gardengalrn, I also live in Kansas and I'm an RN. I used to fight weeds in our veggie gardens also. I mulched with little benefit no matter how thick I spread it. I then tried laying a layer of newspaper on the soil and covered that with mulch (I use grass clippings and shredded leaves). The first time I didnt use thick enough layers of newspaper. Weeds came back after several weeks. With thicker layers it was effective all summer. By the next spring the mulch and paper had decomposed and were tilled in, benefiting the soil :) This year I used newspaper in some areas, brown paper bags in others and cardboard in others. I can honestly say I had a weed free veggie garden :) Laying down the newspaper/cardboard is a bit time consuming but well worth it. I place the barrier right up to, but not touching the stems of plants. My neighbors give me the leaves they collect in the fall and in the spring I run over them with the mower...using the collection bag...this is spread over the newspaper/cardboard. I'm so happy I have found a way to enjoy my veggies garden and not be overwhelmed with weeds. As for Preen...I use that only in flower beds. I sprinkle it after I put a good layer of mulched leaves. It lasts about 3 months. You can successfully plant seeds in the area. There is a long list on the back of the box of seeds that are not effected by the product. I just checked my box and green peas are listed as not being effected by Preen. There are a number of other veggies that it is safe to use with as well as grasses, flowers, shrubs, trees, ornamental grasses, etc. Great product...I just choose not to use it on things I'm going to eat. With a little preparation you can spend your summer enjoying your garden instead of fighting the weeds :)

Thanks for the follow up. First of all, how do I make sure I receive notifications? I have an option "if you no longer wish to receive notifications" but I'm not getting any. It's hard for me to remember to check every day. The lawn has been a rental for 15 years so its never had proper care. It's a mix of weeds of all sorts with some fescue. I'm targeting to get as much fescue (I think) to grow while I live here the next 3 years. I overseeded with a fescue blend last fall and watered that daily while it was germinating. I haven't really watered since and I am not looking to water too often, if I'm honest. I'm not looking for perfection since this is a rental, just improvement. I fertilized and limed with a mixture from my local lawn care place but I can't remember the quantities. I think the nitrogen was around 17. I also think that I need a lot more lime from what I've read. There is only one spot where water collects on the entire property and I plan on adding some compost to it soon. In that spot is plantain but it is not the same as the crab grass. The crab grass seems to be in the higher heat/less shady areas. Is it advisable to maybe put a Kentucky bluegrass there? Is it not more resistant to direct sunlight? Thanks again so much for the help. I've attached pictures of the alleged crabgrass.

hello8, Sounds like you have a very similar upstairs/downstairs condition - I have about 1550 sq ft upstairs and 1000 sq ft downstairs, and I presume your main living areas are upstairs like mine also. Glad to know yours was solved, so perhaps hope is not all lost for me. Interesting that they actually took out the lower return; same as my contractor's logic that the stairwell itself is a path back to the upstairs return. However, my contractor said the upstairs return was large enough. May I ask what you actually enlarged on the return? My return is a 12x22 shaft that cannot be widened, and by the furnace further shrinks to a 16" round (=200 sq in); however, the return grille could easily be increased from 12x24 to 14x24 or more. May I ask more about your downstairs room conditions compared to mine? My overall downstairs is not bad, it's mainly the farthest room, which has many worst-case conditions: shaded north and east facing, large window glazing areas equal nearly half the floor area, three feet lower than other rooms, farthest duct run at 50 ft. Actually I didn't care about the $600 variable speed upgrade so much for comfort benefits, but really primarily as mike_home suggested, to efficiently run the fan at low speed for longer periods to even out the downstairs temperatures. When I add the $300 supply duct fix (same as you, dedicating an 8" run to the farthest part of the downstairs), plus the $250 Infinity control to increase low-speed durations, I guess that's $1150 in upgrades that haven't quite worked for this problem yet. I've been trying the continuous low speed since last night; the 70 deg air from upstairs is existing the downstairs ceiling register at 68 deg, but the soft flow dissipates to 66 deg a foot away, the walls are more like 64 degs, the floor at 58-60 deg. The air and heat just doesn't seem to mix vertically too much. There are two Infinity control settings that can boost the low fan speed (low heat rise and comfort/efficiency), but not sure whether boosting speed will promote mixing or just cause the heat to flow out the ceiling faster. Looks like your contractor went the opposite way, run single-stage at higher speed, which I could try configuring the Infinity control to operate more in high-stage only.

I'll give my 2 cents since I have bermuda and this is the exact pre-emergent I use. I did the calculations in the past as I believe the bag rate is in annual applications per acre and I thought it was closer to 12.9 lbs/1000 sq. ft. I could be wrong. Either way, I think your logic is right. I have read to do split applications of stonewall. So for the sake of making the math easy, we'll use your number round down to 16 lbs/1000 sq ft and divide by 4. You want 4 applications at 4lbs/1000 sq. ft. You'll want to do one in the spring and the 2nd app about 8-10 weeks later. Same thing in the fall. As you somewhat hinted at, the goal is to make sure any weed that germinates later then expected will be caught by the 2nd application. I don't put down anything in the summer months as my grass is thick enough and I really don't have to worry about weeds. As long as you don't over apply or spill it, it will not kill your grass. I spilled some near my fence a few years ago and even though I cleaned it up as best as I could, nothing has grown back since then. 8.5 lbs for one application sounds like too much so I would discourage that. Lastly, this product has worked well with grassy weeds but not so well with broadleaf weeds. I have zero crabgrass or poa and I had some horrible poa a few years back. I spot spray the broadleaf weeds and my lawn looks fantastic. Hope this helps.