Lawn Care/weeds

[Millhouse2020]

if you live in farm country and you know a farmer ask him for some 2-4d it is one of the ingredients in weed killer it will kill your dandelions but not your clover or other "waxy weeds" if you want a good lawn in the spring and fall get together with your neibours and rent a core aratior and do your lawns... maintain your lawn at 2.5 inches or longer and never ever ever water at night or the evening water in the morning or even in the heat of the day as that is when the most damage can be done to your lawn, you will not burn the lawn but you will loose some to evaporation which means cooling ... 10 years in the business before the ban.... i have lots of the good stuff left.. and if you know the right farmer you can buy it

 

 

I'm confused. When is the best/optimum time to water???

[chessy]

water first thing in the morning if that is not possible water in middle of the day.. you want your grass to be dry going into the night... if we have a reall hot spell you can water during the day to keep your turf cool. as most of the damage to your lawn is being done in the middle of the day... 1 inch of water per week ... or more if you can ..

[DanD]

When you got 6 kids thats 3 hours of a day that I have to myself, lol.

 

You already have your dandelion problem cure and you’re not using it.

 

Get out there and start picking kids; no supper until all I see is green. LOL

 

Dan.

[Cast-Away]

My lawn looks amazing and I do two simple things starting in April.

#1, Fertilize while the grass is still brown and just starting to green up. Use a fertilizer with a high first number.

#2 Two weeks later when the grass is starting, over seed with good quality grass seed. Two weeks later over seed again.

 

The result is a very thick lawn that the weeds have a difficult time penetrating. I still have to pull a few weeds every week before I mow, but not too many. My neighbours all say that I have the nicest lawn around and ask what my secret is. Pretty simple eh?

 

I only use Scotts products which I purchase at Costco. My lawn is so thick that I have to raise my lawnmower higher until the summer heat kicks in and the growing season slows down.

[manitoubass2]

You already have your dandelion problem cure and you're not using it.

 

Get out there and start picking kids; no supper until all I see is green. LOL

 

Dan.

 

Yeah, I wish. I don't know about your area, but do you see how much homework kids get nowadays??? Plus we got soccer 4 nights per week. If were not doing those were usually out fishing, or cooking. Maybe when school is over I'll get my slave drive on.

 

 

My lawn looks amazing and I do two simple things starting in April.

#1, Fertilize while the grass is still brown and just starting to green up. Use a fertilizer with a high first number.

#2 Two weeks later when the grass is starting, over seed with good quality grass seed. Two weeks later over seed again.

 

The result is a very thick lawn that the weeds have a difficult time penetrating. I still have to pull a few weeds every week before I mow, but not too many. My neighbours all say that I have the nicest lawn around and ask what my secret is. Pretty simple eh?

 

I only use Scotts products which I purchase at Costco. My lawn is so thick that I have to raise my lawnmower higher until the summer heat kicks in and the growing season slows down.

 

I think thats what I'm gonna have to do, just focus on getting the grass thicker and healthier. I had mentioned we share a large lawn with other houses, and their yards have dandelion as well. So if I treat my lawn it's inevitable that I'll get more, unless my lawn is thick enough to withstand the constant barrage.

 

Thanks again everyone for all the input, very much appreciated! Here I thought I'd get like 2 posts in this thread, lol. Turns out there are alot of weedheads on this board talking bout grass!

 

 

 

[lew]

Here I thought I'd get like 2 posts in this thread, lol.

 

Fishing reports are the ones that only get 2 replies

[manitoubass2]

Fishing reports are the ones that only get 2 replies

 

Seems so....

 

 

We'll have to work on that

 

 

 

[cynmar]

One of the main controls is not to cut your grass too short. Recommended turf height should be around 2.5". Establishes long roots in the grass and helps to crowd out as well as curtail weed seed growth. There isn't really much in Ontario that can be used as a spray to rid your lawn. Even the so called "safe" iron based herbicide has been shown to harm pets and children if ingested. For our lawns, if it's a minor problem we simply use a weed puller, one that pulls the smallest plug possible. I know pain the the ass but it works. Serious problems are a 2-3 year proposition with proper lawn maintenance ie cutting, fertilizing , aerating etc.

