Expert: The Long Island Gardener - 9/4/2008

Question
We live in west Tennessee on five acres. We have bermuda grass around the
house and fescue under our trees. My husband fertilzed in the Spring to
woard off weeds and encourage the bermuda to spread. Much to our dismay
many WEED varieties are overtaking our grass. Is there anything we can do to
KILL the weeds once and for all and get our beautiful green lawn back? I have
heard 13-13-13 would help. Is this true?

Answer
First and foremost, you should know that most of those Weeds are ANNUALS.  Do whatever you need to do to MAKE SURE THEY DO NOT SET SEED.

If they don't, the problem is solved.

But you don't want deja vu all over again next year, right?

So learn from your mistakes.  Bermudagrass spreads like a house on fire, thanks to its stolons and rhizomes.

What does your local Hugh Leslie Haun, say about it?  'Bermudagrass has far and away been the best vegetation for the latitudes (Climate Zone 6) that are prevalent for Tennessee.  Research papers I have read shows that it grows well from our latitude South and West through Oklahoma.  It is absolutely the best at surviving the droughts we seem to have with alarming frequency.  It will suffer and survive as much neglect as any Grass I have seen...Get your maintenance folks to mow your dams at least once in the Spring or Summer (twice is better) [and] the Bermuda will thrive.'

At the top of Bermuda's short List of Demands: FULL SUN.  Bermuda WILL NOT tolerate Shade.  And THIS is probably one reason you ran into trouble: Once Weeds get off the ground, they start to Shade the Bermuda.  This is Bermuda's Achilles Heel.  Even in the dead of Summer, you must pay attention to mowing, if only to get the Weeds out of the way.

High Nitrogen fertilizer in the early Summer will work wonders, especially in thin spots you are trying to get thicker.'

Sure looks like someone knew what they were doing when they picked out Bermuda for a Tennessee Lawn.

What you really need, more than fertilizer here, is to pay some attention to your Soil.  Because strong, healthy Bermudagrass is practically green pavement.  Bermudagrass is incredibly dense.  Incredibly territorial.  Incredibly aggressive.  Weeds pretty much hoist white Surrender flags all over the Lawn when confronted with happy, healthy, American Bermudagrass.

One important thing to remember here is that Bermudagrass is NOT Fescue, it is NOT a Cool Season Turfgrass.  Fescue is GREAT when you give it a friendly fertilizer treatment in the Spring; if you use an organic type fertilizer, that's even better, because you get all the benefits of Soil microbes PLUS the benefits of the slow and gentle fertilizer without the amphetimine-type high-pressure rush of Chemical Nitrogen.

But Bermudagrass is WARM SEASON GRASS.  THERE IS NO ADVANTAGE TO FERTILIZING BERMUDAGRASS IN SPRING.  Unlike Fescue, Bermudagrass is NOT a morning person.  Bermuda sleeps in until the temperatures get really, really not.  It needs to be fertilized ONLY after it's out of bed and downstairs ready for breakfast -- June.

So fertilize twice.

Once for Fescue.  Once -- MUCH later -- for Bermuda.  And don't overdo it.  Mow right and you'll be very pleased with your work.  Thanks for writing.

THE LONG ISLAND GARDENER