If there are roots emerging from the drainage holes then it probably needs repotting into a six inch pot. I have my Beaucarnea recurvata/Nolina in a mix of commercial potting medium - pine bark and fines with a good proportion of pumice, a serving of six months slow release and NO water crystals, with an extra serving of 5mm river grit, fairly sharp. It gets treated like a cactus - watered once a fortnight or less, so it isn't a lush specimen but does tolerate light frost. (Has to. It lives at the edge of the porch.) Slow release once a year - a mean teaspoon full sprinkled on and stirred into the surface. That's for an eight inch diameter fifteen year old plant in an eighteen inch high terra cotta planter. Sun for most of the day but the temperatures are moderate. Below 100F over summer, though the UV is often very high. I cheat on the watering: there are some little weeds in the pot I know to be drought tolerant. If they're starting to look miserable - it's time to water. Remember, even when the top couple of inches are dry, the bottom can still be quite damp. While the plant is still in a small container go more by the weight of the container than the appearance. Dunk the plant, wait for the bubbles to stop, lift it out, let it drain - then heft it. That's how it feels when fully watered. Then check week by week and notice how the pot is getting lighter. Ensure it never stands in water. Some discreet feet in the saucer should give enough protection for the roots at the bottom.

I got one of them in the same size pot as yours, and I couldn't resist the price $14. I'm keeping mine soaking wet, and it has grew 6" taller in 3 months, so they love to be soaking wet. I have mine in a 3 1/2 gallon pot. I'm giving it about 5 hours of sunlight, and it is very dark green, and none of the leaves have came off yet. I don't know how the miracle grow soil works with this palm, because i've never used it on the coconut palm, I use %50 course sand and %50 canadian spagnam peat moss, and mix them together, and it really likes this mixture, I didn't cover the shell, because on other palm trees if you cover only 2" of the trunk it will rot. I use 15-30-15 expert gardener all purpose fertilizer, it is a deep feeding fertilizer, which helps water and nutrients penetrate deep into the soil, so the fertilizer doesn't stay in one spot and cause salt buildup, give it to the palm according to the label, but since your limited on fertilizer you may not find it. I don't like those time or slow release fertilizers, because the time release causes salt buildup, and the slow relese it will release so slow that it washes away, and doesn't do the plants any good. I would gradually decrease the watering if the highs are staying below 80 degrees. Lee

Crabgrass will die completely with the first frost. It only returns in the spring from seed. There are two requirement for crabgrass to return. First it has to have direct sunlight (thin turf is enough sunlight) AND if it gets water on a daily basis for several days. If you can grow a dense turf you should never see crabgrass. The second requirement is nearly continual soil surface moisture. If you can prevent yourself from watering more than once every 2-3 WEEKS in the spring and prevent Mother Nature from doing the same, then you should not see crabgrass. So the question to ask is why was your turf thin enough to allow the crabgrass to get in? The answer could be that you have a fescue lawn instead of KBG. The way to make it a bluegrass lawn is to seed in KBG now and let the fescue die out over time. A healthy bluegrass lawn should keep crabgrass out. If you want to fertilize I'm always going to suggest organic. Why? Too many reasons to enumerate, but for you the answer is that there is no guess work as to when and with what. Organic fertilizer can be put down any day of the year with no fear of hurting anything. You can apply at double the recommended rate with no fear of hurting anything. I would not do that, but at least the grass won't burn up. My favorite organic fertilizer is ordinary corn meal, but I like to apply alfalfa pellets at least once a year, too. The application rate for most organic fertilizers is 15-20 pounds per 1,000 square feet. If you buy it at the feed store the cost will be about $4 per 1,000 square feet which is competitive with chemical type fertilizers. Here is a picture of an organically fertilized KBG lawn that is watered once per week in the hottest heat of summer compared to other KBG lawns that may or may not use organics but they are watered daily.The picture was taken in July several years ago, so it was hot.

Ditto the comments above, plus: 1. Don't apologize for not knowing the names of things right out of the gate. I'm approaching age 70 and still learning the names of things growing in my own garden beds... and I studied Latin in school! 2. I'm lucky my Mom & Dad couldn't afford landscape fabric. They used 8" x 16" patio bricks for mulch. I dug up just under 400 of them when I moved here. They're now a couple of garden walkways set in concrete. Thanks to a great garden resource (a book by Sharon Lovejoy entitled "Roots, Shoots, Buckets & Boots") I used recycled, brown corrugated cardboard in my garden beds before spreading pine bark mulch. My beds only produce weeds where the mulch ends. 3. "Everyone agreed if I was able to kill a hosta I had a real issue." Hostas are pretty much bulletproof but I do love all mine. I have nearly 50 all totaled, many of them named cultivars. Despite this drought, I had the neighbor teen dig up & divide one of my mature "named" hostas yesterday. I did water the replanted divisions--I use recycled cat litter jugs with pinholes punched an inch from the bottom of the jug. I filled the jugs with water; water comes out the pinholes in a gentle stream and slowly waters the plants close to the base. Once the water level falls below the pinhole, the remaining water keeps the jug from blowing around in the wind. "I'm overwhelmed with my flowers at times being new to gardening and trying to get it right - mainly how to control growth and when and how to cut back." Lesson #1 - YOU don't "control growth;" plants + weather are in charge. Your role is more of a caretaker. Lesson #2 - I did my homework so very few things in my garden beds need to be cut back. I planned it thus. You can as well. Good luck, visit often, ask questions and enjoy your garden.