DCHall makes a very good point and all of what he said is proven however here in central North Carolina mother nature can make deep and infrequent watering a challenge. Typically we see rain every 2 to 3 days here during the prime crabgrass germination period. Even with dense turf it can and will pop up due to mother nature keeping the seed moist. Then come July mother nature goes to very infrequent watering or nothing at all. Last fall I did a complete reno and applied Prodiamine on March 1st of this year with excellent results. We did have our usual wet spring and even with the pre m and thick turf I still had a few sprouts of crabgrass pop up. Nothing major and these were easily spotted (the light green sprigs could be seen from a mile away in the dark green turf) and hand pulled. All of my neighbors lawns are crabgrass, dallisgrass, and other various weeds. If I had complete control of the watering I don't feel that a pre m would be needed but since mother nature has a mind of her own it's a good idea for my situation. I put down the amount of prodiamine to give me 6 months of protection (it's one of the longer lasting pre m's but must be sprayed on so it's a little more difficult to apply) which covered me through August and was gone by the time overseeding came around in September. This can definitely vary by location so there are a lot of areas that may not need anything. Learning to understand your individual situation and your own lawn is key to making everything work.

bheron..........Two things: 1) To answer your question directed to me, it wasn't part of an official study. Rather, being the lawn obsessed person I am, I took a few containers and did my own experiment. I came away from it not that impressed with corn gluten meal as a pre-emergent but very impressed with it as a fertilizer. 2) As for when it goes down, the forsythia comment is the rule, but I don't think that anyone here has enough experience - or success - with it to say whether or not you can get away with doing it later. One additional point to add is that all of the official studies say that it takes several years to see the full benefit. In other words, in year #1, you will notice a bit less crabgrass, with the situation improving year-by-year. That is what led some of us to believe that the improvement could have been just as attributable to the fact that a well-fed organic lawn will eventually crowd out weeds. That brings us back to a common refrain on this board --- The best way to ensure limited weeds is to feed your soil yummy organic fertilizers, mow high, water deeply and infrequently, and don't be afraid to pull the occasional weed on your own. If the grass is super thick and healthy, then weeds don't stand a chance.

Hello Dimi. My experience is exactly the opposite. Compost never seemed to do anything for my yard, but organic fertilizer greened and thickened it. Then you add in the cost difference and I'll probably never buy compost again. I have moved since I replied to this message before. Now I live in full sunlight which makes my St Augustine lawn almost too thick to push a mower through. I have not gotten serious with fertilizer since I moved in in 2014. Previous owner had no lawn at all, so the St Aug I have is what pushed out from the edges. So far the color is fine and growth rate is fine, but I keep an eye on it.

ken, yes, the idea was to get larger hostas sooner, than with starters or 2-3 years old ones...The future hosta bed is an empty space now, and I thought it will be nice to have some larger plants almost right away, and if I need to add one, or two, or three, I can afford to buy smaller plants, but hosta bed will look pretty decent... -------------------------------------------------- I also bought 15 ferns from Hallson and 3 Blue Mammoth divisions from Venero, they are on their way... I bought 50 lbs of Vermicompost (spl?) to mix with the soil in hosta holes only (and handful of bone meal for each hole), and the topsoil that is currently there will be mixed with 10" of compost. And I will remove as much subsoil as I can for total of about 16" bed depth...I cannot build lasagna, the area where I plan to plant hosta is right by the chain link fence, that I share with my neighbors, so I can't go up too much, besides there is my own sidewalk and a shrub, that I do not want to remove or replant (it has attitude and grows very slowly). So, I decided to go with sort of double dig method and removing subsoil... I also bought 20 Kg of Coconut coir to hold lacking moister and to fluff the soil, and if I get lucky I plan to get 1 or 2 contractor bags of alfalfa pellets to mix with soil. Someone also told me to bury one or two large fish heads 7"-10" below the roots for better growth, but person grows roses, will it work for hosta, too? So, how does it sound? Am I all set, or I need to buy something else?