skip to main content

Help! Overrun by weeds

17 years ago

I fertilized my lawn in early spring with Scott's Turf Builder Plus weed control and my lawn was dead less than a month later. Brown, Dead. I put on two small bags for about 8,000 sq. ft. of lawn. Didn't seem like too much, and I watered it a lot after applying the fertilizer as well. Not sure what happened. Anyway, in June we went on a two week vacation and when we came back we had weeds upon weeds and now the yard is just thickly overrun by weeds. I want to plant new grass, but I don't know how to go about it. Can I just reseed grass over the weeds with a seeder slicer? Do I have to kill everything that is currently growing and till it up and then reseed? I am really lost, but I know that fall is the time to do something. Anyone have any advice for me? Thanks.

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (5)

bestlawn
17 years ago
What type of grass do you have?
0
Billl
17 years ago
If it is mostly a weedy mess, you are best off killing everything and starting over. Roundup is the way to go for that task. Spray it all, wait a week, spray anything green, wait a week. Cut it as short as possible and rake up the debris. After that, you can seed, fertilize and water,water,water. If you start the process in 2 weeks or so, you will be ready to reseed at the end of august.
0
Related Discussions
Getting overrun and losing the weed war
Q
Comments (5)
Post emergent hebicides for st.augustine, Atrazine gets some broadleaf weeds and most annual grasses, Image or Manage for sedges, and 2,4D amine, dicamba,mcpp many broad leaves, dandelion and plantain. Going forward I would cut the water back during the late fall/winter. This looks like a overwatered lawn to me. I would also look into the use of a pre emergent herbicide. Mowing height should be at 3" and if you have not fertilized yet this spring it's probably time to start.
...See More
Overrun with weeds after Armyworm invasion...
Q
Comments (9)
Are the worms gone? That's job one. Kill them. Chemical means. Bacillus thuringiensis. Whatever. Kentucky? How much more growing season do you have left? I think it should recover just fine. Maybe not look totally 100% by the end of the season, but I doubt it is any more stressed than if it were scalped with a mower, and we all know Bermuda can survive that. That's basically what they did. They scalped all the green leaves. Since it sounds that watering isn't a problem, I'd fertilize to help it out. Maybe raise the mower cutting height. Do whatever you can to help it get some leaf surface back.
...See More
Garden overrun with weeds (clover)
Q
Comments (2)
That bed is really very small and reaching for the herbicides seems rather like overkill to me. Do you have a small hand fork? In 30 minutes you could dig over the whole bed and remove any weeds by hand. Just pulling is not very effective. You need to get under the weed with your little fork so the roots come up in their entirety. I'm also wondering if you have Oxalis rather than clover. Could be Oxalis leaves in between the pavers. Here is a link that might be useful: Weeding fork
...See More
Lawn overrun with weeds
Q
Comments (1)
Where do you live? What kind of grass do you have? What kind of weeds do you have? Do they look like grasses or like leafy plants? If the recommended herbicide costs $100 per gallon, is that a problem?
...See More
Related Professionals
Hyattsville Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Suffern Landscape Architects & Landscape Designers · Berkley Landscape Contractors · Cicero Landscape Contractors · Edwardsville Landscape Contractors · Harvey Landscape Contractors · North Lauderdale Landscape Contractors · Petaluma Landscape Contractors · Pleasant Grove Landscape Contractors · Pleasant Prairie Landscape Contractors · Roseville Landscape Contractors · Seven Hills Landscape Contractors · South Lake Tahoe Landscape Contractors · St. Louis Landscape Contractors · Grand Rapids Swimming Pool Builders
wamegoyard
Original Author
17 years ago
Bestlawn,

I'm not sure what kind of grass it is/was. My father-in-law thinks it's fescue with some weeds mixed in. I have to mow it at least once a week it grows so fast and tall and thick.

Billl,

If I kill it all off now, will it start growing again if I wait until late September to seed/fertilize? If I do like you said, once I rake it all up can I use a seeder slicer to put down the seed? What kind of fertilizer do you suggest? I've also seen posts of people using Nitron A35 as well.

Thanks guys.
0
bestlawn
17 years ago
This site can help you identify the grass. You want to examine the leaf blades very closely. Or take samples with roots to your nearest K-State Cooperative Extension Service. They can identify the grass type for you. You need to know what type to grow.
0
Billl
17 years ago
Don't bother killing anything until 2 weeks before you are ready to reseed. If you do, you just give more weeds a chance to start growing and you'll have to do it again.

A slit seeder would be fine. If the areas isn't too large, you could get away with a good raking to break up the top layer of soil. Otherwise a slit seeder or aerator works well.

Fertilizer is up to you - prefer organics. If you go with an organic, apply it when you start killing weeds because they take a couple of weeks to do their stuff. If you use a synthetic (scotts etc) get the one labeled as "starter" fertilizer. Use that when you seed and follow up with a standard lawn fertilizer (no weed killer though) about 4 weeks after the grass starts growing.

For Nitron - mostly I think it is snake oil. It is a surficant, so it lets water penetrate the soil more easily. That is certainly a good thing, but baby shampoo or dish soap will do the same thing. If your soil is compacted though, I would recommend aerating over any of the liquid aerators. Since you are redoing the lawn anyway, you can run the aerator over the whole thing a bunch of times and tear it all up without worrying about it looking bad.
0

Related Stories

EDIBLE GARDENS Natural Ways to Get Rid of Weeds in Your Garden

By Abundant City

Use these techniques to help prevent the spread of weeds and to learn about your soil

FLOWERS AND PLANTS Help Monarchs and Other Butterflies by Planting Common Milkweed

By Pollination Press LLC

Summer-blooming Asclepias syriaca is an important larval host plant for the monarch butterfly and attracts a number of pollinating insects

GARDENING GUIDES 12 Tips to Help You Start an Edible Garden

By Abundant City

Get on your way to growing your own vegetables with a raised bed or a few containers on the patio

GARDENING GUIDES 5 Weed-Smothering Ground Covers

Let these landscape plants do the dirty work of choking out weeds while you sit back and enjoy the view

GARDENING GUIDES Let's Weed Out 4 Native Plant Myths

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Plant wisely for a garden that supports pollinators and requires less work

GARDENING GUIDES 5 Ways to Naturally Win the Weed War

By Jocelyn H. Chilvers

Show irksome weeds no mercy with these tricks for combating them sans chemicals

GARDENING GUIDES 5 Things to Know About Weeding and Mulching Your Native Garden

By Oakley Gardens

What’s the best time to pull weeds? How thick should the mulch be? Here’s the scoop for a healthy landscape

GARDENING GUIDES Tackle Weeds the Natural Way

By Jocelyn H. Chilvers

Instead of dousing your yard with chemicals to wipe out weeds, let time and nature work their magic via smothering and solarization

GARDENING GUIDES Great Design Plant: Bugle Weed, a Quick Ground Cover

It’s highly adaptable, suppresses weeds, reduces erosion and provide weeks of bright flowers. Just watch for invasiveness

GARDENING GUIDES What’s in a Name? See 6 Wildflowers That Aren’t ‘Weeds’ at All

By Benjamin Vogt / Monarch Gardens

Dispel the stereotypes of weeds and try these wildlife-supporting native wildflowers in your garden

Sponsored

More Discussions

What is making these holes in the soil?

1

Lawn reno timeline advice

2

Something is pulling up chucks of grass and folding them over

2

How to kill saplings? Need a stumpkiller!

4

Help - Lawn is brown and expanding

1