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Arizona Gardening Ask The Yard Doctor garden

Can this grass be saved? Sprayed by weed Killer?

4 years ago

We think the front of our grass was accidently sprayed by weed killer. Our yard guys say they don't know anything about it and don't know what happened. If it was a disease, wouldn't it impact the whole front yard? The sprinklers are working fine.

Is there anything we can do to bring back the Bermuda grass? Or should we just wait until Fall when we normally reseed rye grass? Will the rye even GROW?

We live in Phoenix where it's been extra hot this summer - but the rest of the grass looks just fine (front and back).

Thoughts?

Comments (2)

Marco
4 years ago
If this is indeed weed-killer damage, those work by putting them on green plant which carry the poison down to the roots, with the intent that they don't grow back. Time will tell.

It could be an infestation of the roots by a bug of some sort. In that case, take a sample (with leaves, stems, roots in a sealed baggie) to your county extension service (find that service simply by typing "county extension service" with your county name into a search engine.

If it does not spread into the reset of the lawn, this could be an opportunity to do something interesting with that front portion of the yard, such as an undulating delineation with the same cobbles you have at the back of the lawn, plus gravel and desert plantings that will thrive in the reflected glare off the sidewalk. It could make your house feel a bit further back from the street, too. It would require removing the dead sod and laying down a weed screen, and adjusting the irrigation so you don't drown the new plantings.

Good luck figuring this out and coming up with an attractive solution that you'll be glad to come home to every day!
PRO
Flo Mangan
4 years ago
Sure looks like the yard people who sprayed for weeds used previously used weed killer. It will take a year to be able to successfully plant there. It’s a good opportunity to make a curved bed all along sidewalk as previously suggested. A mix of large bolders, drought resistant plantings and some attractive pebbles or crushed granite for this area.
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What kind of grass are you growing if it is bermuda it's not a big deal, but if your growing a cool season grass with seed you will need to use some activated charcoal.
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Wow. While dsnell's plan might work for someone, most all of it has been discredited by the masses on these and other forums over the decades. Although I agree that weed killer is a harsh treatment, sometimes it's the only thing that works. And fertilizer does not take the place of weed killer. If fertility is low on a sod-forming type turf, then fertilizer can sometimes create a more dense turf that resists weeds. March is generally 3 months early to fertilize. You would be fertilizing the spring weeds. Weed n feed products are difficult to apply properly and they are not built with Mother Nature in mind. The time to kill weeds is in April. The time to feed is late May. WNF is a product that sounds too good to be true. Adding topsoil is almost never a good idea unless you have a low spot that needs to be filled. The rye and fescue grasses recommended will never work on half the country. I agree that watering every day is incorrect, but so is watering every other day. I water every 1-2 weeks and have a green lawn all summer. Finally, only apply lime if you have a recent soil chemistry test that shows low calcium and follow the recommendations for the specific type of lime and amounts.
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If the can was rinsed, it may not be a set back. If you'd realized the mistake immediately, watering with a hose, soft nozzle spray (which I would have been doing with a newly seeded lawn anyway) would have been all you could have done to try to remedy. Now, it's wait and see if you'll be reseeding. But I have to ask, why did you have Roundup in a watering can (and a leaking one at that), it's applied as a spray to foliage, not watered into the ground or poured on - should only be in spraying type container. Please don't rely on memory to mark your products or applicators. Get a can of spray paint, red for anything used for herbicides or blue for insecticides if you have those and in the future keep them separate. If you are using and mixing concentrates, it doesn't hurt to mark the product container too, some of these companies use same color/size bottles for everything and you can mix something other than you intended. Put a blotch of bright paint on any applicator or product that would be harmful - to you or your plants.
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"Herbicides That Damage Roses Herbicides containing glyphosate are extremely dangerous for roses. Glyphosate can be absorbed by rose leaves and stems. Post-emergent herbicides used to kill broad-leaf weeds are also very dangerous for roses. Such herbicides commonly contain 2,4-D, triclopyr or dicamba." "Care After Damage Herbicide exposure is not necessarily a death sentence for roses. They commonly survive and eventually grow normally. Excellent care can help them recover. Water the affected roses once or twice per week during dry periods, but do not overwater them. Excessive water can be just as damaging as insufficient water." See: http://homeguides.sfgate.com/grass-weed-killer-kill-roses-accidentally-sprayed-them-87628.html
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