I live in Humble.....and while I'm not an expert I have always cared for my own yard including mow, etc. My yard ain't perfect but it's pretty darn good and neighbors regularly ask what I do for it. here's my advice:
1) the best weed preventer is a good, thick lawn....to help with this in summer cut it HIGHER. This makes best use of water and keeps soil moist to allow roots to grow and grass to spread easier
2) you must fertilize 3-4x per year. In summer a great fertilizer is an organic one b/c it won't burn. I've found the organics to really make my yard boom during the most stressful part of the year for grass
3) pre-emerge 4x per year. Like other poster said I put Barricade granules down March, June, September, and December
4) weeds such as nutsedge and crabgrass are REALLY difficult. To get them under control it is best to apply specific treatments for them and usually you have to reapply. For Nutsedge I have found the Ortho Nutsedge Killer from big box stores to be effective. You must hit the sedge and then about 4 weeks later hit it again. Do NOT do this when it's 90+ outside. Another product to use is SedgeHammer that is available at smaller garden centers and is more expensive. I've had equal success with this product. For Crabgrass I found Crabgrass Killer at boutique garden center and it works awesome. It's a powder and smells like cinammon. This can easily burn your grass so its best for spot treatment. You have to wet the grass to get this product to stick and activate. The best thing is to fluff up the crabgrass and put a paper towel under it. Spray it with water that includes a bonding agent. Sprinkle the crabgrass killer on and then mist with the water spray again to activate. Crabrass will show signs of dying in 24-48 hours. This also works well on Virginia Buttonweed.
5) Always use a bonding agent when applying liquid treatments. You can use dawn dish soap or you can buy spreader sticker from Hi Yield (again likely only available at gaden centers). A little of this goes a long ways!!
