rip my lawn... hello virginia buttonweed

16 years ago

Since all of this rain (Houston), my lawn has become INFESTED with virginia buttonweed. In a paniced effort to stop it, my poor husband used Weed Beater Ultra on all the patches in our front yard. Well, all that has done is killed our beautiful St. Augustine. The VirgButton wilted and came straight back.

I went to Buchanan's this weekend (my fav neighborhood nursery) and the owner suggested Image.

She said we have to wait until temps are below 85 to use it thought.

Until then, she highly suggested ripping out all of the weed we can find. Even if it leaves huge holes in the yard.

She said to rip out all visible VirgButton, when the temps drop, spray with the Image, keep checking for re-emerging VB, rip it up and respray the spot.

Then re-sod in the spring.

So, so far we have spend three hours pulling it up and only succeeded in making three two foot square bare patches.

Here are my questions.

1st: my lawn looks like a war zone (i feel like it is one too). Is there a better way to pull this stuff up than by hand? Should we just use a shovel and try to cut out the big sections and then hand pull the small ones?

2nd: when is the soonest safe time to spray the Image? I'm in Houton and temps are always insane. You could have a 90 degree day in November...

3rd: Is it even worth going through all this if my neighbors aren't treating their yards as well? Will i have to do this every year? Should i just give up and have a virginia buttonweed lawn!? please say no.

and

4th: has anyone gone this route (or any other) and had success? Please share your story with me.

Thank you,

Charlesanne

p.s. my neighbors are now slowing down and staring when they go past my yard. :(

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (7)

rick_mcdaniel
16 years ago
Texas weeds are almost impossible to get rid of. Is is almost a continuous process, and the really tough ones never go away completely.
carolann_z8
16 years ago
Charlesanne, I have the same weed and it has taken over my yard. I was just getting my St. Augustine to fill back in after the drought and then this weed is covering over my grass. It doesn't look that bad but I don't want it to kill my grass.