 

Bill

[doubleheader]

If you truelly love a good lawn like I do it take some work in the beginning but then it comes easy........

 

FIRST APPLICATION.......GRABCRASS BLASTER by Scotts.....late March early April...maybe a week or two later in your area but it don't hurt to apply early.....DO NOT SKIP this application....as it takes years to get crabgrass under control.......so don't give up on this part of lawn care.......it will show results 3-4 years down the line....

 

SECOND APPLICATION.....WEED & FEED by Scotts.......now this isn't like all other applications.......IT MUST BE APPLIED CORRECTLY....Weed & Feed works like this....it must be applied when the grass is wet....best after a good dew (FIRST PART OF THE MORNING...daybreak).....the fertilizer sticks to the the broad weeds (dandelions) and OVER feeds them which kills them....you want to apply when the grass is wet but it should NOT rain for the next 24 hours, but better if it's 48 hours.....if it does rain before then the feed part of the application is still good for growing the grass but it might not be so good to kill the weeds.

 

THIRD APPLICATION is just fertilizer to thicken the lawn during the harsh dry summer months....

 

FOURTH APPLICATION is a bit more nitrogen and feed to get your lawn ready for winter.

 

IF you keep doing this for 3-4 years you WILL HAVE THE BEST LAWN in the neighbourhood .....Mine is MUCH better then all the neighbours that have a commercial lawn care service do it for them...

 

AND just keep the kids off the lawn for 2-3 days after each application....my boys had no trouble growing up on my lushest lawn....

 

 

x2

[Roy]

I like my lawn to look half decent. It's not easy for some folks who get up at 6am to go to work...they get back home at 6PM, have supper and lawn care is probably the last thing on their mind. Most of the folks in my neighborhood have a contractor do that stuff for them and most of those still have weedy lawns. The ones who don't hire a contractor, for the most part, have terrible looking lawns. If your neighbors don't look after their lawns, you'll have problems with yours.

I don't use chemicals on mine... not because I'm a tree hugger but because chemicals are not efficient. What we do now and have done for the last 30 or so years is in the spring, I pick a nice day and J and I have a weed bee. Take a few hours and pull every dandelion or any other weed out of the lawn. I have a weed extractor for the front and one for the back that I keep handy. When either J or I go outside, we have a habit of pulling a weed or two out when we come across one. A couple of weeks into the season, there are none left and they become rare even.

A good hint I can give to city dwellers whose lawn butts up against a sidewalk is to keep an inch or so space between the lawn and the concrete walk. The concrete holds the heat of the sun and the lawn burn starts from there. Keeping them apart will keep the lawn cooler.

 

My front lawn is not very big...took these pics yesterday.

 

 

 

 

 

I'll take some of the back lawn when I get a chance.

[BillM]

Roy, do you thatch every year as well? We've got a lot of sand up here in Barrie, my front lawn is extremely patchy.. Also doesn't help that the city puts about 500lbs of sand/salt on the sidewalk beside my house which makes it's way onto my lawn anything they clear the snow.

[Roy]

Yes Bill, I thatch every year and aerate every 2-3 years. For me, the trick to thatching is not to do it too early. Folks are gung-ho to get outside in the spring and want to get things done and out of the way but with the water content in the soil early in the season, thatching just rips out the good growth. Get it done when it's a little drier..and not too vigourously either. Also, doing anything to your lawn when it's wet makes the soil harder from walking on it.

I think the bottom line with lawns is that rather than get a whole lot done at the beginning, do very little but more often. It won't seem like such a chore that way.

As for the salt, they spread way too much of it here as well. All I can say is keep good tires on your vehicle and learn to drive.....folks should know how to do that. It's not like they were just parachuted in from Central America.

 

Edited to add: It's all sand and clay here but for the first 4-5 years, J (Bless her little black heart) would buy me a 10 wheeler of lawn soil and have it dropped in the driveway....this usually always happened around pickerel opening. It got to be a joke around here....neighbours thought I was building a ski hill out back.

[pikehunter]

Sodded the front lawn when we bought this place 6 years ago, ever since I have been able to control the weeds by digging them out. Have one dandelion in a spot alongside the driveway that I cannot kill as the root is under the pavement and by now the root is probably is likely about a foot long!

