DEFEAT CRABGRASS WITHOUT CHEMICALS

Warren Schultz in his book, The Chemical Free Lawn," suggests three ways to rid yourself of this pest. The remedies are all very simple. First, you can simply adjust the mowing height of your lawn mower. Tall grass requires a lot of nutrients to
thrive; so the grass you want to grow starves out the crabgrass you want to kill. The taller grass also shades I the low-growing crabgrass, thus dealing it a double whammy of nutrient deprivation. Eventually, the crabgrass is starved out and dies. Studies have shown that a plot mowed 2.2 inches high (instead of the usual 1-inch crew cut) decreased the crabgrass content of the lawn from a high of 30% in the first year, to a low of 7% in the fifth year. The second way is just as simple: fertilize more. The more fertilizer you put down, the higher and healthier your grass grows, and the more nutrients it steals from the crabgrass. Farmers found out about this remedy as the result of a study done in Ohio over fifty years ago. The researchers discovered that putting 20 lbs of poultry manure on every 1000 square feet of turf in late fall, and then again in early spring, allowed the grass to get off to an early start the following year. The result? 75% reduction in crabgrass in just one year.

The real fireworks happen, though, when you combine high mowing with heavy fertilization. When researchers heavily fertilized one plot three times during the year, and then mowed the grass at 2.2 inches, the crabgrass content dropped to only 8% in the very first year! Over the next five years, it dropped to only 2%! The fascinating thing is that the researchers found these chemical-free methods to be just as effective, though maybe not as quick, in eliminating these weeds.

If your lawn is truly infested with weeds, and you don't want to wait til next year to get rid of them, you can try Schultz's third method. Cover the whole infested area with black mulching paper or black plastic, and wait for ten days. Then roll back the black stuff and -- Voila!-- your crabgrass is dead! Your lawn will be a little yellowed, but it should recover quickly.