Good luck, Carol
Related Discussions
weed in m my lawn photo
Q
Comments (9)
Most people call any grassy weed "crabgrass." There are a ton of grassy weeds that look relatively similar and it is pretty hard to tell them apart. By the fleshy appearance of the leaves, I'd be 99% certain it is an annual grassy weed. Beyond that, who knows. If you are an organic gardener, an exact ID doesn't really matter though. You can either pull it up or let the cold kill it. Personally, I would pull it now and sprinkle a bit of seed in the disturbed soil. In "problem" areas, you might need to double up with the preemergent for a year or 2 until the lawn is established. Treat in spring and again in early summer. Organic preemergents don't last that long, so a treatment later in the season will help keep those summer weeds away. A mature lawn will be much better at keeping weeds out than a newly seeded lawn. It just takes 2-3 years to get to that point though. You'll probably have to battle weeds in this area for another year or 2 before they settle down. After that, you can treat it like you do the rest of the lawn and it should be fine.
...See More
Dealing with sedges & buttonweed in remediating a lawn?
Q
Comments (2)
My neighbor has that stuff growing on his side of my driveway. I thought it was a weird nutgrass but after looking at the pictures on Wikipedia, it is definitely kyllinga. That area has been dug up several times since we lived there, so who knows where that soil came from. I used to maintain that as St Augustine and the weeds were not evident. I might have to try that again. I don't have problems with nutgrass like others in the area. I believe my success is due to infrequent watering. Nutgrass, also a sedge, likes to live in wetlands. You might not have as much control over the moisture in Houston, but I can go for weeks without watering because I water so deeply. The other stuff looks serious as a weed that will choke out St Aug as fast as it can spread. Have you tried spraying it with strong vinegar on a hot, sunny day? I would start with that. Call around to garden stores and ask about 20% vinegar. The danger of using such strong vinegar is inhaling it or splashing it into your eyes. Inhaling it is not that much of a problem because it smells so very strong. Splashing it in your eyes will cause blindness for at least a few months. If that fails to kill the weed, get ready to lie around in the grass pulling it out. You'll probably have to get the roots. If you use vinegar, any overspray will kill the St Aug, too, but if you kill all the weed, you can let the grass grow in at your leisure.
...See More
My sad, sad lawn....and my plan...please advise..
Q
Comments (5)
I had a pretty sad law 1.5 years ago when I bought this house. I really knew how bad when the HOA sent me a "love note", "fix the bad areas now". Actually, the worse was the strip of lawn between the sidewalk and street. I ripped up that area and dumped 4 bags of black cow, then some alfalfa pellets, spread it out, water, then put down Lowes sod. It is really a vibrant dark, thick green this year!. That black cow is a bit expensive 4.90 per bag, but it seemed to work well. - Mowing at a higher setting really helps the weed control and my lawn looks better. - I put down CGM a month ago, which might had been a bit early but from what I read. It takes a few years for it to really help with weed control. I bought it off the web, 68 dollars for 60 lbs. Can't find it locally. - Tomorrow I will get soy-bean-meal (50lbs for 18 dollars) and put it down next week. - I did get some fungus in one area that does not get a lot of light and used corn meal to control it. Results were mixed but that area is finally growing back. Organic seems to be not so difficult so I'm going to try and stick with it for at least 5 years. The alfalfa is easy to get, but I have to order the SBM. The CGM is the most difficult to get here in FL. Good Luck!
...See More
Dried worm/ants in lawn
Q
Comments (5)
You are correct that it shouldn't be there. The reason it is not there in other bermuda lawns is that those owners are willing to spot spray the weeds with herbicides like Weed-b-Gon and Weed-b-Gon Chickweed, Clover, and Oxalis Killer. It is interesting that you are not willing to spray herbicide but you are willing to spray insecticide. Of the two, I think herbicide causes less damage happens to the immediate lawn. There are thousands of species of beneficial microscopic insects in the soil which would be negatively affected by the insecticide. As for your macro sized insects, they would not be affecting a bermuda lawn until you had a more fully established lawn. Most creatures need a sufficient quantity of food before they will move in and populate enough to cause damage. There is an organic way to take care of most insects which you might not have heard about. They are called 'beneficial nematodes.' These are not plant eating nematodes. These little guys carry a disease that is deadly to insects. They are also very tiny and can crawl into a host insect. As they do they deposit the disease organisms, lay eggs, and the hatched larvae feed on the dead insect carcass. As they exit the carcass, they pick up the disease organisms and make their way to a new host. Call your local nurseries to see if they carry them. They should be refrigerated and have a shelf life of only two weeks, so be ready to use them as soon as you get them home. They spray from a hose end sprayer.
...See More
charlesanne
Original Author
16 years ago
Well, the steps that I posted seem to be the only course of action.
Ugh, I am not looking forward to all the pulling of weeds i have in my future.
MrsBox77
16 years ago
Miss Charlesanne.....
If you are one of the anti-chemical/anti-grass catcher/anti-lawn people....as Tony Soprano would say...FUGATABOUTIT.................your lawn is toast.

If you would like to keep your lawn, and make it beautiful, email me at apriljbox@hotmail.com. I would help you on here, but.....I can't take the heat from the anti-lawn/anti-chemical people on this forum anymore. But I would love to help you...my lawn is gorgeous...and I am a lawn person.
pjtexgirl
16 years ago
Im an anti lawn person. Mrs Box probably wants to bop me on the head. Anyway,the lawns that have the most weeds are cut too short. If you keep the grass 3-4 inches tall it will choke out the weeds. See, I'm trying to replace the lawn with native ground cover (aka weeds) but I keep cutting it long and the grass is always winning out!!! I have got to lower the blade on my ride along. I don't know how and I'm intimidated. PJ
charlesanne
Original Author
16 years ago
Yes, we already mow very long, the longest our mower allows. I like that look much better than a scalped lawn, and it takes so much less water.
We haven't watered our yard once since we bought the house. In fact I am convinced that it was this rain that let the buttonweed go out of control.
beachplant
16 years ago
I don't have grass. I'm one of those anti-chemical, anti-lawn people. Oh, don't get me wrong better living through chemicals & all that. I just don't like, or see the point, of lawns. They need too much. I don't do needy.
Tally HO!

rip my lawn... hello virginia buttonweed

Comments (7)

rick_mcdaniel

carolann_z8

Related Discussions

charlesanne
Original Author

MrsBox77

pjtexgirl

charlesanne
Original Author

beachplant

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

rip my lawn... hello virginia buttonweed

Comments (7)

rick_mcdaniel

carolann_z8

Related Discussions

charlesanneOriginal Author

MrsBox77

pjtexgirl

charlesanneOriginal Author

beachplant

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

charlesanne
Original Author

charlesanne
Original Author