Here's the nut! >"I tried last year to dig out severel problem areas, and then patched the bare spots in with plugs I dug out from my back lawn. Though that seemed to help for last year, I fear I may have actually made things worse, perhaps by disturbing the soil." Yes, disturbing the soil! Poa seeds remain viable in the soil for MANY years. You know they are there, so .... do NOT dig, core aerate or dethatch anytime in your future. Just say NO. Let a sleeping dog lie. Round Up the area/spots, over lapping the area a little bit due to any poa annua underground rhizomes and inter-twined blades with the KBG and apply a pre-emergent to this area - never disturbing the soil. Using a combo product, like say Scotts Turf Builder with Halts is ideal for this purpose. It will prevent any germination while encouraging the KBG to fill and spread into the void with the added fertilizer. >"but in the summer it seems to fade/die off anyway" And this is your clue! You are familiar when this happens in your area every year. Since poa annua dies when drought and heat stressed, so help it! Do NOT irrigate prior. Yes, your KBG may want to go dormant, and if it does, it will recover. Not to worry. When you notice the poa being stressed and browning out, (August???) THIS is when you apply the fall preM, before soil temps drop to favorable temperatures for germinating additional poa annua. Once your fall preM is down, you can water. After Labor Day, feed it ... bombs away. Labor Day, Mid October and around Thanksgiving. Fall IS the best time to fertilize and you want that KBG to fill in those voids. And FYI Halts - Pendimethalin has a 90 day residual Dimension - Dithiopyr " 120 " Barricade - Prodiamine can last 8 months when applied at the heavy rate. You have a longer growing season on LI than I do in Chicago. 2 or 3 apps will be needed depending on the product you use. Come spring, forget the forsythia. That's great for crab grass. Apply earlier for poa annua. Better early than too late. Kill the poa annua and feed the KBG ... it will fill in. Click link below for visual proof. KBG is outstanding at this! *YOU* too can do it also! Here is a link that might be useful: P. Annua Repair

I would stay right where I am here in Nova Scotia. I have the ocean right in front of me, the woods behind me and only one neighbor that can see my house without binoculars. I love that I can go for long walks in the woods and not be afraid of anything more than a big black bear. I love that I can jump in the car with the neighbor kids or grandsons and be at the beach swimming at a nice sandy beach within 15 minutes. I can walk down my lane and go to the beach to collect rocks or shells. When summer vacation time comes I always want to drive around Nova Scotia, sometimes up to Sussex, New Brunswick to go to Corn Hill Nursery, but for the most part I want to stay here. I love the trips to the Annapolis Valley and south shore, so much to see/sea. I have driven across this grand country twice by car, a long, long journey both times. Been right to Jasper in Alberta and out to Grand Cashe, beautiful area, but no ocean, gotta be near the water, it is the pisces in me I think.. Never been to the Rock, Newfoundland, but have intentions of going there someday. Flew out to Calgary last summer and was enchanted with the city, I hate cities for the most part but this place really caught my eye. My son lives there so I can see going out there again, it was a beautiful trip. If I had to change anything it would be the weather right now, bitter cold, I don't care for that. Otherwise home is where I hang my hat, I hope to be hanging my hat here for many, many more years. Just a humble little bungalow but it is my piece of heaven and my sancturary. Valerie

Wow, this post sounds really familiar. OMG! Its mineÂ.. First of all, everyone who responded was really helpful to me. I appreciate all your support and great advice. Your words and thoughts all brought me a lot of comfort. Thank you - all you very kind people. And hereÂs what happened. To get to the end first, as I myself hate waiting for the punch line, I did not move. I did put my house on the market though. But first I spent money fixing it up in various ways, such as finally finishing a bathroom. Fixing up all the electrical things I always had intended doing. $$$$. So after 8 years of living with the intention of having a front entryway light, and splitting the outlet/light switch which had been combined, I did all those things. Plus a lot more electric work. This made it nicer for me, but $$$$ which I did not recoup. Based on a post in Buying Selling House forum, I spent oodles of time trying to get grass to grow in my full sun, scorching Maryland climate, red clay front yard which was a major flop. Nevertheless, I spent months doing this and it became a minor obsession. You have no idea. I also spray painted my rusted chain link fence a silver color  major improvement. Then I put my house on the market, kept it pretty clean, rented storage, lived on egg-shells. Of course this was right during the Real Estate flop of last spring/summer. I also occasionally traveled to North Carolina and checked out amazing housing prices there. BUT my little, very nice on the inside, 2 BD/2 BA house did not sell. I would have had to drop the price much lower as the inventory in my area was huge, and 2 bedroom houses would not sell before 3 or 4 bedroom ones. I didnÂt need to move, and saw no reason to cut so far into the "profits dancing in my head" that a move would no longer be financially beneficial. Driving back and forth between Maryland and North Carolina, I also started to understand the value of the family and friends I have in the area. After nearly 3 months on the market, I look my house off. I almost donÂt remember where I planned to go. In September I realized that a co-worker and I could start a creative business which I had always dreamed of. I approached him and we formed a business partnership. We are working on this all the time, and that is my current focus. I am doing things which I hadnÂt planned to do before, such as writing childrenÂs stories while he creates the online characters. There are still many aspects of my life which probably would make me as impatient as I was when I wrote my original post. I mostly donÂt have time to think about them. I am pretty busy with launching a business and learning about all that  itÂs a real baptism by fire. I did get rid of a negative "friend" which has improved my life greatly. And I am a "convert" to The Secret which truly works. The business was totally unexpected, and perhaps if it didnÂt materialize when it did, I would happily be living in Raleigh or someplace in that area. I look forward to enjoying my house and yard this spring and summer. The lovely screened porch, the quiet neighborhood, the improved house, a soon to be successful business (fingers crossed). Life is certainly unexpected.

My cousin and her husband retired and have one. With plumbing and electrical, cawaps! They avoid the earthquakes, leave Florida when hurricane season comes, head back when the snow flies, set it up in their kids' driveways in various parts of the country. It's their fifth-wheel camper with pop-outs and awnings!