Hi

we have been in our house for 3 years and have never been brave enough
to tackle the garden. its gotten progressively worse and is nice
basically all weeds, which i embarrasingly cut every copule of weeks.

We are getting married later this year and dont have the money or time
to do much in the garden now until next year. I dont want to keep
mowing the weeds just so it looks a quarter decent (when compared to
the neighbours) and would like some advice on what to do.

I am thinking about (bear with me here, i'm a complete novice!) buying
some sort of weed killer to apply after i next mow them and however
many applications it takes to just kill them all, and i presume the
grass with it. Is this a sensible thing to do or will it damage the
soil so it will mean more work/money next year when we come to sort the
garden out?

next year we are thinking of just getting someone in to replace the
turf, and do whatever it is that needs doing to make it look like a
proper garden! what i dont want to do is to take some action now that
will mean problems next year - i dont know the best time to replace and
grow a new lawn...

any advice would be greatly appreciated - does my weed killer idea seem
ok? and if so what sort of thing should i look for (anything on the
bottle/pack that i should look for)?

thanking you! lee

rothko [at] talk21.com wrote:
> we have been in our house for 3 years and have never been brave enough
> to tackle the garden. its gotten progressively worse and is nice
> basically all weeds, which i embarrasingly cut every copule of weeks.
> We are getting married later this year and dont have the money or time
> to do much in the garden now until next year.
(snip)
> next year we are thinking of just getting someone in to replace the
> turf, and do whatever it is that needs doing to make it look like a
> proper garden! what i dont want to do is to take some action now that
> will mean problems next year - i dont know the best time to replace and
> grow a new lawn...

Why don't you just wait until next year so that a professional dig out
all your weeds and replace the turf? If you apply weed killer now, it
will look awful for the rest of the year if you don't do anything else.


I'm not an expert on lawn and I don't use chemicals at all. However, I
saw a fantastic idea the other day at a community garden in Wigan. They
cut/mowed a path through an overgrown area and kept islands of tall
grasses. On the edge of the path the had cut, they introduced flowers,
marguerites, valerian, scabiosas, mallows etc. not from seeds, but
bought a few plants and it looked just so great. It's cheap, it's
natural, it's good for the environment (and your soul) and you might
end up liking it very much! Then next year let your people do the turf
:o)

>rothko [at] talk21.com wrote:
>> we have been in our house for 3 years and have never been brave enough
>> to tackle the garden. its gotten progressively worse and is nice
>> basically all weeds, which i embarrasingly cut every copule of weeks.
>> We are getting married later this year and dont have the money or time
>> to do much in the garden now until next year.

In message <1149195712.357631.220060 [at] y43g2000cwc.googlegroups.com>, La
Puce <helene [at] rudlin.co.uk> writes
>
>If you apply weed killer now, it
>will look awful for the rest of the year if you don't do anything else.

Yes, it will look really terrible and depressing. If you just keep
mowing, on the other hand, it will gradually weaken the weeds. If you
could manage to cut it every week, especially now for the next six weeks
or so, then it could look really quite respectable until you get around
to getting it done.



--
Klara, Gatwick basin

Post removed (X-No-Archive: yes)

rothko [at] talk21.com wrote:

> we have been in our house for 3 years and have never been brave enough
> to tackle the garden. its gotten progressively worse and is nice
> basically all weeds, which i embarrasingly cut every copule of weeks.

You would be surprised how quickly this can be reversed by the
application of a selective broad leaf weedkiller or proprietory lawn
weed and feed mixture. All you have to do then is cut the grass every
couple of weeks and the vast majority of the weeds will die off. And
the feed component makes the grass grow strongly again. Then go over it
a month or so later using the same lawn weedkiller as a spot weeder on
the tough established weeds.

I find uprooting large dandelions and buttercups very therapuetic YMMV.

I don't bother treating a few daisies or other nice wild flowers in my
lawns.
>
> We are getting married later this year and dont have the money or time
> to do much in the garden now until next year. I dont want to keep
> mowing the weeds just so it looks a quarter decent (when compared to
> the neighbours) and would like some advice on what to do.
>
> I am thinking about (bear with me here, i'm a complete novice!) buying
> some sort of weed killer to apply after i next mow them and however
> many applications it takes to just kill them all, and i presume the
> grass with it. Is this a sensible thing to do or will it damage the
> soil so it will mean more work/money next year when we come to sort the
> garden out?

