Wow, I am really a rookie� I have already learned so much just from the questions you asked. Normally, I do little yard work. I cut the grass once a week; I always bag my cut grass and throw it in the trash. I cut the trash on the middle setting and I then I edge around the driveway and then use a weed trimmer to edge everything and keep it tidy looking. I never water, like ever, and I do not have any type of a sprinkler system and I normally just buy the Scott�s fertilizer with crabgrass controller in it. I have a ton of crabgrass as well. I do not put down anything other than that. I usually just watch for my neighbors and when they start to put something down, I do the same, normally just in the spring and fall. The ton of shade is next to the house, and yes on the Northside of the house. It butts up against the house and my porch and goes out about 2 feet. I was thinking about paving the area to extend my porch, but again, I am not planning on being in the house for more than a year and do not want to invest the money. LOL, yeah Indianians does really work to well. We are called Hoosiers. Don�t ask, it doesn�t make sense. I did mention that I have NO idea what to do when it comes to a �healthy� lawn! I can cut grass with the best of them� but that is about where my knowledge runs out.

You see crabgrass already growing now at this time of year in your yard??? OR do you see the dead remnants of the clumps from last year? I would find it hard to believe that crabgrass is already growing in your Bermuda lawn right now. It could be some other cool season grass that resembles crabgrass but doubt seriously it is crabgrass, mostly likely poa annua. See link below. Here is a link that might be useful: Poa annua

Beautiful photos of the Nature Center.

I created a lawn in my last rental/brownstone backyard that I had to spend ages building up the soil and additional ages (especially in high growing season)maintaining. yes, awesome to run around on with your pet or kid and lovely to nap on or walk barefoot across. but given the likely sparseness due to city shade and the difficulty of maintaining with city-friendly push mowers and the mowing effort and all....well i'm planning the yard of my new bare rental yard now and i'm doing my best to figure out how to have a good green social space without a lawn. for that matter i have a quite new electric mower, a scott spreader, and grass shears that will imminently be for sale if anyone is interested (yes i know this isn't a sale space, but it isn't easy to find a good city mower around nyc so mentioning it is a service to us all :>). if you have the time/money/space to deal with a lawn and the related equipment then my basic advice and warnings are as follows: - have (or create) good ORGANIC soil and fertilize in spring and fall - have good sun and not many shallow rooted trees around - prepare to mow twice a week in spring, and water and weed as needed - realize you will need to store a mower (spreader, fertilizer, shears, etc) somewhere in a dry space that may total almost as much square footage as the lawn itself! email me if you want more details... good luck! chris