Sounds encouraging. I'd read some mixed reports on the effectiveness of 2,4-D (alone) against Ajuga, but (possibly) better results with a 3-way product, which Killex is (2,4-D, Mecoprop-P, Dicamba) http://forums2.gardenweb.com/forums/load/lawns/msg0918365630041.html http://www.lawnsite.com/showthread.php?t=276043 So, it will be interesting to see your results. Yes, you are right Killex is available (at Canadian Tire), but only in British Columbia, Alberta & Manitoba. You are in BC, right? I'm in QC...sigh. Kind of farcical really, this provincial herbicide 'ban', when commercial lawn care companies can readily get the stuff (and political parties also). At least a third of the residents on my estate have their lawns sprayed....whether they really need it or not. I reckon the previous owner of my house was one and that chemical-dependency was at least part of the reason for my lawn problems....all those dormant seeds. That's my excuse anyway. Anyhow, I'll persist with the Roundup (no other choice now). Whilst slow (it's been about 2 1/2 weeks) it does appear to be working. Probably would have been quicker if I'd sprayed affected areas, rather than leaf-painted, from the start. Seems kind of counter-intuitive to water the weeds, but keeping the treated areas moist definitely helps. So, at the current rate of progress I'm still hoping that I'll be able to over-seed by mid-September. The thing that concerns me though is the sheer number and variety of weeds that are still coming up. Sure, the best natural weed-defense is a thick turf, but I'm beginning to think that I really do need to tackle at least the perennial broad-leafs, and if possible the dense carpets of crabgrass, which are now starting to turn to seed. The white clover that is taking over some areas I can live with. In fact I'm not averse to the idea of a mixed grass-clover lawn, though I can't speak for the neighbors. But the black medic (yellow trefoil) that is prevalent on my front lawn is less desirable. As someone commented on another forum - organic living is all well and good but sometimes you need a prescription from the doctor. I have inquired whether one the lawn-care firms (the one that acknowledged they use herbicides) might do a one-off spray, but they are only interested in offering a 'full year' maintenance plan. There's no way I could manually pull all of this stuff, as adept as I am with a Weed-Hound, and a lot of it is now partially obscured by crabgrass and clover/black medic. So, I guess I could try the available iron-based Weed-B-Gon, several neighbors look like they are having some success, at least with spot sprayed dandelions, but I think I'd need a bit more than spot treatment. Or else see if I can get hold of some Killex (might come back you). The big question then is how much treatment at this stage would put back fall over-seeding (killing time plus soil residual to consider). Don't really want to wait until Spring, as I'd like to try and get an early start with a pre-emergent then. What to do? This post was edited by WorBry on Tue, Aug 20, 13 at 14:11

I wouldn't recommend that as the minimum temperature for poultry is 165°. You'll get worms*. :-) The point is that plants are fairly heat tolerant--they regularly deal with surface air temperatures in excess of 100 degrees and do it pretty easily. Surface soil temperatures can ride hotter than that for short periods of time and the plant manages. Seeds are even more durable. Some require 160° for a full day before they're assured dead. And even then there can be surprises. Wet soil is a great heat sink, but has enough mass and absorbs enough heat that you have to apply an enormous amount to get a significant amount of the mass to rise high enough to kill root systems. That's the reason that solarization is done over fairly long periods of time. Plus as tap roots re-sprout into the heat zone, the new sprouts are constantly killed until the root is tapped. * We're six months off the proper season for that, but still.

Where do you live? There is a reason you should seed in the fall and you nailed it. You now have a full crabgrass lawn. Overseeding would be difficult. Joe has the right idea. Nuke it all and start over at the right time of year. Your location will determine when to start this. If you are in the UP of Michigan, then start now. If you are in Georgia, then wait a month. The idea behind early seeding in the fall is to get the grass up and growing in time to evaluate it and see if you need to overseed the new seed to make it more dense. Then by next summer the roots will have hardened off and the grass should be considered to be mature. What kind of grass do you want? Is there shade in the area?

Talked to the manager this morning, and he said it was probably an act of spite because he chewed them out about not ever trimming or edging behind my building. They did the same thing to the small bed in front of his building when he chewed them out about not trimming it for weeks. He did confirm that they use the professional strength stuff that lasts a year, so that area is out for planting my sweet potatoes next year. I can't plant anything tender or edible up there for at least a year, so I have no choice but to rethink everything. Silvia, yeah, I had sort of planned to do a rip-out and redo of all the gardens this winter anyway. It's a huge experiment most years, and I can see that I've made some mistakes that need to be remedies. So far, it looks like the brugs I dug up are going to make it, but that leaves me with no place to put them now. Definitely need a complete redo. Pea, These idiots weed-whacked my border grass on one end of the garden, and now they've sprayed roundup down there, so I don't know if it's going to live or die. I had a BF once who wanted to "help" me in the yard with weeding. He pulled up an entire orange jasmine bush by the roots! It was over a foot tall, and I had just told him not to pull anything but grass. I later found out he would do stupid stuff like that so he didn't have to do yard work anymore. Yeah, he's an "ex," and the one who made me give up on men entirely.