I've been on lawn care forums for 20 years, and most people do NOT use fertilizer with weed preventer. Many people who have lawn problems do use the weed n feed products, though. Most people use one or the other, because the timing is only right for one or the other. Preemergent herbicide should be used very early in the spring. The first fertilizer of the year should be very late in the spring if you winterized in the fall.

You should not blame your weed issue on your neighbor. Many years ago a guy on the forum reported that once he changed his watering and mowing that his neighbor's full crabgrass lawn grew right up to his tall, tall fescue lawn and stopped. Furthermore, I lived in rural Texas for 10 years and had absolutely no control over neighboring wildscape properties. Seeds blow everywhere out there, but I followed the rules I learned on this forum about watering (deeply and infrequently), mowing (highest setting allowed), and fertilizing (late spring, late summer, and late fall); and I had very few, if any weeds in the yard. I used only organic fertilizer and never used preemergent or any other herbicides. It was the tall, healthy grass that took care of the weed problems for me.

I would add to dchall's comments by saying that a lawn fertilizer with any kind of herbicide added is considered a "weed 'n feed" product and those are not well recommended for the following reasons:

• uneven and excessive application of herbicides
• the granular chemicals used in weed 'n feed products harm the environment. They most often wind up as run-off, polluting ground water, streams and lakes, and can be fatal to birds that might eat the grains
• it gets tracked inside by kids and pets and can be easily absorbed by them as well
• there are often health risks involved with most frequent pesticides used. 2,4-D is linked to cancer in both humans and dogs
• long term lawn health is compromised

Following dchall's advice and separating any lawn fertilization from any weed control product is advised. If you cannot control the weed growth by his methods, then use manual methods of removal or spot spray or the very early season application of a pre-emergent for a specific issue, like crabgrass.

Weed preventer and weed killer are different products. And I would say most people who apply a weed preventer do apply a fertilizer with weed preventer. Like Scotts halts. I would guess Scotts halts outsells any stand alone pre-emergent by at least 10-1. Seeing as how it's sold at every big box retailer while stand alone pre-emergents aren't.

Might be helpful to get your facts straight. The only Preen lawn care product with fertilizer is Preen One and it is a 3-way product - a fertilizer, a weed killer and a weed preventer. That makes it a weed and feed product.

Scotts Halt IS a standalone pre-emergent. It is not a weed killer, only a preventer and it contains NO fertilizer. Since it should be applied well before the need to do any fertilizing, combining it with a fertilizer makes no sense and would be pretty much a waste of time and money.

Scotts Turf Builder Halts does combine a preemergent and fertilizer but their instructions for the timing of application are weeks to months ahead of informed or professional turf care practices. Again, mostly a waste of time and money.!

Scotts is a master of product marketing and plays upon gullible or uninformed homeowners to sell - or oversell - their wares. While no doubt they have the nonprofessional lawn care market wrapped up, they have done so in a very profit oriented but environmentally inefficient way. They are emptying your wallet but not doing you any lawn favors. And I would like to see some statistics that support the contention that either of the Halts products outsells the competition 10 to 1!!

The product that I was referring to is the Scotts fertilizer with halts. That's the product that's in every store and you can see people in lines with it in their baskets. It's the first step in their 4 step annual plan that many follow. I've never seen a preen lawn care product being sold anywhere. I only see their garden products.

kidhorn2 said, "I would say most people who apply a weed preventer do apply a fertilizer with weed preventer. Like Scotts halts."

You very well may be correct; however, the general feeling among lawn enthusiasts, as opposed to the lawn tolerators, is that weed n feed products miss the mark in several ways. As we have mentioned, the ideal time to apply a fertilizer and an herbicide are about a month apart, so applying one product to cover both bases is not ideal. Another reason for applying different products is that herbicides are often applied to wet grass and left alone, while fertilizers are applied to dry grass and then watered in. Basically it is hard to apply a herbicide to wet grass, because it dries quickly. It is either very time consuming to water a patch, apply herbicide, water another patch, apply herbicide, ad nauseum; or else it is a 2-person job with one watering right in front of the applicator. Furthermore, applying an herbicide to an entire lawn just in case, is poor citizenship. It is a waste of herbicide and money. The best approach to weed control, if you want to use an herbicide, is to spray a product specifically designed to kill the particular weed you're after. For example, almost all broadleaf weeds can be controlled by a product like Weed-b-Gon or Weed-b-Gon Chickweed, Clover, and Oxalis Killer. Almost all grasses can be controlled with a product like Grass-b-Gon. For special plants like nutgrass (nutsedge), you would need a sedge killer lie those made by Sedgehammer and Image. If you want to kill all the vegetation over a larger area, I would still use a spray like Round-Up or one of the less expensive glyphosate knock-offs.

If you are a weed n feed user, please read the directions to be sure you are applying it properly.

I agree with everything you said, but I posted that most who apply a pre-emergent, apply a fertilizer with added pre-emergent is absolutely correct. That's what's recommended by scotts and vigoro. Combined, they probably make up close to 90% of lawn fertilizer sales.

The neighbor, whose lawn abuts mine (thank G-d for the rubber lawn edging I pounded in to divide my precious lawn from theirs), has a wild collection of at least a dozen types of weeds, from dandelions to purple flowering stuff to yellow flowering stuff, white flowering stuff, things i've never seen. They deserve an award for the most diverse collection of weeds and neglected lawn (ARE there any actual blades of grass in there???). So I am better off hitting it with a general purpose weed killer that promises to kill 200+ species of weeds than a specific weed killer. I don't recall ever seeing specific species weed killers save for crabgrass, clover, and dandelions. I think I'll haul out the Preen and my spreader Sunday to deliver a kaPOW to their lousy weeds, before they become MY lousy weeds.

Preen is what's known as a pre-emergent weed preventer. it stops weed seeds from germinating. Once the weeds are present, preen won't kill them.

The best way to stop weeds is to have thick grass. Otherwise, you'll kill the weeds and new ones will grow where the old ones were. Weeds will grow wherever there's dirt and nothing else growing there.

" Preen is what's known as a pre-emergent weed preventer. it stops weed seeds from germinating. Once the weeds are present, preen won't kill them. "

Depends on what Preen product is used. If the Preen One Lawn Care, that is a 3-way product. It is a fertilizer, a broadleaf lawn weed killer and a crabgrass (only) pre-emergent. it will kill existing weeds but will not stop the germination of weed seeds (other than crabgrass) or prevent the seeding of new weed seeds that may blow in from neighboring properties.

TBH, there is no product available to my knowledge that will prevent all lawn weed seeds from germinating - eg. a pre-emergent that will prevent all common broadleaf lawn weeds. Which accounts for a lot of the popularity of weed & feed products. And why they tend to be over-used with multiple applications to keep ever-appearing weeds to a minimum.

Lawn care professionals steer away from these products for many of the reasons I outlined previously. And they are expensive! The best way to deter weeds IS by having a healthy lawn and that involves fertilizing as necessary, liming periodically if your soil is very acidic, watering infrequently but slowly and deeply when you do and mowing high. A judicious use of a lawn weed herbicide may be helpful initially or as spot treatments now and again. And a pre-emergent if crabgrass is an issue, as the broadleaf weed killers cannot address that issue.

Or move away from the notion that a pristine, weed-free lawn is the only way to go and learn to tolerate the biodiversity of other pretty inoffensive plants that may appear in your lawn. I do. The only weeds I consciously go after are dandelions, plantain and dock (Rumex) and just manually. Anything else I will tolerate and keep in check by just mowing.