I've got 1.8 acres, riding mower. The house was left vacant before sale, and it's been years of fighting a losing battle. The immediate 2-3 yards around the house is a nightmare thistle situation that I have worked on for hours since the summer began. Meanwhile, the lawn has weeds and prairie plants popping all through it including thistle. I have a 1 year old and I want him to be able to run the yard without hurting his foot on a weed every step.
Slowly the lawn is turning more weed than grass.
Honestly, I'm at my wits end. I had a small yard prior and cannot get ahead of this. It's like a part-time job to get it to acceptably ugly. I don't have money to hire pros like everyone else on my block.
I need to get this under control or I may need to be institutionalized — it's driving me crazy.
I mow to maintain, pull what I can around the house, and am unsure what to do chemically. I really can't water the lawn (shared well) and at times it is drought condition so I let it grow to not over mow.
Bonus issue: my cub cadet 0 degree riding mower gets clogged on the even slightest damp grass making a wet mow a 5-6 hour ordeal.
For the love of god help.
by Trojan_Lich
25 Comments
Are you against chemical control?
Dude, at minimum grab some Weed&Feed and spread it. Step up in sections by spot spraying something like Ortho WeedBGone or other similar product that kills broadleaf weeds without harming the grass.
2-4-D. Mix it up in a pump sprayer. Kills almost everything but grass
Use chemicals. Let it work for 5 days before you mow again.
Just to get started…go to HD or Lowes. Look for Ortho Weed’B’Gon. There are two versions. One for general weed control, one for clover/creeping charlie, etc.. Get two bottle of each.
Do not cut for 2 days minimum. Spray over the area with either one of the bottles. Wait 24 hours, then spray the other one…not the same type. As in, day one, spray the bottle marked for general, then next day spray the bottle marked for clover…like that.
Wait 2 days after 2nd spraying, and mow…do not bag anything.
Wait a week, and repeat, but this time, mow and bag the dead crap away.
That should get rid of most typical weeds, minus a few a special cases.
Also, cut more often once all cleaned up, and cut high…like 4-5″ high. Cutting lower will invite weeds, and hurt the grass and soil. Your Cub, Ultima(?) should be able to handle that…what engine does it have?
Broadleaf weeds are easy to control with spray chemicals. (Not too sure about the thistle) If you are against chemicals (understandable) then do your best to keep the grass well fed and watered and get used to the idea of a more natural looking lawn.
Ortho Killex will do the trick.
The best approach is in the very early spring, maybe March..apply a pre-emergent. Then a second application in mid April. If you wait until the weeds seeds germinate it is game over. Now you have to do damage control.
“I’ve tried nothing and it’s still not working!”
Go get weed and feed and a spreader dude
I was like you brother. Minus the kid and about 1 acre…
I started by weeding everything by hand. That worked on 60% of the stuff and let me see what I had. Then I bought a $20 pump and some 2,4-D concentrate, mixed it appropriately, and spot sprayed every weed I found about every 4-6 weeks. That works like a charm.
I didn’t do anything for the grass until my 2nd year in the house, and it had already started to look 1000% better after getting the weeds under control and after I understood my irrigation system.
Finally this year (still in my 2nd year now), I’m doing wayyyyy less weed control, and starting to understand how to feed the grass properly, how to mow it, when to care about it.
It’s less work now, by a long shot, and it’s a better yard.
But it did take chemicals to get here… like another person said, the 2,4-D works very well for most things. If you are against using chemicals, your best bet is to weed by hand when you can, and aggressively overseed in the fall.
Good luck friend! It’s just a yard. Don’t let it define you. It can be a source of pride, but don’t ever let it become a source of shame. You are a father, you have more important things to worry about 🙂
Fertilize w/ “Weed & Feed” & mow at a higher level.
Why are you cutting your grass so short? You need to fertilize using a spreader at least 3 times a year. Spray those thistles every week for a few weeks with 2-4-D and they’ll be gone by mid-August.
It looks like you mow too short and too infrequently, which helps weeds germinate. I would raise your mowing height to the max your mower will do, and never go more than 7 days between mows.
Then get a sprayer, a broad spectrum selective herbicide like Weed-B-Gon or Tzons, and some dye. Apply it to your lawn according to the label. Do a trial run with just dye and water to get a sense of how fast to walk to empty a gallon from the tank over the area indicated.
Once you’ve reduce that weed pressure, you should be able to limit your herbicide use by mowing tall and properly fertilizing. Use any slow release “lawn food” (brand doesn’t really matter) and a spreader and apply around Labor Day according to the instructions. If you want to be more specific, apply 2lbs of nitrogen per 1000Sf (the bag will tell you % nitrogen) in the fall and 1lb in late spring.
I have a 1200 sq ft lawn. I hand pull as I mow. And I mow tall.
If I was in your situation, and mowing pretty short, my normal routine would be applying preemergent every 3 months. Assuming I wanted a lawn that large of course.
I say pull anyone u can and get company to spray for year or two. Then overseed and feed the grass. But I feel ur pain…my battle too. But at least neighbors are maintaining their lawn. Otherwise that whole lot of effort for nothing. My situation. 😭
Your lawn has no relation to your self worth
My recommendation is to hit it with chemicals in the fall. Use a pre-emergent fertilizer and do two rounds of spraying. For the summer just use a nice blend of spring/summer fertilizer (I use pro-mix summer blend) to strengthen the grass and cut high, then go hard at it with chemicals in the fall. When you spray in the spring or fall, the herbicides make it to the root system as it’s either growing or storing energy to go dormant over the winter. In the summer the grass and weeds are fighting against the heat so it may harm your actual grass and be very ineffective on the weeds as it’s not cycling a lot from the roots.
You won’t win this year but if you do a good job in the fall and early spring you’ll have a great lawn. Dethatch the yard, overseed, fertilize and spray in the fall. You’ll see a big improvement.
If you’re pulling them but not getting the roots you’re wasting your time. Weed and feed it
Dealing with something similar and the only thing you can do if you’re not going to drop thousands of dollars is pull them manually. I’m resigned to fight this thing till either I lose and the HOA makes me change or I get a great lawn.
Those weeds look perfect for that Grandpa tool
Get clover… clover will green up nice, choke out weeds
I think you should say fuck it…. go in the opposite direction and embrace being the worst. Maybe even start a mini desert. Eventually, you can take over all the properties and make it desert like.
**The best defense against weeds is a healthy lawn.** A healthy lawn will choke out the weeds and create a natural weed barrier. Considering the state of your lawn, conditions are more suitable to the weeds than grass. While you can get rid of weeds immediately by pulling or killing the weeds, the results will only be temporary until you fix the growing conditions.
Contact your local extension office and send them soil samples (https://agsci.colostate.edu/soiltestinglab/). If that isn’t an option, there are mail-in soil kits available through Amazon, Home Depot, etc (e.g MySoil). Some areas offer free soil samples (e.g.https://kingcd.org/programs/better-soils/healthy-soil/). If your lawn looks uniform, you can get away with a single sample of soil mixed from several locations. Tell them what type of grass you are trying to grow and they will tell you exactly what you need to apply to get the soil back to where it should be.
Once your soil conditions are better, your lawn will start to recover and you will see the number of new weeds decrease as well as nearly every aspect of your lawn improving.
Something cheap and easy to try.. spend a few months mowing your lawn at the highest setting. I had the same issue and got into the habit of mowing high and often. After just a few months I have more grass and fewer weeds than ever before.
Why would anyone in the right mind spend hours pulling these weeds when there are safe chemicals?