Dr. Grow: Lawn care low down: Get the answers to your questions about when to apply fertilizer, how to rid your lawn of dandelions and when to reseed

If you are unfamiliar with lawn care chemicals, you will probably be overwhelmed if you walk into a garden center and start looking at all the chemicals and fertilizers that are on the shelf. There are chemicals for crabgrass control before crabgrass germinates, some for after it germinates. There are fertilizers to be used during winter months, during early spring and different ones to be used when seeding. You will also find different chemicals to kill dandelions, wild violets, nutsedge, etc.

Which chemical or fertilizer do you use now? Which do you use in the late spring, in the summer and in the fall? Do you have to use all of the chemicals or can you omit some of them? In order to make your lawn care life a little easier, I am going to give you a sample program to use. This program will address 90 percent of your lawn care needs on an established, cool season lawn.

In early spring, you want to apply a crabgrass pre-emergent plus a good lawn fertilizer to your existing cool season lawn. Make sure that the crabgrass control has a half-life of 90 to 120 days, such as Team and Barricade. There are other satisfactory ones on the market. Secondly, you want to make sure that the fertilizer is similar to a 20-3-3. Normally you want to apply these products before the end of March. Because of our very cool spring, this year you can probably use these products until the April 10.

I would also apply, in liquid form, trimec to your lawn at this time. It will kill chickweed, henbet, dandelions, wild garlic, and plantain without harming lawn grasses. A granular form of the product will control dandelions very effectively, will do an OK job on henbet and chickweed, but will do a poor job on wild garlic.

If you have made the first application at the proper time, then apply a booster crabgrass control application about six to eight weeks after the first application. Because we have such a long season for crabgrass germination, a booster is required to get season long control. I know several companies suggest that one application is all that is needed with their herbicide. Don't believe them. In this region, two applications are needed.

During the summer you may want to apply a light application of fertilizer. Use either a product such as Milogranite or a 16-4-8. Make sure that the nitrogen source is a slow release product.

In the early fall I recommend that you use a fertilizer such as 25-4-4 with trimec. This will get your cool season lawn off to a good start during the fall growth period. By having trimec in the fertilizer you can kill some of the broadleaf weeds that germinated during the summer. By killing them in the fall, they won't plague you the following spring.

Finally during October or November, make an application of a winterizer fertilizer such as a 10-5-14. This enhances good root growth throughout the fall and early winter. A good root system equals a good turfgrass stand.

I have now given you a basic program of fertilizer and weed control for your established cool season lawn. If you follow this program consistently then you will have pretty nice lawn. If you start skipping steps, or if you alternate years on the program, then the results will not be satisfactory.

I know that there are a lot of exceptions to the program I have outlined above. For example, sometimes a lawn needs to be seeded. Do this in the early fall and use a new lawn starter fertilizer with the seed. After the seed has germinated, and you have mowed it once or twice, then use the fertilizer plus trimec. Six to eight weeks after this treatment, then apply winterizer.

If you must seed your lawn in the spring for some reason, then apply a different pre-emergent herbicide like tupersan. It will allow grass seed to germinate and will kill crabgrass seed.

If you have wild violets in your lawn, apply trichlopyr to them. Unfortunately, trichlopyr works very well on violets but won't touch dandelions.

There are several other problems or situations that may require variation from the program that I have outlined. If you have questions about how to handle these exceptions then contact someone at your local garden center. They should know the chemicals that they sell. If they don't know what chemicals to use, find another garden center to go to.