"Peter H" wrote in message . cable.rogers.com...
"James Branvold" wrote in message
.. .
I have around 70,000 sq ft. of lawn: 10,000 sq ft. of sod and the rest
seeded. I put in the seed two years ago and we had very dry conditions in
Ottawa, Ontario. The seeded portion looks pretty bad. It is fairly thin in
areas that I can see individual clumps of grass surrounded by bare dirt. I
also have lots of weeds. I spent the past two weeks pulling nearly every
dandelion and I've pulled around 5000 so far. I must have 15,000 to 20,000
remaining weeds. There's a lot of variety in these weeds and I don't know
the names of most of them. I've taken out one nasty weed called a Viper
Bugloss (1000) and Canadian Thistle (50) and something that looks like
lamb's ear (200). I have lots of clover plus many others. I can't
realistically pull that many weeds.

I don't water my lawn. It takes 3 days to totally water my lawn with three
sprinklers going for 1 hour on a spot. I don't have the time or patience
to
do this. I am considering installing underground sprinklers this summer.

I started fertilizing last fall. I put a synthetic 9-4-2 on. I also put an
organic 4-4-2 on this spring. I'm not too pleased with the results.

So, this is the background. My question is: How do I get rid of the
majority
of the weeds? Would you spray with something like KillEx? Will overseeding
and watering "choke" out the existing weeds? How about a weed 'n feed
fertilizer? I've been hesitent to use chemicals since my two year old
plays
on the lawn. I don't think I can use Round-up. I can't "paint" 20,000
weeds.



I would suggest a granular weed and feed for your situation. It will go a
long way to removing the weeds and will help to fill in the grass as well.
Now is the time to do it.

Peter H


the granular is great for existing weeds but read the directions to
see what it will kill and if what you are trying to kill is supported
by the product. i like to put my weed and feed on when the grass is a
little damp/wet so the granuals "stick" to the weed leaf and that is
what kills them. i personally have found that putting weed and feed on
dry grass is not as effective. all products spell out how to use and
how to get best results right on the packaging.

the other option might be to use a hose end spray product.

70,000 sq ft is pretty big and i only have 15,000 feet of experience.

do some web searches. read the fert/weed/chemicals companies websites.
you may have to start from scratch again. overseeding might work but
be careful how it interacts with the killers.

i don't think that watering turfgrass will choke out a severe weed
problems. the weeds will take most of the water needed for the grass
root system. i think you need to get the weed problem under control
and then build healthy grass (seed, water, aerating, fert).

just my opinion fwiw.