Those brown patches you got in summer were probably due to fungal disease, most likely brown patch. Any areas that don't come back will need to be reseeded as tall fescue is a bunch type grass that spreads extremely slowly if at all (Most TTTF sod does have a small percentage of KBG in it though, so that KBG might spread to the bare areas). Yes, most weeds will die off with the cooler weather and first frost, but if you want to kill them now you can with selective herbicides. Depending on what weeds you have you can get rid of most of them with a 2,4 D product like Weed B Gone Max and/or Weed B Gone Clover, Chickweed and Oxalis killer (obviously those target the weeds in their name plus some others). Tenacity is another herbicide that is generating a lot of good buzz in killing off most unwanted yard weeds including the hard to kill ones like poa annua, poa trivialis, and other grassy weeds. As far as bare spots, you will need to seed those with tall fescue seed. Now is a pretty good time in Maryland, for tall fescue you want days in the high seventies, low eighties, nights in the low sixties to high fifties. Just be sure you don't spray those spots with Weed B Gone herbicides. Tenacity can be used with newly seeded turf however. Next year no synthetic fertilizers should be used from Memorial Day to Labor day. Organics are fine however. This year you can fertilize now, again around Halloween, and when top growth stops in November a quick release nitrogen winterizer, but that's optional. Hope this helps.

Good to see you here also Doug. YES...get a palmetto. Than have done well here...keep the snow and ice off them (first year or so) during bad winter 'events' no heat required BUT... should a freeze from HE## hit us....do anything to cover them and keep them near zero or above..and dry.. They will do fine in the house untill late march or so... Im so glad you got thru the winter just fine...it was mild though..my lowest low was only 11*F...that a z8a low .LOL. I can only hope for a oncore.LOL Dont plant anything in your yard you will regret later. I have to s.magnolias thats on my hit list...they grow to fast,drop too many leafs...and block needed winter sun... talk wit ya soon intimidator

I replaced the belt on my mower today. It was easy, buy the correct belt, start over"; 2 hours and done. Well I still want to drain the hydraulic fluid and replace the filter. I replaced the belt myself. My neighbor came over early in the morning and worked on it some more and made the flat statement. Wrong Belt! I had fed the manufacturers number into the Bay and one sellers listing said that PN was a 52 inch belt. The one I bought today measured 52 3/4. The interim belt measures 52", what I asked for at the auto parts store. Can't take it back. Had BLT's for dinner tonight. I swear by crop rotation. Either that or garden rotation. Only problem with rotation is you need 3 or 4 times the space of your largest crop. I fenced in a 34' x 64' space this year and amended about 450 sq ft. A lot of the space is taken up by fruit trees already there. I would say this has been my best year since I started having Septoria/blight about 8 years ago. Out of 25 tomato plants 2 have the problem. The Mortgage Lifter had the problem early on, then I thought it had shucked off the problem. Now it's only on the north side of the plant. The Belgium Gigant only started showing the problem about the time it started ripening. I've harvested about a dozen huge tomatoes off that plant in the last week or so. Re-enforces my theory that the problem is triggered by the ripening process.... maybe. So I have 23 plants without the problem. I never used any product on the tomatoes, no insecticides, fungicides, herbicides fertilizers. I amended the soil with mushroom manure, wood ash, lime and a tablespoon of bone meal for each plant. I haven't trimmed a single plant, even the ones showing the problem. I did water only the base of the plant with a garden hose, maybe a half dozen times. The rest of the watering was via rain. Another benefit of my huge space is 43 potato plants. I never grew them for space reasons. I would never grow potatoes without rotating. It cost me $43 for seed potatoes. I'd like to plant future crops with seed from the previous years production. Not rotating is just asking for trouble.

Do you have a current soil test? Does it show that you need potassium? If no, choose the latter. Apply at 3 pounds per thousand square feet to target 1 pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet. If yes, choose the former--and apply it at 10 pounds per thousand square feet to target 1 pound of nitrogen per thousand square feet. You'll end up with 2 pounds of K per square feet (well, 1.6 K, there's an 83% slip in there). Unfortunately in an unoptimal form, but we'll work with it and it's November anyway. If you do have a test and your K levels are high, find a feeding with even lower levels of potassium than these. You don't need it and there's no sense in paying for what you don't need and shouldn't add.