wrote:
wrote:
we have been in our house for 3 years and have never been brave enough
to tackle the garden. its gotten progressively worse and is nice
basically all weeds, which i embarrasingly cut every copule of weeks.
You would be surprised how quickly this can be reversed by the
application of a selective broad leaf weedkiller or proprietory lawn
weed and feed mixture. All you have to do then is cut the grass every
couple of weeks and the vast majority of the weeds will die off. And
the feed component makes the grass grow strongly again. Then go over it
a month or so later using the same lawn weedkiller as a spot weeder on
the tough established weeds.
I find uprooting large dandelions and buttercups very therapuetic YMMV.
I don't bother treating a few daisies or other nice wild flowers in my
lawns.
[...other sensible stuff snipped...]
Lawn weedkiller (or better a spring weed and feed mixture).
Need not be expensive or time consuming to apply. You still have to cut
the lawn regularly though to get maximum benefit from the treatment.
I really would not even consider turf in your position. Keep on
cutting, at _least_ once a week, and it'll turn into a lawn fast
enough. Once the weeds are more or less under control, you can
vigorously rake it over and sow some cheap lawn seed if the process
wants helping along: in spite of the books, you can do this at almost
any time of year with reasonable results. It's dead easy.
Why not turf? Well, it's expensive for a start, even if you do it
yourself. Then doing it right is a lot of work: much more than starting
from seed. Then it's almost always unnecessary anyway.
People make money by encouraging the public to think that turfing a
poor lawn is the normal way to go: but it isn't normal, it's
exceptional. Television makeover programmes are also to blame: if you
want the Boss to come home after a weekend with Mother and burst into
grateful tears at a miraculous transformation while Charlie glugs
champagne, turf is the only answer. But real gardens don't work like
that.
--
Mike.