What is the hottest temp you can expect in the summer? 90s? 80? The clinker is that you want a "nice" lawn. Usually that means no crabgrass. But if you seed in the spring, that is when the crabgrass seed becomes viable. Then when you water daily to germinate your grass seed, the crabgrass seed sprouts first and grows fastest. Then if your summer heat gets into the 90s for weeks at a time, the brand new turf grass will not have developed strong roots to withstand the heat, but the crabgrass roots are specially designed for summer heat. What often happens is that by July 4th you end up with a mostly crabgrass lawn.

There is an alternative to spring seeding. You could buy sod. Sod is grass grown somewhere else, cut off the soil there and laid out on your garden. That is an instant lawn of relatively mature grass that should make it through the summer with very few weeds.

Another alternative is to power through this season practicing good lawn care (below). You'll notice that even weeds, when properly cared for, don't look half bad. Well maybe they do look half bad, but you'll be learning good lessons, the grass you have will look pretty good, and you'll have a lot more education and confidence about grass by the fall when it is a great time to reseed the lawn.

Basics of Lawn Care

After reading numerous books and magazines on lawn care, caring for lawns at seven houses in my life, and reading numerous forums where real people write in to discuss their successes and failures, I have decided to side with the real people and dispense with the book and magazine authors. I don't know what star their planet rotates around but it's not mine. With that in mind, here is the collected wisdom of the Internet savvy homeowners and lawn care professionals summarized in a few words. If you follow the advice here you will have conquered at least 50% of all lawn problems. Once you have these three elements mastered, then you can worry about weeds (if you have any), dog spots, and striping your lawn. But if you are not doing these three things, they will be the first three things suggested for you to correct.


Watering
Water deeply and infrequently. Deeply means at least an inch in every zone, all at once. Infrequently means monthly during the cool months and no more than weekly during the hottest part of summer. Do not spread this out and water for 10 minutes every day. If your grass looks dry before the month/week is up, water longer next time. If that does not work, then you might have to water more than once per week during the summer's hottest period. Deep watering grows deep, drought resistant roots. Infrequent watering allows the top layer of soil to dry completely which kills off many shallow rooted weeds.

You will have to learn to judge when to water your own lawn. If you live in El Paso your watering will be different than if you live in Vermont. Adjust your watering to your type of grass, temperature, humidity, wind, and soil type. It is worth noting that this technique is used successfully by professionals in Phoenix, so...just sayin.' The other factors make a difference. If you normally water 1 inch per week and you get 1/2 inch of rain, then adjust and water only 1/2 inch that week.

Mowing
Every week mulch mow at the highest setting on your mower. Most grasses are the most dense when mowed tall. However, bermuda, centipede, and bent grasses will become the most dense when they are mowed at the lowest setting on your mower. In fact there are special mowers that can mow these grasses down to 1/16 inch. Dense grass shades out weeds, keeps the soil cooler, and uses less water than thin grass. Tall grass can feed the deep roots you developed in #1 above. Tall grass does not grow faster than short grass nor does it look shaggy sooner. Once all your grass is at the same height, tall grass just looks plush.

Fertilizing
Fertilize regularly. I fertilize 5 times per year using organic fertilizer. Which fertilizer you use is much less important than numbers 1 and 2 above. Follow the directions on the bag and do not overdo it. Too much is better than too little*.

At this point you do not have to worry about weed and feed products - remember at this point you are just trying to grow grass, not perfect it. Besides once you are doing these three things correctly, your weed problems should go away without herbicide.

* This used to read, "Too little is better than too much." Recent test results show that you cannot get too much organic fertilizer unless you bury the grass in it.

Thanks, I really appreciate the info. One question would be whether "Tupersan" is an option to do what I want (kill crabgrass at the same time as seeding in the spring). I read a few things online that said this is what Tupersan does, but I wonder if it works well? Otherwise, why aren't more people using that option.

Tupersan's expensive, of good effect, but the pre-emergent shield only lasts about a month. However, it's one of the only pre-emergents that can be used when you seed (the other being Tenacity).

Tupersan's list of controlled weeds is very short (crabgrass, foxtail grass, brome, and barnyard grass), so it's not going to suppress out most broadleaf weeds. Tenacity's list is also fairly short, but comprised of different weeds.