[paige920]

:confused: I'm new at lawn care. When fertilizing should I use weed and feed? Liquid or granulates? Should the ground be moist before fertilizing? Also, last year my lawn was taken over with Creeping Charlies, mushrooms & crabgrass. How should I go about attacking these pests?

[ballengerb1]

Most granular and many liquid weed and feed won't touch creeping Charlie or active crabgrass. Ortho makes a Chickweed and Creeping Charlie killer that is meant to be an additive to their Weed B Gone liquid. After mixing I apply it with a Hudson pump sprayer. They also make a Crabgrass killer which is sold in a small hand pump sprayer. I go after all of these weeds in a spot kill mode rather than applying to the entire lawn. Both weeds are terribly aggressive and spread quickly. Start killing the grabgrass and avoid any patches going to seed, each plant produces 10,000 seeds. Try Crabgrass preventer next year in March-April.

[bjoy]

I use Monterey Weed & Hoe. The instructions say 1 tablespoon to 1 gallon but I use 3 tablespoons per gallon and it works better. This stuff does not affect the grass, it does not make it yellow it only attacks the weeds. The ground does not need to be moist unless the instructions say - most weed & feed instructions say to water the lawn then apply the granules and don't water for x amount of days. I don't use weed & feed products, I've found they don't attack all the weeds and I find that I have to spend more money on another product to kill the other weeds. Mushrooms are only signs that something under the ground is rotting, probably just a root from an old tree. I have a beautiful green lawn and when I moved in here over 14 years ago the neighbors told me that the lawn was all weeds and the lawn was knee high - not cared for at all. Good luck and happy gardening!
Also, I don't know what area of the country you live in, but here in California we plant a winter lawn. This winter grass prevents any weeds from coming in during spring/summer. Hope this helps.