Speaking of baptism by fire...I hope the rest of your experiences with GW are better than this one. Y'all got off track early and it went downhill from there. You can have a weed free, low maintenance lawn, and do it without routine use of Weed-B-Gone. It is a matter of 1) growing grass that is suited to the location, 2) proper watering, 3) proper mowing, and 4) regular fertilizer. You are trying to hit todays issues but you have the recent memory of last year's issues weighing you down. I'm going to focus on this year's issues. The current symptom seems to be that your grass is too thin and it is allowing a variety of weeds to come and take over. Can you find the bag of seed you bought and tell us what the Guaranteed Analysis part of the bag says? I'm hoping that will explain the entire block of problems so far this year. I'm also hoping it will suggest a solution to be implemented in the fall. Fall is by far the best time to seed in the north. If you seed in the spring (early or late) there are weed seeds sitting there waiting to germinate. When you put in grass seed, all the weed seeds will germinate, too. You can prevent the summer weed seeds from germinating by seeding in the fall. Then in the spring you will be using a mature turf care program. That involves keeping the soil relatively dry and providing a tall grass to shade the soil. Keeping weed seeds dry in the spring can be hard with Mother Nature helping to water, but if you gain some sort of control over the moisture, then you should water deeply once every 1-2 weeks. Get out the hoses and sprinkler (I like an oscillating sprinkler). Keeping the grass tall seems to be your nature so that's good; however, when you do mow, mow at the highest setting on the mower. Auteck has not explained why he suggested mowing at 2 inches, but over the years the general consensus here at GW is that really tall grass is much better than anything else. Four inches works better for keeping weeds out and reducing your summer watering requirements. In the summer when the heat really hits, you can go without mowing for a month or two, but you should still water every week or two. The second problem with seeding in the spring is the new grass plants cannot tolerate the summer heat. Could that be why your lawn died last summer? Fall seeded grass has all winter and spring to develop deeper roots that can stand the heat and low moisture. Regardless of what the weeds are, you have some and need to get rid of them. The reason you have any weeds at all is your turf is not very dense. I am questioning auteck's idea that you have Kentucky bluegrass, because you should not have that thin a turf with KBG - unless that was what you seeded with this year (need the Guaranteed Analysis). The "dandelion" weed should die with WBG, but since it has not, I'm going to suggest that you fertilize right now, and then in 2 weeks, try the WBG again. Weeds that are not very healthy will not absorb the WBG and can even resist it. I know it seems crazy to fertilize the weeds so you can kill them, but that is exactly what I'm suggesting. Again, this is the consensus of Internet forum users over the ages. If you don't have a favorite fertilizer, look for a fertilizer like plain old Turf Builder that does not have any other additives like herbicide or insecticide - just fertilizer. If you are interested in an inexpensive organic lawn care program, here's a link to one. Also, it looks like you live in the woods. Does your lawn get much sunlight during the day in the summer? It must get enough for "crabgrass" to grow. True crabgrass needs full sun or it won't do well. Whatever your weed is, it acts exactly like crabgrass and looks much the same. I'm okay calling it crabgrass. I've been reading here for years and it always surprises me how early crabgrass appears in various parts of the country. My approach would be to discourage it with proper watering and mowing and to tolerate it (meaning no herbicides) one more season with anticipation and the hope of getting such a dense lawn next year that it will not come back. Yes, it can be done. For the fall, would you consider hiring a landscaper to resurface your entire lawn? In one morning he could fix the spots where the trees were, give you the best drainage possible, and prepare the soil for new seed. It would be a complete renovation which is why I don't suggest you spend a lot of money killing weeds this season. However, I'm not saying you should abdicate lawn care either. Treat the lawn as if it was the perfect lawn (despite the weeds) and it will surprise you. I should say that since you are not lawn people (yet, and I'm optimistic you will be), I have some doubt about the quality of the grass seed you have already purchased. It is very easy to buy a bag full of weed seeds when you are not experienced at reading the bags. It would be a shame to renovate and get the same problems back.

hey all .... barb.. i NEVER use photobucket for photo manipulation ... thats right up there with watching paint dry ... i use a Ulead program ... much faster ... i usually only adjust the darkness ... NEVER the color ... all the pix were taken about 2 weeks back.. just before the snow flew.. all pics in 2 days ... snap and shoot... download... retake a couple that were bad ... label them all at download..using the database .. avoid any typing i can .. lol ... taken in bed sequence.. so immediately put into folders based on beds ... will .. my pix ought to be encouraging you to stop buying MORE .. and save for some acreage .. lol ... i dont know what juniperus pendula would do unstaked ... IMHO.. there are enough ground cover junipers.. that are much better for that ... this is one mean little bat-turd .... you would NEVER want to walk into it.. or brush your hand along it .... concolor is a weed for me... pure yellow sand to at least 15 feet down ... maybe i have perfect drainage ... all my conifers are free range in their third year.. except for intense extended drought .. like this year.. and even then.. i doubt i dragged a hose around the WHOLE yard more than 3 times .... and when i did. . it was the smaller stuff that got watered ...and a 6 foot tree is NOT small stuff ... get over it.. or die.. i am not interested in too many FOO FOO plants.. been there done that.. got a life .... regardless.. thanks for the drop-in notes.. i knew there were more of you out there ... happy holidays ken

1.) What difference does it make how cold it gets in winter, when snow cover is such an excellent blanket insulator for the soil. We have an average frost depth of 32" here, but I assume Ely's is quite a bit deeper. But how does that affect cold hardy plants? Because Ely's frost goes deeper, the surface and near surface temperatures of the soil are colder also. Certainly not like the air temps, but just as significant, as root and crown hardiness of plants don't evolve to be hardy at colder air temps, simply because, over the millenia, they have not needed to be. Indeed, woody plants are more vulnerable to temperature extremes due to their above snowline exposure. Yes, fava beans would be a good example of what can be grown in zone 4 and not in Ely. Other shelling beans, okra, cotton, some winter squashes, most varieties of muskmelons and honeydew melons will grow in Ely, but don't perform satisfactorily (a subjective judgment) compared to zone 4. Just like most places where the terrain is changeable and not fairly flat, soils are diverse in the Ely area too. Yes, they are all very acid based, sandy gravelly rocky for the most part, often thin, but sleuths and valleys soils are high in organic matter, yet comparative poor in nutrients. This is due to the relatively slow breakdown of organic matter because of much cooler temps, lack of worms (non are native, even in most if MN) and the kind of organic materials that predominate. I wouldn't call the climate/soil there finicky. A perusal of local gardens will reveal a multitude of well grown perennials and annuals, and vegetables. My parents and grandparents lived in Ely. One Grandmother fed her husbands logging crew of of 5 to 10 men, largely with what she grew in the garden. She had large cold frames for her early crops since 1915. My other Grandmother grew pole beans from seeds brought from Slovenia, as did many of the immigrants in Ely. Northern climates are not necessarily unworkable, just different. You've seen photos of the giant cabbages they grow in Alaska. That's something we can't do here. Likewise there are just plants that are adapted, or adaptable to an Ely climate, and locals don't see it as an amazing feat. Grandma had rotted horse manure applied annually to her huge garden, but the color of the soil was still sandy brown, yet very productive. Remember too, that even though the season is shorter the farther north you go, the days are longer and the sun more intense. Things may not grow as large, but they can produce more. Rick

Atta Girl!!! I sure hope she listens and tries to understand. Sometimes I am very glad that I am an only child. I got to make all the decisions and there was no one to complain about what I did. I will admit that from time to time, when I was undecided as to what to do, I wished that I could dump the choice of options on someone else. Hang in there PB