I have a large area of turf in a rural area that alwys will get some weed infestation. Usually I spot treated with 2,4 or a similar product. But this Spring did tried a new product6 and it was fantastic! It is SpeedZone. It works very well in cold weather. I used just less than 1 oz. per gallon in a hose-end sprayer over the entire turf area. It is rain-fast in 3 hours. After 1 week the chickweed, henbit, etc., that was starting to take over was completely destroyed. I then fertilized in mid-March and with the warm April weather the density of the new turf and lack of competition has filled in completely. After the first application, there was some yellowing of the ends of the blades of the fine fescue in the lawn. But after 1 mowing it was back to normal. Also I advise not use use a surfactant or adjuvant with this product which may reduce it selectivity on broadleaf weeds only. Also, I would not get it near shrubs as the product can be absorbed from the roots and damage the plant. In mid-April I inspected the lawn again and spot treated with the same product for late germinating weeds. I used less than half of the amount of liquid I would normally use to spot treat at this time of year. With spot treatment I noticed no yellowing of the grass blades.

I concur with Kimpa. My neighbor 2 doors down tried to get rid of her sedges last year by using SedgeHammer. She says the SedgeHammer didn't work. (I don't know if my neighbor used it correctly or not and didn't probe to find out, but she is a retired teacher, so I would have to say she probably did follow instructions to a tee.) The other day while she was in my backyard, she was surprised to see that the many sedges I had in my backyard last year were all gone. Shocked, she asked how did you get rid of the sedges? I told her I pulled them every single time I saw them, trying to get as much of the rhizomes as possible. After a little practice, you can get the hang of it and can sometimes finesse a small portion of the rhizome out along with the upper plant. You won't get all of the rhizome though. But the key is just pulling the plant out repeatedly. Eventually the carbohydrate reserves inside the plants' tubers buried in the ground will be used up, so the plant won't have enough energy to send up new shoots. At that point, it will die. It may take 3 or 4 pullings for the sedges to die. You could also dig into the ground to remove the tubers along with the shoots to kill the whole plant in one fell swoop, but I never did that because I didn't want to disturb the surrounding grass which was good, healthy zoysia. I learned about this procedure from David Mellor's great book called The Lawn Bible. I think he (or someone else maybe) wrote that the first time you pull a plant, the plant can exhaust 60 percent of its energy reserves to recreate its upper shoot. Do that enough times, and it just exhausts all its energy. The plant makes energy through its leaves through photosynthesis from the sun, so you don't want to allow the leaves to regrow for too long, otherwise the plant replenishes some of its energy reserves. I also tried this multiple pull procedure on dandelions. It was harder to eliminate my sideyard's dozen dandelions that way than it was the sedges. The sedges were much easier to eliminate this way than the dandelions. But eventually the dandelions were no more too. You could try eliminating the dandelions quickly by removing their tap root. At least with dandelions you know where the tap root is (directly below the plant), unlike the sedges' tubers. By the way, removing the shoot (which is defined as everything above ground for the plant) and then burning the very top of the dandelion's tap root with a blow torch didn't work for me. The tap root recovered after a week or so and produced a new shoot. And I tell ya, I burned the tops of those tap roots to a crisp, and they still recovered. Of course, I haven't tried The Dragon torch--just a regular blow torch--so I can't speak to The Dragon's effectiveness, but I have my doubts. Anyone tried The Dragon on dandelions' tap roots?

Thanks all for the tips on weed control! I'll wait until my boo's have finished shooting and then apply this stuff while the weeds are still small/most sensitive. Speaking of shooting, we have had a REALLY late spring here in WNY. My 'spectabilis' yellow groove just started poking shoots out of the ground and none of my other phyllostachys species (atrovaginata, nigra henon, nuda, and rubromarginata) show any signs of shooting yet. All the other trees and plants are equally behind. We're just starting to get small leaves expanding out of buds here, and some trees aren't even that far along! The evening lows are still below 40 degrees some nights; I feel bad for the farmers as their growing season is starting to get impinged on.

