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When weeds are just everywhere? what's best?

14 years ago

Hello,

I noticed how knowledgeable this site is and I just had to get some advice from here. Basically, I feel that our front and back yard are not looking their best. They are somewhat green, but with weeds. Some are those dandelion type (not many of those), but the other is like small stems with green shrubby ends (like a tree with branches, but all green) very small though. We usually have someone that does the landscaping, but I don't think they know what they are doing. Basically I've been doing the research and TODAY I chose a patch to pull weeds, till the dirt, spread some seeds and water. I just wanted to see how it goes first before I try doing the whole lawn. The thing is I read that some people basically dig up the weeds, fill with top soil, plant seeds and water. I don't feel I can do that because the weeds are literally every 3-5 inches. It'd be a large task to pull up each one individually, fill and plant. I was wondering if there was a more efficient way of doing this. I already spread some weed and feed. I would have to wait about 5 more weeks if I wanted to spread some more. Still that process doesn't seem to be working as fast as I'd hope it would. Are there like treatments I can do to keep the lawn, but healing it back to be grass? Or is it just likely that I would have to destroy the whole yard, get a lot of topsoil, replant the seeds and water for a couple of weeks? Please any help would be appreciated. I'll try to get some pics up, but God it's embarrassing to have to show it. I can't believe it looks the way it looks. So any help would be greatly appreciated.

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Comments (3)

granburyflowergirl
14 years ago
I feel your pain! I am certainly no expert on what works best, but I am dealing with the same situation at my moms house. Last year I did the weed and feed and I think it just made the weeds stronger. This year, I am doing a test area too.

I prepared one area by removing the top 3 inches of dirt and weeds, putting down a couple layers of newspaper, back-filling with sandy loam and compost and topping with pine mulch. After reading various forums for a bit, I realized that removing the top 3 inches was probably a bad idea (not to mention a huge amount of work), so I decided to prepare another section just by putting down newspaper and cardboard right on top of the weeds followed by some topsoil (only because I need to raise the area a little), and pine mulch. Now I am just waiting for my grass plugs to come in.

At my house we have an amazing lawn of St Augustine which is watered daily by our aerobic system; we started over-seeding with rye in the winters and have not had weeds since. I know my mom wont water grass, so I am trying out Turfallo Tech Turf which supposedly does not require watering or even moving once established.

Good luck! I will be interested to know what you end up doing and how it works, I have 6000 square feet of weeds left to work with!
granburyflowergirl
14 years ago
Sorry I bumped you down without an answer...maybe this will bump you back up!
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Well, it's been a year and I took a week end and just tore up the first 6 inches of soil and sifted it by hand. All spring I have been digging and pulling. If I see a shoot come up I do not stop digging until I find the root that supplied it. While I was at it I pulled the crab grass as well, but it is more prevalent than the Mugwort, "Artemisia vulgaris". I tried to sell the neighbor on taking it as it was used to brew beer before there were hops. He is not interested. A few years ago I did get it all out of one small bed even though it was firmly tangled in a root ball of a bush. I do believe that is where it all started from, the bushes planted by the builders landscaper. How better to get rid of a weed tangled bush?
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dchall_san_antonio
14 years ago
What kind of grass do you have?

Where in Texas are you?

Is the grass area used to play on or with pets? Or is it just for looking green?

Shade?

In southern lawns you have to get the broadleafed weeds out manually or with a spray. Weed-n-feed is a waste of time, money, and energy - as you learned the hard way. Too bad you did not ask your questions when you first noticed the weeds.

Tilling the soil brings up new weed seeds so that usually doesn't help. Adding topsoil when you don't need to correct drainage issues is a poor thing to do.

Forget about the weed-n-feed being effective on the weeds. About all you can hope for it that it will fertilize the grass. If your grass is already growing and you have mowed it two times, then it might work for you. Otherwise wait until you have mowed real grass for the second time. Then you can fertilize with some confidence that it will work for you. If you have St Augustine then set your mower at the highest setting to mow. If you have bermuda set it at the lowest setting to mow.

Once you have the grass growing nicely, then you can use a spray like Weed-B-Gone to spot spray individual weeds. Any bare spots left by the dead weeds will fill in from either bermuda or St Augustine.

Also don't water daily like granburyflowergirl. There are anumber of reasons why not but without making this any longer, water when the grass needs is. In the heat of summer that will be more frequently than the rest of the year. When you do water, water a full inch at a time. Measure and time an inch of water using a tuna or cat food can. The next week you can water for that same amount of time.

For granburyflowergirl, Tech Turf is a great buffalo variety. While it will survive with no water, if you want it to look nice, it needs as much water as any other grass. It also develops seed heads that some people find unattractive, so mowing is usually done weekly. You can mow it at any height from lowest to highest setting on your mower.

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