 

My backyard has a problem with creeping charlie, I can't get rid of it! Before the herbicide ban I tried the stuff to kill it, didn't work, it flourished and spread like crazy. Tried pulling it out after that with no luck. Last year I tried the "new friendly version" of weed b gone and it turned a little dark and then it began to thrive. Tried 3 times to get rid of it and spent over a hundred bucks on that crap! All it is is rusty water, same goes for the path clear and the other kill all stuff, it's just vinegar, turns the weeds dark but doesn't kill the root. Save your money.

 

If you want to kill everything you can still buy the "good stuff" wipeout I think it's called, at Lowes but they keep it under lock and key. Home Depot only carries the so called environment friendly garbage and the only one it's friendly with is the manufacturer and the weeds that love it.

 

The old formula versions did seem to work, but not on my creeping charlie or yellow clover. They have been proven safe if they were used as instructed.

 

Just my worthless opinion. And I hate creeping charlie but I have learned to live with it, for now at least.

Edited June 3, 2012 by pikehunter

[Moosebunk]

Dandelions suck! And they seem to get worse every year that you do nothing about them. Have 3 1/2 acres of lawn to cut here and no sooner finish that they pop up again.

 

But for those ones growing up in the driveway and walkways..... shhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh..... Round Up. It's really for the thistle and ivy though.

[Rattletrap2]

I like my lawn to look half decent. It's not easy for some folks who get up at 6am to go to work...they get back home at 6PM, have supper and lawn care is probably the last thing on their mind. Most of the folks in my neighborhood have a contractor do that stuff for them and most of those still have weedy lawns. The ones who don't hire a contractor, for the most part, have terrible looking lawns. If your neighbors don't look after their lawns, you'll have problems with yours.

I don't use chemicals on mine... not because I'm a tree hugger but because chemicals are not efficient. What we do now and have done for the last 30 or so years is in the spring, I pick a nice day and J and I have a weed bee. Take a few hours and pull every dandelion or any other weed out of the lawn. I have a weed extractor for the front and one for the back that I keep handy. When either J or I go outside, we have a habit of pulling a weed or two out when we come across one. A couple of weeks into the season, there are none left and they become rare even.

A good hint I can give to city dwellers whose lawn butts up against a sidewalk is to keep an inch or so space between the lawn and the concrete walk. The concrete holds the heat of the sun and the lawn burn starts from there. Keeping them apart will keep the lawn cooler.

 

 

 

Nice work Roy! Your pride of ownership is showing through and through!

[Billy Bob]

 

 

My backyard has a problem with creeping charlie, I can't get rid of it! I hate creeping charlie but I have learned to live with it, for now at least.

 

This stuff works.....don't know if you can get it up there.......I found putting it in a fruit sprayer and doing the WHOLE lawn gets the best results....but it takes at least 2 weeks to kill those weeds.....sometimes a second application is necessary....

 

http://www.scotts.com/smg/catalog/productTemplate.jsp?proId=prod70214&itemId=cat50064&campaign=o-ps-google-wbg-CrpnChr-20120201

[pikehunter]

Thanks Billy B I don 't think we can get that in Ont. anymore. Dam laws! Only thing I see on the shelves is the crap with iron in it, or as I call it, "rusty water." I will look around though.

 

My neighbour had a "weed killer" pro do his 2 years ago. Spent a whole lot of money to kill charlie and it didn't work. They were using their version of the "environment friendly" rusty water treatment.

 

Just went back to the link to find location where available. Funny thing, it asked for my postal code, not my zip code so I thought that, OK maybe it is available over here. Nope! All locations were on your side of the river. Next trip to your side of Lake Erie's butt hole (the falls) I will look for it.

 

Thanks.

Edited June 3, 2012 by pikehunter

[Billy Bob]

I got it at Home Depot......it runs about $10.....

 

How do you golf courses and ball diamonds control weeds......

[Jer]

I got it at Home Depot......it runs about $10.....

 

How do you golf courses and ball diamonds control weeds......

 

 

Golf courses are exempt from the legislation, not sure about ball-diamonds, city parks, etc.