I go back & forth about this lawn weed. This time of year with the small yellow flowers & small foliage I don't mind it. Once the larger leaves come & it reseeds into my flower beds I don't like it as much. When I've converted parts of the lawn to flowerbeds buttercup is the most persistent weed around the edges pushing up through any possible gap in the cardboard smother layer. For that reason I pull it whenever possible, but don't use any chemicals to get rid of it in the lawn. What I don't like about the weeds in the lawn is the way it interferes with playing bocce ball or croquet. A smooth turf without these larger leaved weeds would improve my chances of beating my opponents. Just today sat on the lawn pulling buttercup & its new runners, plantain, & another creeping spreader with purple flowers called Prunella vulgaris. One weed led to another until I had crept along for a few hours pulling up a huge amount of weeds that had basically woven themselves through the turf. Hundreds remain, so it might be a losing battle, but I feel triumphant and just may have a chance of beating my son at a game. Anyone have this weed in their lawn? Here is a link that might be useful:

Foliage always looks bad this time of year but cutting it "all the way" back would deprive the plant of the ability to manufacture food. The wet conditions may have encourage iris leaf spot. Not to worry. Some years it's prevalent and others not. Dividing may be done up to 6 weeks before your first frost date. The leaves are cut back by 1/2 to prevent tip-over. So if you don't have the time to divide this year, cutting the foliage by 1/2 should be ok.

Check out the thread linked below for a really long discussion on this issue. It has pics of a comparison study going on between heavily pruned plants vs. normally pruned plants. Should answer all your questions. ;) Dave Here is a link that might be useful: Organic tomato magic thread...

What can happen is the various alkaline minerals (calcium and the like) in the soil can build up. Citrus, like most plants, prefer slightly acidic soil, it's possible that over time your soil has become alkaline. Evaporation and the like, such as with a dehumidifier filter. If you have PH test strips (like those sold for pools) you can measure the runoff water and see how alkaline/acidic it is Assuming the run-off water is alkaline, this is making the assuming that minerals *have* built up in your soil to make it such, you might need to neutralize the alkaline material or 'flush' it out. Watering with distilled water (or rain water, or really any water low in mineral content) could help too, so long as the minerals are able to redissolve back into the water. My citrus has had problems with some salt build-up in its pot, started dropping leaves. Pictures looked like others who said they had nutrient deficiencies and I had salt build up on the trunk too. I do *not* have rainwater available (balcony has a roof, I use saucers to catch the run-off because: balcony) so I did the next best thing: ran several gallons of water through the pot which I made slightly acidic using a wee bit of vinegar. I then ran several more gallons of regular plain tap water through the pot to make sure I had not made the soil too acidic. When I measured the run-off PH it was quite a bit below 6. Previously when I had issues with leaf drop and nutrient deficiencies earlier in the year I used slightly acidic water for a couple weeks when watering and it sprung forth with new growth. Perhaps this might give you an idea of what you can do (assuming it *is* PH and salt build up related!). Of course please post pictures so those who know more than I can help you with the micronutrient deficiency issue, I choose not speak to that. I don't feel I know enough. All this will do will allow nutrient uptake assuming either the PH of the medium got out of whack or you had salt/mineral build up which prevented nutrient uptake. Edit: Added caution about making sure the soil medium was not too acidic. Slightly reworded the 3rd and 4th paragraph for clarity. Clarified what the procedure could correct.