My lawn both front and back is an utter mess. Tons of random weeds, crab grass, patches of dirt, and regular grass.
I want to kill the whole lawn and start over , replacing it with regular grass interspersed with those little white clovers so I don't have to spray fertilizer.
What's the best process for this?
> Spray glyph sate
> Wait for die off
> Lay down seed
> ????
> New growth
Oh and pic is not my lawn, just some stock image.
My neighbor did this by accident a few years back and it worked out pretty well for him. Once the old crap is dead, mow it at the lowest setting and bag it, if you can. Carry away as many of the weed seeds as you can.
Best way is to spread granular weed n feed 3 or 4 times a year and mow regularly. Use spot herbicide on crabgrass or dig it up .
Best results for the least money and effort.
So like this guy said, I would start with a ton of weed killer. Wear a mask and do not spray that stuff if there is any wind at all. Then keep using weed and feed treatments every couple months. If you do this for long enough it will eventually get the lawn perfect.
Once you get there, start using the pre-emergence 1x a year for crab grass and use the above 2 items as needed during the year.
This is pretty much what I did. Sometimes you have to take out a few pretty big patches to get rid of stubborn weeds. This beggarweed was the name of my existence because you can tear out the leaves but the roots might be 2ft away be like 6”+ deep and it creeps under the St Augustine grass so you will tear up all the regular grass trying to get the whole weed out.
Some of it, I could spot spray the beggarweed and when the leaves die, try to trace it back to the root and the roots will be a little weaker and easier to pull at that point, but it was a lot of work. The backyard was so bad that I just killed a big chunk of all the grass and weeds and started fresh.
*bane of your existence, krauternon
> it's safe to poison your land
This brother. Preach.
I guess we just all 'died of weeds' before the sociopathic owners & operators of monsanto came along. baka
>Best way is to spread granular weed n feed 3 or 4 times a year and mow regularly.
I'm nervous about using any of the "grass safe" broadleaf herbicides, because I've got six large trees in my front and side yards, and most of my lawn is over their roots.
The trees are healthy, but the weed n feed instructions say not to use it around trees more than once every couple years.
By the time I can use it again, my lawn is more crab than grass.
(pic is not my yard, but similar)
This method produces the best results for the least effort, money, and chemical involvement. You might not end up with centipede or augustine, but it will be a turfgrass that thrives in your situation
americans are horribly dumb creatures i swear
black tarp that shit for like 2 months and let the sun nuke everything
This. Otherwise you will just poison yourself, your lawn, and the area/watershed around it.
Not completely wrong. They are naive, and suck up to whatever propaganda that is fed to them. Plus, they have a sort of ignorant protestant evangelical mindset. Just damage the land, no mind to future generations. Only to themselves in the immediate moment. Half-way to a sub-saharan who has no concept of winter, or the future.
Two months?
Takes about a day
Depends where you're living but the tarp method is the most cost effective, lowest effort and safest. If you're in a HOA, you're fricked and will likely have to sod.
If you want to do it quick, rent a skid steer and just scrap up the whole old lawn. Then when you're down to bare dirt, hydroseed it because laying sod will cost $20k+. At least this way you won't be spraying chemicals all over your property.
>spray glyphosate
holy frick, yeah dude just cover your entire lawn in a potent hormone disruptor
Don't worry he's american, he's already eating that shit.
To OP, you're are a homosexual just get a natural looking garden with wild flowers and weeds not those fake corporate monstrosities.
All modern herbicides are carcinogenic. Just remember that before you think to go dump gallons of it all around the place you live.
>patches of dirt
Either the ground is too dry or you have the wrong type of soil. You either need better soil, more frequent watering or both.
>don't have to spray fertilizer
It's not a huge amount of work if you start with good soil. If you still want clover for aesthetic reasons that's fine, but it's not a big deal either way.
>glyphosate
You don't want that shit in the ground when trying to grow your new lawn.
>I want to kill the whole lawn and start over
Just dig it all up then. After that you can loosen up the soil with a garden fork and mix some peat and compost into it. If possible get a few bags of loam topsoil and spread that on top. Buy a lawn weedkiller, not a broad spectrum herbicide. Lawn weedkillers are designed to attack common weeds without harming grass, so it's safe to spread on your new soil. If weeds appear in the future you can spread a bit more in the problem areas.
Give the soil a really good watering - as wet as possible without being waterlogged - immediately before you spread you new grass seed. This will help the seeds stick to the soil and begin to sink. Spread the seed and cover it with burlap or with an elevated net like pic related. This will stop birds eating the seed.
For the first few weeks you need to water it thoroughly every day to help the seeds sink deeper. Always water in the morning so the soil has time to dry (if it's wet overnight fungus may develop).
When the grass has germinated in all areas you can remove the nets or burlap. Now the hard work is over. You only need to water when the soil is dry and you only need to fertilise twice a year. You should also aerate the ground twice a year by poking holes all over it a few days after watering or rainfall.
Everyone in the thread has had their mind poisoned by monsanto. Plants don’t live without light and sheet. Cover the areas you want dead with cardboard and/or plastic sheets. The cardboard would eventually breakdown if you leave it. The plastic will get hot and essentially pasteurize the soil.. remove and re sod or whatever your wannabe boomer ass wants to do.
I’m interested in doing something similar. I have a very patchy grass/moss front yard. I was considering renting a sod cutter to remove the current grass and sodding it myself since it’s a pretty small yard (like 20ft by 20ft).
>My lawn both front and back is an utter mess. Tons of random weeds, crab grass, patches of dirt, and regular grass.
Tell neighbors you are conducting an experiment in biodiversity.
>lawn looks like shit
>dandelions and crabgrass everywhere
>plan to rent a sodcutter and purge it
>rental isn't available
>work shit coming up and not going to have time for the lawnpocalypse
>just buy a bag of weed & feed
>spread it
>a month later lawn looks pretty good
Don't go with the nuclear option until you've actually tried and exhausted simpler options.
>buying lawnslop to meet HOAs
only in america, grim
>america
Guess again.
Has anyone tried burning out the old lawn and then overseeding? Early spring seems like the preferred time to do a controlled burn.
If it's good enough for the prairie it should be good enough for my shitty crabgrass, right?
dethatch
mow short
maybe give the bare dirt spots a quick scratch with a cultivator if they're hard
overseed with clover
water generously
???
happy lawn
or if you truly want the nuclear option, cover your lawn with black tarp or cardboard until everything dies.
no need for chemicals.