40,000 square feet? An Acre?? Okay. Apply any preemergent you can find when the forsythia are in bloom. I don't like products that mix materials like herbicide and fertilizer together. I think you get more bang for the buck by sticking with the single products and timing them specifically for their target capability. Fertilize any time after you have mowed real grass (not weeds) for the second time. In Maine I would wait until Memorial Day. Why? Because the nutrients developed in the soil over the winter will be mostly exhausted by then. If you fertilize before the grass starts to grow you are wasting fertilizer on the early weeds. If you fertilize just as the grass starts to grow, then instead of having grass growing at twice the normal rate, you have it growing at 3x or 4x the normal rate. That means a LOT more frequent mowing to keep it under 3-4 inches. If you acre is under automatic sprinkler system (which I doubt), you can do yourself a favor and cut the frequency back to no more than once a week during the heat of summer and once a month up until it gets hot. That will allow the surface of the soil to dry out which stops weed seeds from germinating. Set your mower to the highest position. That will develop deeper roots to get you through the hot part of summer. Then when it gets hot, stop mowing altogether. Wait until the heat breaks and come back to mow carefully so as not to scalp it. Tall grass also provides more shade to shade out any weed seedlings that might have sprouted. The watering and mowing described above should be a strong deterrent to crabgrass. An acre of grass? Have you considered alternatives to so much grass? I have a long list of alternatives that can break up your expanse of turf if you are interested. I know this is the lawn forum, and lawns are my hobby, but to me there is not much that is less interesting than an unbroken acre of grass.

"I had a Jave Red weigela layer on it's own after a branch got partialy covered with soil. I had another type of shrub that died so I replaced it with the layered one. The new shrub is growing well but the leaves are green and do not have the red shading of the parent plant. I was quite surprised that this would happen." I've read (here actually) that the color of the leaves is primarily dependent on how much sun it gets. More sun gives you darker red leaves. Not sure where you have yours planted. :-/ Thanks you guys for answering! I'm going to get started on layering it as soon as the flowers drop. :-)

I sow everything at this time of year -- tomatoes, marigolds, petunias, herbs and many others. In fact, I did my first 13 containers today and have two of zinnias and one marigold. I've been doing this for a few years now, and though I've never done zinnias this way I'm sick of them not sprouting when I direct sow so I figured I'd try them this way. Marigolds do fine at this time of year, so why not zinnias. Nothing's going to come up until the temperature and the soil in the containers warm up anyway. This isn't a way to get a headstart on the season. It's a way to utilize nature's own way, and free up space on the windowsills. :) BTW, I've had the occasional dud container, but very occasional, and the one time I'm pretty sure it was the seed because I tried again in the mid-spring with the same seed and got nothing then as well. Caryl

Hi The most important part is the "nitrogen cycle". Many ways to go about it. Easiest way is to introduce 1/2 small hardy fish and use a test kit to know when it's established . Google the procedure will give you tons of info ,besides you will also need info on comtatiblity" issues lol gary