Lakee911
Clintonville (South)
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I've been working on improving my lawn for a few years now. It's always some utility replacement project, or lack of rain, or something that hinders the process. It's slowly getting better though.
Lately my backyard (which is relatively flat and holds a bit of water) is being taken over by nutsedge. :( Does anyone else have this problem? If so how have you dealt with it? It's too much to pull by hand too.
Thx
Mercurius
First Avenue
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First, I'd try iron - something like Ironite or Green Max that has at least 6% iron. Iron HEDTA kills most plants but just makes grass more green. If you want conventional fast results you are going to want to use a pesticide with sulfentrazone in it.
misskitty
Columbus
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My front yard is sadly grassless at the moment. For some reason Grass always has a hard time growing in the front. Last year I laid the grass seed to try again and the neighborhood kids killed it before it had a chance lol. But I did it again this year with a system in place so the kids can’t kill it only to get a letter from Columbia Gas informing me that they will be digging up the majority of my front yard. On the plus maybe they will replace the grass and it will grow after all.
Lakee911
Clintonville (South)
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Mercurius wrote >>
First, I'd try iron - something like Ironite or Green Max that has at least 6% iron. Iron HEDTA kills most plants but just makes grass more green. If you want conventional fast results you are going to want to use a pesticide with sulfentrazone in it.
Thanks. I'll take a look at those products and the link.
misskitty wrote >>
My front yard is sadly grassless at the moment. For some reason Grass always has a hard time growing in the front. Last year I laid the grass seed to try again and the neighborhood kids killed it before it had a chance lol. But I did it again this year with a system in place so the kids can’t kill it only to get a letter from Columbia Gas informing me that they will be digging up the majority of my front yard. On the plus maybe they will replace the grass and it will grow after all.
Columbia Gas will probably do a good job of digging up your yard and then leaving a pile, with topsoil on the bottom, that they tell you will eventually settle. The EPA requires them to provide vegitation to prevent errosion. They'll throw a handful of seed over their shoulder while muttering 'sucker!' on their way out...
Come to think of it, the places where I have nutsedge is the same places that Columbia Gas dug up...hmm... weed seed, anyone?
Make sure they compact the area where they've done the work and that they grade it properly and put down seed and straw.
I had a slightly better experience with them because I was forced to pay for their services...long story. At any rate, its difficult to get utility contractors to properly restore the site even on a golf course, so if you don't have grass to begin with, you might be at a greater disadvantage.
Is your lawn in the sun/shade? What's the soil compositoin? Have you had it tested/evaluated? What kind of seed have you tried?
Parker
Franklinton
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The problem with nutsedge is that it has a rhizome and unlikely to respond to herbicides because killing the green part does nothing to the network of white roots underground. They are a lot like thistle, but without the prickly leaves - pulling them only makes them angry if you don't pull the root (rhizome) with it. The only way to get get rid of this weed is to keep them from going to seed and exhaust their rhizome where they store energy. Successive forced growth and pullings will do the trick. Pulling them after a heavy rain is the best time (or after running the sprinkler for an hour or so) because the soil loosens up and makes it easier to pull more root (rhizome) out and the plant will also start to grow more. This later part is important because to grow more it takes energy from its rhizome. It will grow again, and you want to get it out as fast as you can see them so they can't "recharge" their rhizome.
Good luck!
alexs
Limestone bluffs of the Scioto
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I've got the nutsedge under control here. I've had major infestations of garlic mustard and garlic chives, and I've almost eradicated them but I leave just a bit for eating.
Last year I identified one of our most persistent weeds as purslane, which turns out to make a nice snappy salad green.
We get a vine that I call "pea vine" but that's probably not the right name; it's similar to bindweed but with wider and darker leaves. (Right now you can see last year's seed pods remaining, they resemble milkweed pods.) It will blanket other plants if not controlled, and you will never, never dig out the last bit of root.
Mercurius
First Avenue
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lazyfish wrote >>
I have a natural yard, I weed the grass out. Oak and Pennsylvania sedge make up the lawn, right now it is abloom with spring beauties, violets...earlier had a mass of scilla, puschkinia and chinodoxa.
That's fine - but it's important to have the same or greater density as grass so you don't get erosion and phosphorus leaching with the erosion. Any bare ground should have 2 to 3" of mulch/leaves on it to stop the erosion. http://www.gcsaa.tv/view.php?id=179
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