Sorry. This will be a long one. It always is with me. (blushing) I'm with the OP on this one. Even if no one but me ever saw my lawn, I would want it to be dark, rich green GRASS...and nothing else. (I'm known for wanting everything to be beautiful. I'm also a bit of a home body, and enjoy spending time in my yard. Many guests have remarked that, no matter where they look (on my property), there's always something beautiful. I'm always taken aback by those comments, since while that was MY goal, I never expected others to pick up on it.) Case in point about the intentional act of putting down grass, and not other (lower maintenance) plants. I own a small, remote island. I made the decision to create a lawn area and, once you include the slow-moving barge fees (3 days to get from its port to the island), labour, equipment, and materials, that lawn cost me $14,000. That obviously begs the question, why, on earth, would anyone spend a nickel putting in expensive, high-maintenance grass, only to let it be taken over by clover and other weeds??? My husband and I recently purchased a 19th century farmhouse in need of roof-to-foundation renovation. As such, I inherited a lawn that is EASILY 70% weeds, including clover so thoroughly interwoven, it would be impossible to pull by hand. I pride myself on my beautiful lawns and gardens, and can spend/have sent hours, each day, ensuring everything is healthy and how I want it. At my last home, I developed a bit of a reputation for being out weeding my lawn by hand for hours, plus how awesome my expansive lawn was. My point is, I want my lawn and gardens to be a certain way; plant the plants I want; pull the plants I don't want; unafraid to put-in the effort to achieve that. I prefer not to use any kinds of "chemicals", other than the ammonia and mild soap I include in my homemade fertilizer recipe. (My last home was a beach house. So, that only reinforced my desire to go chemical-free.) But this new-to-me house is demoralizing me...practically to the point of tears, much of it because of the state of the (laughing) "landscaping". Sure, mowing can cut off 60% of the sea of clover flowers that make my lawn look white (or dying...can't decide which). But there are still lower flowers that seem to sprout up to full height within the next 24hrs after a mow. These flowers last from late spring to fall. In short, I'm plagued by clover flowers throughout the entire season I want my lawn to look great. It's just such a shame the previous owners didn't nip the clover in the bud, when each plant was jut a little, round cluster. I love catching them early, knowing I've stopped additional infiltration. But I'm helpless, overall. Looks like I'll have to replace the entire lawn; start from scratch; do what the previous owners SHOULD have done, and pulled weeds when I first see them. I'm not really buying the whole "benefits of clover" thing, amidst a grass lawn. If I wanted a clover lawn, I would plant a clover lawn. Putting down and maintaining grass is an expense in time and resources. Clover is virtually free (since it shows up on the wind), and is seemingly mantenance-free. Since most sod and grass seed are sold with some guarantee of being weed- (and clover-) free, I just don't believe that most people who spend the money and effort to put in a grass lawn, are okay with losing any percentage of it to other, invasive, undesirable plants. I kind of liken it to suggesting that a Ferrari owner would be okay with someone switching it with a Cavalier, and just saying, 'They both get me from point A to point B, so I don't mind.' I can fully envision putting in other kinds of ground cover, and have considered it at past properties. Not being my first rodeo, I already have substantial plans to reduce the amount of lawn area, and increase planting beds. But much of this current property begs for a beautiful, thick, dark green lawn...of grass. No dandelions. No clover, but particularly no clover flowers. (I'd be more okay with clover, if not for the flowers.) The desperation was so great, I did something I thought I'd never do, and tried the iron-based WEED-B-GONE product. (Harsh, chemical herbicides have been banned in my area for years...resulting in public parks being taken over by weeds, for the most part. It's such a shame, in the sense that a healthy, well-maintained lawn is not only beautiful, but fantastic underfoot.) That is really my philosophy, beyond the aesthetic. A lawn should be cool, soft, and luxurious under bare feet. Weeds, even overgrown grass, also tend to make barefoot walking less than a joy. So far, I haven't found a way to get rid of mats of clover. The WEED-B-GONE did nothing I could notice. I'm at my rope's end on ths matter, and likely will have to pull up the entire lawn, to put down new, almost-weed-free sod, where I can physically manage pulling individual weeds as they appear. I guess I'd plead with people to pull unwanted clover plants when they're small... if not for yourself, then for the next property owner. Sure, it means time, every day, or every few days, combing the lawn, looking for weeds. Yes, it can be back-breaking and time-consuming. But that grass lawn didn't get there by accident. A grass lawn is intentional.