Help! My yard is being taken over by weeds!

[sdobis]

My lawn is about half grass and half weeds. The only one I know for sure is Creeping Charlie. I have no idea how to make my yard nice again. I cannot spend a lot of money on my yard. I'd like to have it looking halfway decent by next summer.

 

Any tips?

[bibiche]

Eat it? http://www.ediblewildfood.com/creeping-charlie.aspx

 

No tips here as I dislike manicured lawns and the money, effort, and (especially!!!) poisons that go into maintaining them.

[KatieJ]

The best advice my DH was given was not to cut the lawn short.  The weeds don't like the "shade" from the long grass.  He does weed and feed several times a year as well.

 

[wintermom]

Can you use any effective weed killers? If not (as we aren't in Ontario, Canada), do you have the time and patience to pull out all the weeds by hand from the roots if you don't, and keep pulling them out as they return? Do your neighbours have yards full of weeds, so the seeds will continuously be blowing over? 

 

Somehow you've got to make the grass strong, healthy and abundant and drown out the weeds instead of the other way around. If you need a nice looking lawn for a specific time and purpose, resodding the lawn might be the easiest way.

Edited July 28, 2016 by wintermom

[Annie G]

I'd recommend weed and feed as a starting point. It's pretty amazing stuff. Buy a name brand like Scott's, and borrow a spreader if you can (instead of buying one). 

 

If you weed and feed now, by early fall you can plant some grass seed and get it established before winter. At least that's how we do it here. 

[sdobis]

Eat it? http://www.ediblewildfood.com/creeping-charlie.aspx

No tips here as I dislike manicured lawns and the money, effort, and (especially!!!) poisons that go into maintaining them.

  

 

I really could care less about a perfectly manicured lawn. Unfortunately, I live in a subdivision that does care. Time to move to the country.

 

The best advice my DH was given was not to cut the lawn short.  The weeds don't like the "shade" from the long grass.  He does weed and feed several times a year as well.

 

 

I think my lawnmower has different height levels. I'll have to look into that.

 

I'd recommend weed and feed as a starting point. It's pretty amazing stuff. Buy a name brand like Scott's, and borrow a spreader if you can (instead of buying one). 

 

If you weed and feed now, by early fall you can plant some grass seed and get it established before winter. At least that's how we do it here.

 

A family member gave us a spreader. I'll start with the weed and feed. Then I'll seed in fall.

[nd293]

I hate to say weed killer, but...

 

I spent years trying to weed by hand. Hours and hours and hours each season. This year I used a broadleaf weed killer. What a relief! Two things to note: I once before tried the stuff that automatically mixes with hose water and did not find that effective. This time I mixed it into a watering can and properly covered every inch of lawn and got a much better result. It also took much longer than stated to work completely. Instructions states 'up to 3 week' but I'd say it took about 6 weeks until every last weed had vanished.

[GailV]

No clue where you live, but this time of year in our area our grass is dormant due to high temps and low water/drought.   If you fertilize during dormancy you might force top growth at the expense of the roots.  You want healthy roots!  OTOH, some weeds thrive in high temps and low water, so that's why they're dominant right now.

 

We have cool-season grass due to our zone (except for where our neighbor's zoysia has invaded our lawn, which really annoys me because zoysia is a stupid choice for our climate, but that's another story). If you're further south than us you might have grass that thrives in hot weather, in which case you can fertilize all summer, and not worry about herbicides stressing the grass right now.

 

Honestly, I'd ask someone local for advice, or google for websites with information specific to your area (cooperative extension offices, local nurseries, etc).  There are a lot of variables regarding climate, microclimate (shady? sunbaked?), type of grass, that play into this.

[VeteranMom]

For years, I battled weeds, bare spots, and brown spots in my lawn.  In the spring, I hired a lawn company to come out.  It's $56 every 6 weeks.  I was spending more than that trying to do it myself.  The amount of watering I do has really gone down this summer.  My lawn looks a lot better than when I was trying to fix it.  I fought the idea of hiring a company, but it has really been the best thing.  

[sdobis]

We used a lawn company last year. I loved the way my yard looked. We still had the creeping Charlie, but it seemed to be more under control. I think I'm going to do what I can to get through the rest of the summer and use a company starting in the spring. I hate to pay so much, but I told my hubby, "The grass really is greener on our side of the fence!"