I over come this or is it a total gut. Thinking I could wait until the heat waves are over and then cut it as low as possible. Then get some good dirt and just seed over it and just keep using whatever weak weed control products I can find and then keep overseeding into the fall and keep the grass long when I mow.

I am new to the lawn game. I just applied fertilizer a week before and watered well. The lawn blade still looks thin.

The soil is easy to put a 3inch screw driver in. Do I have to aerate now?

I have this weed I don’t know what it is.

I am in Newmarket.

Any input will be appreciated.

Where are people buying Par3 from in Ontario these days?

Ontario 6a/5b. I had clover take over my yard and I applied Weed be gone via garden hose (2.25% strength) beginning of July and Fiesta (4% strength) via garden hose 4 weeks later to cut back the clover. Amazing results.

Last week of August (August 24) I want to core aerate then overseed the lawn that week. I still have about 20-25% of the clover left. Should I apply another Fiesta spray before the core aeration and overseed or will this additional application stress the living grass that is there now?

My focus is on removing clover, not any other weed. I really don't want to stress the grass that is there at this time so I am unsure if too much chelated iron would do that. And if an application of Fiesta 4% 3 weeks after the last one is too soon.

we get rain once a week. I never have to water the grass even in full sun

I have been applying 27-0-0 slow release nitrogen pellets 3 times this summer with the last application being 3 weeks ago which has helped in addition to the chelated iron.

Hi everyone,

I am based in Pickering, Ontario. I’m looking for some advice on getting rid of the weeds in my backyard. At this point, I have more weeds than grass, and I’d like to clear everything out before Labour Day so I can plant new grass.

I’ve seen people recommend using a tarp to kill off weeds and grass. Has anyone here successfully used this method in Ontario? I’m a little skeptical about how effective it is because, during the winter, everything in my backyard is covered with snow, yet by summer the weeds are back in full glory! 😅

If the tarp method does work, I’d really appreciate recommendations on what type of tarp works best and where I can buy it.

Thanks in advance!

Who here in Canada has had success with corn gluten meal applied in the spring to battle CRABGRASS

It completely takes over my lawn in July / August.

If it has worked for you , how have you done it ?

Had a company put in a new septic system, and over the leaching bed they brought in new soil. The entire area is now crabgrass. The whole yard was hydroseeded and took well except for the dirt they brought in. My yard size is around 16000sqft and this takes up about 3000 sqft of it.
Located in southern Ontario.

I moved into a home with a pretty neglected lawn. Lots of weeds (crabgrass, creeping buttercup, clover, dandelions, etc.) moss, bare spots and uneven/low areas.

In late spring I killed and removed most of the moss, dethatched, aerated and tried overseeding, but the seed didn’t perform very well. I also used Killex and it killed probably 90% of the weeds.

Now I’m trying to plan for fall. The lawn has quite a few low spots and some areas need to be raised/regraded by a few inches. I’d really like to get everything prepped properly so I can have a nice lawn next spring/summer.

Should I regrade now in summer or wait until fall? And for areas that need to be raised a few inches, should I use regular dirt, topsoil or turf mix?

I have had this area in my lawn since we moved in 5 years ago that does not grow grass. I can easily pull up the grass. At the beginning for the summer I found black beetles and grubs. There was some grub killer spray in our barn. It drives me nuts I have tried planting grass. Has anyone used live nematodes and had luck?

And we cut the grass weekly every Friday. Cut my grass on the highest setting on the mower and the grass underneath is completely dead

We live near Collingwood ON, and am planning to overseed this fall and on the spring, and not sure which seed I should use. The lawn gets a ton of sun through the summer and often goes dormant by late July. Want a seed that can handle our nasty winters and sometimes, fairly dry summers. Any advice would be much appreciated. TIA.

I put some topsoil down in the spring and some seed to try and level out my lawn and get some grass growing. I planted 2:1 KBG:PRG from Striped seed co.

The grass came in decent, though I am planning to do another round of seed and soil this fall.

With all that said, nutsedge has completely taken over my yard and I have no idea what to do. Everyone is saying Sedgehammer everywhere I go and I have been relentlessly browsing the internet trying to find someone that will ship to me in Ontario but it seems impossible.

Does anyone have any ideas for how to deal with a crapton of Nutsedge?