You could kill the whole lot with glyphosate, but then you would have
to live with a dead lawn. And the bare earth would quickly be filled
with new fast growing weed seedlings that may look even worse than your
current crop.

NB weedkillers for lawns work best a few days after cutting and with a
few days to take effect before the next cut (also don't use treated
grass as a mulch).

> any advice would be greatly appreciated - does my weed killer idea seem
> ok? and if so what sort of thing should i look for (anything on the
> bottle/pack that i should look for)?

Lawn weedkiller (or better a spring weed and feed mixture).

Need not be expensive or time consuming to apply. You still have to cut
the lawn regularly though to get maximum benefit from the treatment.

Regards,
Martin Brown

|||newspam||| [at] nezumi.demon.co.uk wrote:
> rothko [at] talk21.com wrote:
>
> > we have been in our house for 3 years and have never been brave enough
> > to tackle the garden. its gotten progressively worse and is nice
> > basically all weeds, which i embarrasingly cut every copule of weeks.
>
> You would be surprised how quickly this can be reversed by the
> application of a selective broad leaf weedkiller or proprietory lawn
> weed and feed mixture. All you have to do then is cut the grass every
> couple of weeks and the vast majority of the weeds will die off. And
> the feed component makes the grass grow strongly again. Then go over it
> a month or so later using the same lawn weedkiller as a spot weeder on
> the tough established weeds.
>
> I find uprooting large dandelions and buttercups very therapuetic YMMV.
>
> I don't bother treating a few daisies or other nice wild flowers in my
> lawns.
[...other sensible stuff snipped...]
>
> Lawn weedkiller (or better a spring weed and feed mixture).
>
> Need not be expensive or time consuming to apply. You still have to cut
> the lawn regularly though to get maximum benefit from the treatment.

I really would not even consider turf in your position. Keep on
cutting, at _least_ once a week, and it'll turn into a lawn fast
enough. Once the weeds are more or less under control, you can
vigorously rake it over and sow some cheap lawn seed if the process
wants helping along: in spite of the books, you can do this at almost
any time of year with reasonable results. It's dead easy.

Why not turf? Well, it's expensive for a start, even if you do it
yourself. Then doing it right is a lot of work: much more than starting
from seed. Then it's almost always unnecessary anyway.

People make money by encouraging the public to think that turfing a
poor lawn is the normal way to go: but it isn't normal, it's
exceptional. Television makeover programmes are also to blame: if you
want the Boss to come home after a weekend with Mother and burst into
grateful tears at a miraculous transformation while Charlie glugs
champagne, turf is the only answer. But real gardens don't work like
that.

--
Mike.

<rothko [at] talk21.com> wrote in message
news:1149192964.662113.316510 [at] y43g2000cwc.googlegroups.com...
> Hi
>
> we have been in our house for 3 years and have never been brave enough
> to tackle the garden. its gotten progressively worse and is nice
> basically all weeds, which i embarrasingly cut every copule of weeks.
>
> We are getting married later this year and dont have the money or time
> to do much in the garden now until next year. I dont want to keep
> mowing the weeds just so it looks a quarter decent (when compared to
> the neighbours) and would like some advice on what to do.
>
> I am thinking about (bear with me here, i'm a complete novice!) buying
> some sort of weed killer to apply after i next mow them and however
> many applications it takes to just kill them all, and i presume the
> grass with it. Is this a sensible thing to do or will it damage the
> soil so it will mean more work/money next year when we come to sort the
> garden out?

Verdone is an excellent lawn weedkiller, it works better on broad leaf weeds
but is effective on most.

And it has absolutely no effect on grass.

Alan

>
> next year we are thinking of just getting someone in to replace the
> turf, and do whatever it is that needs doing to make it look like a
> proper garden! what i dont want to do is to take some action now that
> will mean problems next year - i dont know the best time to replace and
> grow a new lawn...
>
> any advice would be greatly appreciated - does my weed killer idea seem
> ok? and if so what sort of thing should i look for (anything on the
> bottle/pack that i should look for)?
>
> thanking you! lee
>

thanks to everyone for replying, it's much appreciated. I think from
the majority of posts it would seem that just mowing regularly is the
best thing to do for now. i've saved this thread to refer back to for
the names of products that i'm bound to forget.

thanks again!