Yard Care for Dummies
- Thread starter wxman1
- Start date
Yeah. Just a way to quickly clear brush/weeds and “reset” type of growth in areas.
As others poster noted you’ll see it done a lot in ditches.
I guess when he said residential I imagined urban residential where this would be highly frowned upon and there are no ditches.
2,4-D is cheap and great at killing most broadleaf weeds. It won't touch quackgrass, crabgrass, barnyard grass, and nut sedge to name a few non-broadleaf weeds. It often fails at creeping charlie, violets, and even clover. Those are generally listed on the label, but in practice those particular weeds often survive being sprayed by 2,4-D.
Maybe. Seed is cheap in the grand scheme of what is spent each year on lawn care. If there is still energy left stored in the seed itself, it may continue to grow once temps get warmer but I'd still throw out some more.
Problem with onions is they have a bulb (stored energy) and the leaf surface is vertical and small. Actually I don't think it's a true bulb but that's another topic.
Something with 2,4-D, Mecoprop (MCPP), and Dicamba combined will do the job but you'll want to use a surfactant and spray a fine mist. It can be a long battle. Most common weed controls sold mass market are some combination of the above like weed-b-gone. If your mix you end up with also has carfentrazone or quinclorac that's fine, but the first three mentioned are kind of the standard cocktail you'll find and effective on onion/wild garlic.
I've killed violets with 2-4D. May have to get multiple applications of it to get a good kill on them but 2-4D is a broadleaf killer if you use it right. I mostly just spot spray my yard anymore now that the weeds are under control and for nuts edge I use the green bottle Roundup that has it right on the label. That kills clover pretty well too.
It will kill them yes if you get a good application. Clover seems to shed water pretty well, so that's the reason it sometimes lives.
I say it in every yard care thread: I really enjoy these posts. They are very useful.
I dug up some sod today to resod the side of my driveway and notice a couple of grubs. When is the best time to apply grub control? only saw a couple in a 2' x 7' area.
We had a large tree in our back yard cut down last fall and the guy mulched the tree and left it in a pile where the stump was. He said it would settle over the winter. A couple of weeks ago I took 25 wheelbarrows of the crap out of it, and leveled the area out. Put the wood mulch around the back of the garage. Wife is hoping she can plant some type of flowers in it.
My wife talked to the gal that sprays our yard today, and she said that I have to get all the old ground up tree mulch out of the hole, and fill it in with dirt to get grass to grow there.
My question is will grass grow in this ground up mulch or do I have a ton more work to do, digging it out and filling in the hole with dirt.
My wife talked to the gal that sprays our yard today, and she said that I have to get all the old ground up tree mulch out of the hole, and fill it in with dirt to get grass to grow there.
My question is will grass grow in this ground up mulch or do I have a ton more work to do, digging it out and filling in the hole with dirt.
Hello Yard Care Experts of CF. I have a quick question.
Now that the weather is getting hot, is it better for me to water my newly seeded areas in the morning before the heat or at night when it starts to cool off?
Now that the weather is getting hot, is it better for me to water my newly seeded areas in the morning before the heat or at night when it starts to cool off?
I've always heard the recommendation is to water morning and mid-afternoon.
Watering at the end of the day can cause rotting overnight.
That being said, I've always watered when I get home from work and haven't had an issue.
Grub control is best when applied in the late summer/fall. Applications in the spring are risky because many grubs are pretty damn large at that point and most chemicals won't be effective.
Creeping Charlie can put up a good fight against 2,4 D. Dicamba (Banvel) or triclopyr (Turflon) are your best options.
So, late last year I noticed some dead spots starting on one side of my property. This year, the 3 main spots all seem similar in that it is just DEAD - no weeds, nothing. I took a photo of one because there seems to be some coaxial cable hardware that was just below the surface - thinking of contacting mediacom about that..
Anyway, any ideas on what caused this? Or what kinds of things to check for?
Anyway, any ideas on what caused this? Or what kinds of things to check for?
Don't think it is snow mold, but couple of things may help here just in general.
- Call 811 Iowa One Call regarding pipes/cords/etc. in your lawn. Stuff like that you don't want to run over or hit while doing yard work.
- Get a soil test from a reputable lab to get an idea of your fertility and the texture of the soil. Iowa State used to have a soil lab open to the public, but do not now. Pisses me off. Do not need anything fancy regarding testing, organic matter, potassium, pH, and phosphorus is enough. They'll also give you an estimate on nitrogen fertilizer. Apply fertilizer late spring or late summer/early fall.
- Aerate soil to reduce compaction, sometimes compacted areas can look like those spots. People may have opinions about how many times to do that but 1 time a year is fine.
- If you reseed that spot, waiting until late summer/early fall is best. You get some moisture and many weeds are not being as much of a pain in the ass. If those spots are more shady, shade tolerant bluegrass or fine fescue should be OK.
