Crabgrass is a summer annual plant in all climates as far as I know. Can you post a picture of the grass you're calling crabgrass. It probably is crabgrass but there are some who refer to other weeds as crabgrass. One problem is that crabgrass thrives under the same conditions that bermuda thrives under - hot weather and mowed short. Then if you water more than once per week, you're guaranteed to get crabgrass. I used to live between Aviation and the 405 in Hawthorne. My lawn was miserable, but I didn't know what I know now about lawns. If I had it to do over again for that location I would put in either Kentucky bluegrass (fine blade) or St Augustine (coarse blade). Either of those should keep the crabgrass out of the lawn without any effort. Here's a friend's house in Huntington Beach... That is KBG. He mows and waters once per week. Fertilizes with used coffee grounds whenever he remembers - about once per year. It never goes dormant that close to the beach. The reason I mention alternatives to what you have is the fact that you have both crabgrass and kikuyu. Those are the most noxious weeds you can get and you have both. Furthermore you have common bermuda. There isn't anything I consider worth saving or even spending any money on. Bermuda is one of the hardest grasses to keep looking really nice. I know St Aug is really easy and I suspect KBG can be really easy in your area. So, are you really going to keep the bermuda? There's going to be a lot of dead bermuda if you really want to clean things up. The hard part about bermuda is keeping it dense enough to fight off weeds. That requires mowing twice weekly at a low setting, watering once weekly, and fertilizing once monthly. If you can't do that then you face a life of weeds and herbicides. Other grasses get mowed much higher (helps fight off weeds), watered weekly (all grasses need water once per week), and fertilized at most 3x per year.

Sounds encouraging. I'd read some mixed reports on the effectiveness of 2,4-D (alone) against Ajuga, but (possibly) better results with a 3-way product, which Killex is (2,4-D, Mecoprop-P, Dicamba) http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lawns/msg0918365630041.html http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?t=276043 So, it will be interesting to see your results. Yes, you are right Killex is available (at Canadian Tire), but only in British Columbia, Alberta & Manitoba. You are in BC, right? I'm in QC...sigh. Kind of farcical really, this provincial herbicide 'ban', when commercial lawn care companies can readily get the stuff (and political parties also). At least a third of the residents on my estate have their lawns sprayed....whether they really need it or not. I reckon the previous owner of my house was one and that chemical-dependency was at least part of the reason for my lawn problems....all those dormant seeds. That's my excuse anyway. Anyhow, I'll persist with the Roundup (no other choice now). Whilst slow (it's been about 2 1/2 weeks) it does appear to be working. Probably would have been quicker if I'd sprayed affected areas, rather than leaf-painted, from the start. Seems kind of counter-intuitive to water the weeds, but keeping the treated areas moist definitely helps. So, at the current rate of progress I'm still hoping that I'll be able to over-seed by mid-September. The thing that concerns me though is the sheer number and variety of weeds that are still coming up. Sure, the best natural weed-defense is a thick turf, but I'm beginning to think that I really do need to tackle at least the perennial broad-leafs, and if possible the dense carpets of crabgrass, which are now starting to turn to seed. The white clover that is taking over some areas I can live with. In fact I'm not averse to the idea of a mixed grass-clover lawn, though I can't speak for the neighbors. But the black medic (yellow trefoil) that is prevalent on my front lawn is less desirable. As someone commented on another forum - organic living is all well and good but sometimes you need a prescription from the doctor. I have inquired whether one the lawn-care firms (the one that acknowledged they use herbicides) might do a one-off spray, but they are only interested in offering a 'full year' maintenance plan. There's no way I could manually pull all of this stuff, as adept as I am with a Weed-Hound, and a lot of it is now partially obscured by crabgrass and clover/black medic. So, I guess I could try the available iron-based Weed-B-Gon, several neighbors look like they are having some success, at least with spot sprayed dandelions, but I think I'd need a bit more than spot treatment. Or else see if I can get hold of some Killex (might come back you). The big question then is how much treatment at this stage would put back fall over-seeding (killing time plus soil residual to consider). Don't really want to wait until Spring, as I'd like to try and get an early start with a pre-emergent then. What to do? This post was edited by WorBry on Tue, Aug 20, 13 at 14:11

I really like Vinca Minor because it grows fast and is evergreen, I recently took some from my mom's garden and it transplanted great! It is already growing and spreading and it has only been about 2 months. We just bought our first house a few months ago and we have an acre that needs A LOT of work. So I have been ripping up endless amounts of blackberries, salmonberries, and fireweed. But I know that I need to put shrubs and groundcovers in or they will all just come back. My mom has the same problems with those weeds, and where her vinca minor is growing, there are no weeds coming out of the area. Plus the plant always looks great, I really like the variegated vinca minor. Becky

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