I'm not very good at weed ID, but that looks like crabgrass.

That looks a lot like a Vanilla Sweet Grass. It can be a very invasive grass and will grow long and seed. Use a weed-b-gon spray (kills weeds, not lawns). Probably came from a neighbor who planted it thinking it was a clumping grass. (Very much like I did 3 years ago.)

I've never quite understood how an herbicide could kill monocots (grasses) and not effect Kentucky Blue Grass. A perennial should have just as much of a chance as the KBG in standing up to a chemical - but, I don't suppose that kind of thinking isn't really rational.

If it is crabgrass, Sorie, it is an annual grass. The seeds have germinated not all that long ago and the grass is now becoming apparent.

I have little problem with this grass in my lawn - and, there's no shortage of broadleaf lawn violets and such in with a very old planting of more desirable lawn grasses. Where it does turn up is in the garden and in beds. How the seeds get there, I don't really know. I blame the sparrows but then, I blame a lot of things on the birds.

The most important thing I can do to limit it in cultivated ground is to pull it before it flowers and ets seed. It doesn't have much of a chance in the lawn because the other plants limit annuals. I help them with that by mowing at a higher setting than some others do.

Where I see crabgrass in lawns is where the lawn is clipped very close to the ground. I have a neighbor who does that but he also seldom runs a sprinkler . . . like, next to never. So, his lawn grows next to nothing except a little black medic and knot weed.

He also beats the tar out of his lawn mower since the ground is far from perfectly level. With all the chaos and flying dirt and gravel from shearing off the high points, he seems to be satisfied that he appears to be "gettin 'er dun" while only showing up out there about every 2++ weeks. I've noticed that he has a new lawn mower over there about every other year . . .

I have another neighbor who has an outrageous KBG lawn! Water runs there, nightly. However, she also only shows up with her riding lawnmower about every 2 weeks.

The mower must be set very high - still, she makes windrows! It takes a lawn tractor to mow it - she isn't very big and she'd never, ever be able to push a mower thru that stuff by hand!

The lawn tractor makes a terrible mess. Sometimes, she can't get back out there to rake. Two weeks later she again plows thru that mass of green growing grass, yellow grass under the still present windrows, dead lawn clippings, and composting KBG!

Something looks like it has been accomplished out there because there are changes in color patterns and the windrows are relocated. The sprinklers come back on and life continues as normal. But I'll tell you what -- no weed would dare to encroach on that lawn!

Steve

I mow at the highest my mower will go. The sprinkler (shut off now) runs 3x a week at 15-20 min per station. My grass has never been as thick as it is now!! Hope I can keep it that way. I've been pulling it up, comes up easy in the wet ground but way to much to do by hand.
Most of my neighbors have weeds in their lawns but who doesn't? Some are taking better care than in yr. past. I'll just keep pulling and spray if it ever quits raining. thanks.

Sorie,

What does it look like when you pull it?

Are there rhizomes?

Steve

There is a special herbicide that kills only the crabgrss. My neighbor had crabgrass so bad, I volunteered to spray hers since I didn't want it starting in my crabgrass free front lawn.

We had some in our backyard and in the spring we would use halts which prevents any seeds from germinating. If you have it as bad as it sounds, you may want to go that route unless you want to be spending all next summer battling it out.

I've never figured out what it's called, Sorie, but I have an annual weed grass that comes up in my backyard that looks like that. When you said that it's easy to pull out, I'm guessing that it's a seedling with a small root system, is that right? If it's what I have, it comes up PROLIFICALLY in areas where the grass is sparse! A couple years after I moved in here, there was a spot in the lawn where the KBG was really struggling, and this stuff started to blanket the area! It made it look nice and green, but when I realized what I had going on out there I spent a whole bunch of quiet evenings sitting out there pulling them out, one by one! I kept that up for the next couple years, while dumping dishwashing soap water (cheap Revive!) on that area, and the "real" grass has come back in well and I don't get much of the weed grass anymore--and I continue to pull out the ones that DO come up. With all this recent rain, I noticed that some of it was coming up even in spots where the grass is now thick, and as soon as it dries out enough for the mosquitoes to "dissipate," I'll be out there pulling them out! That stuff goes to seed quickly, and produces millions of seeds! If it's the same thing I have, it's NASTY!

I also have a big patch of something that looks kind of like that in my front yard, but the stuff out there is perennial, and "travels" by rhizomes! That, too, thrives on neglect, and once I figured that out, I started to keep that spot well watered, and the bad stuff is receding as the KBG pushes it out. I'm hoping, some day, to get rid of it all the way.

If what you have is actually a monocot/grass, Weed-B-Gon won't kill it! It only kills dicots. I use Weed-B-Gon to kill the bad things in my grass, and I VERY much wish it would kill the two nasty grasses I have! Oh, how I wish!

Watch what you have, and if it starts to produce seed in the next few weeks, I very strongly recommend that you pull out as much as you can. Cutting short won't help, if it's what I have. The seed stems simply start to grow very laterally, and almost invisibly, when it's threatened!

I hope it's not the same thing I have in the backyard--but it sure looks like it!

Skybird

Here is a link that might be useful: Monocots and Dicots!