How do you feed a lawn and kill weeds in one step?

Answer 1

There are very fine "weed and feed" products on the market and available at most nursery, home stores, and retail outlets that would suit your "one step" purpose. I use them every year on my lawn and they work very well. 2nd Answer; (the above answer is correct but does not give detail) (1) USE A CALIBRATED SPREADER. {Too Much/Too Little = Poor/ineffective application} Purchase a Model that is MATED / MATCHED to the WEED & FEED granular PRODUCT. (Its not a commercial statement) The Radial ("Broadcast") type Fretilizer Spreader is good, and economical. Walk at steady pace; Radial type spreaders are easier to pace. The Axial ("Drop") type is better. The Spread is neatly controlled. (2) DO NOT UNDER-APPLY; USE THE CORRECT AMOUNT FOR Sq Footage (100 Sq.Feet= 92 Sq.Meters, 10,000 Sq.Ft is a big front and back Lawn) 30Lbs (~13kg) per 10,000 Sq.Ft (920 Sq.Meters) [varies by product, just an example] (3) USE THE WET or DRY PRODUCT IF POSSIBLE, APPLY DRY JUST BEFORE FORECAST RAIN NEXT DAY (works for me), WATCH THE SPREADER COVERAGE (i.e. 5FT RADIAL (BROADCAST) means rolling to the 3FT mark at the Lawn edges and no closer) [Avoid the Flower beds if possible, hand spread with gloves in those areas] (4) WEAR LONG OLD PANTS, OLD SOCKS, OLD SHOES; the stuff is meant to stick/adhere to vegetation which messes up clothing a bit. Old gloves are a good idea as well. (5) There are seasonal product variations; read the bag. Weed and Feed seems to work within 3 weeks but its like hair color product application; its a regime and you should stick to regular schedule to see the results. Onetime application will work 2-4 weeks from now and then crabGrass and other Dandelions will sneek back onto your lawn...eventually (6) Spreader costs $25-40, W&F bag costs $10-25 about 2-3 times more effective than Hose Attachment Sprayer Application except that spread control and regiment/schedule are important with solid granular product spreading technique. We are applying $45 in 3x 28Lb bags per summer because I found same product in bulk at Cosco/PricClub and its as pretty as a Golf green; MAYBE 3 Sq. Ft of crabgrass nearest Neighbors 'who-just-dont-care'. (7) Aeration of lawn under a certain size is only for very tightly packed soil. Perhaps only 5-10% of all lawns actually need aeration (laymans guess), the rest are "sod-developed" and were already structured for penetration of fertilizer and weed kill. For W&F fertilizer, the product should stick to the surface to kill weeds over time; the risk with early penetration is that product exposure is too brief; and the product sinks deeper than necessary on an overly "porous" lawn. {picky lawn owner, spare-time Golf short-Putt practitioner}