Good info Swamp.

I had been gradually losing the fight for years, and I even tried purposely giving up the fight and letting it all go to crabgrass. That part was fine, that's exactly what happened. I mowed it and it actually looked fine, thick and green. The problem was that crabgrass kills the other desireable grasses (I'm told it actually secretes something to help with that) but the following year it, and nothing else, doesn't emerge until later in the season. The result was next spring all I had was dirt and dried up dead crabgrass from the year before until late June - July when the crabgrass all came up.

2 yrs ago the yard was dug up for a pool replacement, new septic line etc. and we had the opportunity to start over. The first year was fine, I could keep up with hand pulling the occassional crabgrass. This year it started coming back with a vengence. I used Weed-B-Gone max for crabgrass as soon as I realized what was happening, somewhere around late June (SE Conn). I bought a good sprayer so I could easily target individual clumps and leave the good stuff - I could really get it down into the base of the clump with very little overspray, and now all I do is go around and pull up the stray crabgrass clumps I find, about 10 min max.

I'll also take the advice to lime and overseed and take it from there. I think the key was that I did the weed-b-gone early when i first saw the battle beginning.

Oh, and lots of watering, fortunately I have a good well.

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2002 E320 4-Matic
2008 Subaru Outback
2009 Subaru Forester