Hello, Just moved to Illinois from Nebraska, in Nebraska had scotts turf builder, it was a mixture of kentucky blue, rye, and fescue. The house I am at now has grass that looks nothing like grass I had in Omaha, and also previous owner cut it real short (like 1") and had no problems. It has some patches where grass is different, so (I am trying to determine whats going on there, plus there is a ton of clovers and small weeds in yard I want to get rid of, just don't know how to kill them without killing grass also. Attached are pics of grass, patches and clovers. I hope to get this figured out soon because I want to fertilize and overseed before winter so I need to know what kind of seed to get. Thanks in advance for any help
pics can be found here
http://s637.photobucket.com/albums/uu94/davidsandine/grass/
Need help identifying grass type, overseeding advice
I see a lot of crabgrass and weeds, but can't tell exactly what other type of graa you have. You can try this identifier on Scott's website
http://www.scotts.com/smg/gtt/grassLanding.jsp?navId=300033&parentId=100006&icid=HomePageRedesign-ac
I like having clover, very soft on the feet and adds nitrogen to the soil.
You can kill the clover and crabgrass with a selective herbicide. You can find it at a hardware store usually named "crabgrass and broadleaf killer" or something to that effect. Do not use round-up (glyphosate) as this will kill your grass as well (just read the label - it will say "this will kill your grass" on it most likely).
Clover causes nitrogen fixation -- essentially it converts atmospheric nitrogen into biologically available nitrogen, acting as a slow-release fertilizer for your lawn. This can be beneficial, but many home owners don't like the look of a clover lawn and it can attract bees.
It can be tough to identify your grass, but this could help you: You most likely do have cool season grasses in Illinois. Kentucky Bluegrass has fine blades with a canoe shaped tip. Tall fescue and hard fescue has a bit of a thicker blade. Creeping Red and other fine fescue is usually in very shady areas and it looks like you have full sun, so I would guess no on these. I can't tell from your pictures because you need really close up shots, but you probably have a mixture. It's okay to overseed with another mix scotts turfbuilder type mix - your lawn will look fine.
Almost forgot to include this: 1" mowing is not optimal for most cool-season grass. They can tolerate it, but you're going to get shallow root systems that are more prone to death from drought or diseases. The grass may look fine but I wouldn't risk it.
Also, I see some white shredding on the tips of your grass in picture "grass4" so you might give the mower blades a good sharpening.
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