If your car was not running as well as your neighbor's car, would you start changing parts at random? I doubt it. So, don't do that to your lawn either.

Get a good soil test (including micronutrients, about $12-$13) and find out what's wrong. Then fix it.

How do you treat your lawn now? Meaning:
How often do you water?
How long do you water?
How low do you mow?
Do you leave the clippings?
Do you fertilize? When?
How shady is shady? Does the front get any direct sunlight?

I'm not discouraging a soil test, but knowing how you currently care for your lawn could be just as important.

--Gags

Hi neighbor.

>"Thin lawn, what can I do this time of year?"

First, apply a pre emergent, a crab grass preventer soon, so the bare spots are not over taken by unwanted weeds/wild grass.

Thanks, everyone. Hi, neighbor Gary! :)

I have considered a soil test. Just been too lazy to get around to it! :)

How do you treat your lawn now? Meaning:
How often do you water? When it rains - we typically have not watered in July when it is dryest.
How long do you water? I know the watering rules if we were to water - once a week, to a depth of 1 inch. :)
How low do you mow? We do mow at the right height, 1/3 off the top
Do you leave the clippings? Yes
Do you fertilize? When? When we are motivated. This is typically with the preemergent, crab grass preventer and then we do less during the rest of the season. We did milorganite in July last year, but then as usual, petered out with the fertilizing later on.
How shady is shady? Does the front get any direct sunlight? The front gets direct sunlight after 3-4. Which ends up being a fair amount (4-6 hours) during the longest days of summer and just a bit during the shortest days of winter.

We have been lazy and we do want a fairly low maintenance plan, but we are prepared to spend more time on it than we do now to get it nicer than it currently is.

>"How often do you water? When it rains - we typically have not watered in July when it is dryest. "

I feel a lot of improvement to your lawn can be made right here.

Gary - thanks! Other than that, would you recommend we do anything now to help it along? I am just fed up with our crappy lawn!

The shade in the front will be a problem for Kentucky bluegrass. Fescue seeded and reseeded every fall will be your best choice in most of the front. KBG should be fine in the back. The one benefit to thin grass under the shade is crabgrass doesn't do well in the shade, either.

Water it deeply once a month until it gets hot. Then in the heat water deeply and no more than weekly as you already know.

So how high do you mow? You didn't answer that one very well.

Fertilize twice in the fall and once in the late spring. This spring you can fertilize after you mow a couple times. You are going to get a rush of grass anyway, so if you fertilize too soon, you'll get a double whammy and have to mow 2x to 3x per week to follow the 1/3 rule. Just wait. Then in the last summer to early fall is the best time to reseed.

christine, follow this advice given here by a very smart member - ... and David's TOO, he's pretty smart also!!!

"Always deep, infrequent watering. Your lawn needs one inch of water per week including rainfall. Using tuna cans placed in various places, run the sprinkler to obtain one inch of water in the tuna cans and time it. Run the sprinklers each week for that amount of time in every section to achieve one inch of irrigation all over. One inch will moisten the soil to a depth of 6-8 inches. This encourages the roots grow deeply. The soil will pull the water downward. The roots will grow down looking for water and nutrients. Each week, be sure to take rainfall into consideration.

Always mow high at 3 inches or higher on a regular basis. Mowing high permits proper photosynthesis. That means the grass needs sunlight to grow. The shorter the blades of grass, the more you impede the photosynthesis process. It is also very important to remember never to cut more than one third of the grass blade at a time. You may wish to mow once a week or 2-3 times a week depending on how fast the grass grows, just so long as no more than one third is cut off at once.
Infrequent deep watering and frequently mowing high are the two crucial points of lawn care. Anything else you do is secondary to these cultural practices. Proper watering and proper mowing are what encourage a healthy growing environment for a lush green lawn that is able to crowd out weeds.

I wouldn't worry about the condition of your lawn right now. Once you begin soil amendment, deep watering, mowing high, and de-weeding, it's going to look fantastic this summer. "

So fertilize, water, mow high and weed? It is that simple?

We have a sprinkler system, but one of the zones leaks, so we stopped using it. It costs $125/year to have the backflow device inspected and installed (city requirement), and $200 (last time I checked, many years ago) to have it blown out and the backflow removed. Plus the cost of repairs. At the time we felt it wasn't worth it... But maybe we'll give it a go this year. :) Recommendations on that?

I appreciate all the advice!

Christine,

The other benefit this year to fertilizing early is that it will encourage the existing KBG to spread - it may do this on its own, but with no fertilizer except Milorganite around July, you were giving it food just before it was ready to stop growing to survive the heat of the summer. That's why fall fertilization is recommended - the grass can store the nutrients, then use them at the right time in the spring to grow and spread.

This doesn't contradict anything said above - I just wanted to point out that fertilizing should help with some of the thinning come early summer (just remember it's a lawn, not a chia pet - results won't happen overnight!).

Hand weeding is always recommended, but spot spraying with something like weed-b-gon or other selective herbicide is always an option as well.

I have no experience with sprinkler systems, but for Chicago, I can't see justifying the $325 in annual maintenance unless you have more than a 1/2 acre. I'm an East Coaster born and raised, so I'm just assuming you get adequate amounts of rain up through the end of May like we do before any supplemental watering would be needed. (The fact that your front doesn't get direct sun until late afternoon should greatly cut down on the water needs for that area). Just be sure not to completely ignore the poor lawn come the July/August heatwaves!

Please keep us posted as to what you end up doing and any results you see!

Gags

>"It costs $125/year to have the backflow device inspected and installed (city requirement), and $200 (last time I checked, many years ago) to have it blown out and the backflow removed. Plus the cost of repairs. At the time we felt it wasn't worth it..."

Hmmmphf! That's sounds like the uppity north shore area, not the western burbs! Western burbs, I'm thinking Naperville / St. Charles. Prices seem too high - crazy in fact!

>"So fertilize, water, mow high and weed? It is that simple? "

Putting it bluntly, YES it is.

Remember something - as you drive you will see grass growing. Grass grows everywhere, and all by itself. No one is fertilizing or watering that grass. It grows between rocks. It grows in water logged sand on the beaches. It really *IS* that simple - mother nature has this thing down pat - it's called photosynthesis. The grass feeds itself with sun light and moisture.

Taller grass exposes more surface area to absorb the suns rays. More blade length equals more photosynthesis.

Watering deeply and infrequently forces the roots deeper to seek the moisture. Deep rooted grass is healthier. Taller grass promotes deeper roots.

Use a rubber hose and an oscillating sprinkler, the old fashioned way if you must - it still works.

Thanks, gags and gary!! You guessed pretty right on, Gary! :) It does seem outrageous to me, and no, we have a tiny 1/4 acre standard issue suburban lot. I just keep faxing the village every year that we've temporarily shut it down so we don't have to certify the backflow device. We did buy a nice sprinkler a few years ago, one with a really wide swath so we would have to move it fewer times to get the whole yard. Now we just need to use it more. :)

I will take some pictures from the back second story windows and let's see how it looks in the fall...we look really pathetic on Google sattelite maps compared to the neighbors!! I should save a current copy of that too for comparison... :)

Thanks again!!