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Since we are on the cusp of springtime and I live in a rental home where the lawn is cut for free every week, I haven't paid too much attention to my yard. However lately I have been noticing just how out of control it has become. Over 60% of the yard is clovers, weeds, or something else of the sort. There are tons of fire ants and mounds throughout the yard, so walking out there barefoot or in sandals is almost entirely out of the question.
Are there any beginner tips on how to undertake this? I want to try to reduce the number of weeds as much as possible and bring thick green grass in to replace it. My budget is limited, I'm obviously not going to uproot all the yard or come in and lay down sod. Just curious if there are any weed killer and fertilizer combos I could lay down that could give me even a modest improvement.
My neighborhood is about 80% rental homes, and no one else cares about their lawn. I'd like to be that one individual who does and becomes the local envy from a lush green lawn. Would appreciate any ideas to help me undertake this. Thanks!
Since we are on the cusp of springtime and I live in a rental home...
Tell your LANDLORD to start with the weeds...
pre emergent weed killer then post emergent weed killer
two courses of each will then leave you with a LOT of open dirt.
Rake in some fertilizer and seed. Repeat.
It won't hurt to fork and turn (manual till) the ground some too.
If you/we don't get regular rain after the seed repeat in the fall.
Since we are on the cusp of springtime and I live in a rental home where the lawn is cut for free every week, I haven't paid too much attention to my yard. However lately I have been noticing just how out of control it has become. Over 60% of the yard is clovers, weeds, or something else of the sort. There are tons of fire ants and mounds throughout the yard, so walking out there barefoot or in sandals is almost entirely out of the question.
Are there any beginner tips on how to undertake this? I want to try to reduce the number of weeds as much as possible and bring thick green grass in to replace it. My budget is limited, I'm obviously not going to uproot all the yard or come in and lay down sod. Just curious if there are any weed killer and fertilizer combos I could lay down that could give me even a modest improvement.
My neighborhood is about 80% rental homes, and no one else cares about their lawn. I'd like to be that one individual who does and becomes the local envy from a lush green lawn. Would appreciate any ideas to help me undertake this. Thanks!
Weed and feed or some other type of granular weed killer. I used to pull weeds and finally gave that up. Its like they never end. I put out the weed and feed on the parts that needed it and regular fertilizer on the parts that did not.
If you have a good lawn, the weeds won't grow. So you have to maintain during the year. Keep it watered and fed. Sometimes on the bad spots I will throw down a bag of garden soil and spread that out.
I have a huge yard and I'm done manually fighting the weeds! As for the ants, I used spectracide and that finally worked on leaf cutter ants. I tried the non poisonous ways many times, and nothing. I even tried to dig them out and move them. I was really just more curious as to how far the darn tunnels went - way too deep from what I found - lol.
Xeriscape. A good landscape cloth will prevent the weeds, cover with bark, wood chips, pecan shells, gravel, or some combination, and plant some native shrubs or trees which will not need excessive watering or fertilizing.
Low maintenence, looks great, and way more sensible than the effort of trying to get some foreign grass to look nice.
Xeriscape. A good landscape cloth will prevent the weeds, cover with bark, wood chips, pecan shells, gravel, or some combination, and plant some native shrubs or trees which will not need excessive watering or fertilizing.
Low maintenence, looks great, and way more sensible than the effort of trying to get some foreign grass to look nice.
Whenever I see a lush green lawn, the only thing I think of is all of the chemicals and poisons that were applied to the land. I'd rather have a few "weeds". Besides, frequent mowing makes it nearly indistinguishable from lawns without. But I'm not in the "deep South" so I suspect that our lawns are naturally better.
1) Get a tub of Cyper WP (online) and apply that with a hose sprayer (available at HD). That will put an end to fire ants (and, black widows too, who, btw, for some reason like to web in the entrances to fire ant hills). The stuff is non toxic to people and mammal pets. But will annihilate those bugs.
2) Spectricide weed killer available at HD should be applied as soon as growth begins AND Preen that entire place at the same time.
By June you should be pretty much weed free and fire ants will be greatly reduced....don't forget to re-apply that Cyper WP again in a couple months.
Since we are on the cusp of springtime and I live in a rental home where the lawn is cut for free every week, I haven't paid too much attention to my yard. However lately I have been noticing just how out of control it has become. Over 60% of the yard is clovers, weeds, or something else of the sort. There are tons of fire ants and mounds throughout the yard, so walking out there barefoot or in sandals is almost entirely out of the question.
Are there any beginner tips on how to undertake this? I want to try to reduce the number of weeds as much as possible and bring thick green grass in to replace it. My budget is limited, I'm obviously not going to uproot all the yard or come in and lay down sod. Just curious if there are any weed killer and fertilizer combos I could lay down that could give me even a modest improvement.
My neighborhood is about 80% rental homes, and no one else cares about their lawn. I'd like to be that one individual who does and becomes the local envy from a lush green lawn. Would appreciate any ideas to help me undertake this. Thanks!
Clover is good - provides nitrogen for the lawn and makes it look nicer. It also helps to aerate the soil, maintain moisture, encourages worms, and lots of other good stuff. Leave it alone. It is not a weed.
Fire ants are bad. Get Amdro. Use it carefully (as in don't disturb the mound). Follow the directions. Wear lace-up shoes or work boots - no tennis shoes with ventilation panels. Tuck your pants legs into your socks. You should be fine.
I am serious about the clover. A lawn with clover in it is much lower maintenance than a lawn that is all grass. Actual weeds may be a problem - crab grass springs to mind, it is pernicious and will displace grass and clover as well, leaving bare spots in its wake - but clover is NOT a weed.
If you have bare spots overseed in early spring. Overseeding can also be useful in helping to drive actual weeds out of the lawn as well, as some of them are opportunistic plants moving in to spots where there is no or little grass.
Tell your LANDLORD to start with the weeds...
pre emergent weed killer then post emergent weed killer
two courses of each will then leave you with a LOT of open dirt.
Rake in some fertilizer and seed. Repeat.....
won't you keep killing the new grass that comes up?
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