Those Pesky Weeds and other Irritants

We may all have wonderful memories of running through a park, picking a cotton-topped dandelion and giving it a good puff, but that was not our yard. We want our yards to be weed free. We want the local golf club to come and ask us for lawn care advice. It is possible, but it takes some work and patience.

The first choice is probably the most difficult and least successful, you can just pull them out. I believe that part of the definition of a weed is that the root stays behind and will grow another plant later. The other problem is that some of these weeds go pretty deep, and you could end up throwing out your back rather than throwing out the weeds.

The best defense is a thick, dense lawn that is watered deeply. If you water in short bursts, the weeds and grass are on even footing. If you work on your lawn and water deeply then their roots will already be established.

In our case, we bought a home that included a neglected backyard. The dandelions had the upper hand, grass was pretty much nonexistant. This Spring, what we have done is to tackle the weeds with an herbicide. In our case, since we didn't have much turf to worry about, we didn't have to be concerned with what type of grass we had as opposed to the herbicide that we bought. You may want to keep track of that. If you don't know what type of grass you have, give the local nursery a call and see if they need you to bring a sample in with you.

Follow the mixing and spraying instructions. In some cases it is better to mow the weeds, or yard, first. In other cases it is better to leave it as tall as possible. The reason for this is that a broadleaf weed killer works by being absorbed through the leaves. If you mow, you have just cut down on your absorbtion potential.

One idea that you might consider is that if you have evenings that are warm enough, you may want to spray just before the sun goes down. Make sure it is not going to rain and you may have found an easy way to keep the kids off the yard while the herbicide is soaking in. Just something that you may want to think about.

Good luck with the dandelion harvest.

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