Mike wrote:
wrote in message
ups.com...

Mike wrote:
"the guy upstairs" wrote in message
news Hi All,

I have a new (to me) dwelling with a very badly neglected lawn.
Virtually all weeds. Can anyone recommend a site that would point me
to the right direction as to how to get rid of what I have and start
over.
If its all weeds you have a few options to start over:
1) Multiple broadleaf weed controls, then over seeding.

That assumes that the only problem is broadleaf weeds. If the lawn is
in very bad shape, it likely has other weeds and even worse undesirable
grasses that broadlead weed control isn't going to solve. A better
approach is to kill everything using Roundup and then reseed after it's
all dead. That assumes that the topsoil is decent, otherwise it's
time to fix that first.
Why not work with what you have? Kill off all the weeds, topsoil, overseed,
then clean up problem areas as they arise.

Because as I said, that assumes what you have are broadleaf weeds that
are easy to kill with a selective herbicide. It isn't easy or even
possible to kill off many undesirable weeds and grasses without killing
off whatever desirable grass there may be. A lawn that has poa
tirvialis, rough stalk blue grass, for example. There is nothing
that I know of that will eliminate that, or similar undesirable grass,
without killing the desirable grass.

Then, you can have existing random grasses that are not of the desired
color and texture. Or grass that is disease prone. You can spend the
next 10 years trying to overseed and deal with that or you can easily
kill the whole thing off and start over. Then you can have a uniform
lawn using new disease and insect resistant varieties that have great
color, texture, and other desirable charecteristics.


Much cheaper than killing off the
whole lawn.

$20 worth of glyphosate too much for your budget? What do you think
selective herbicide, grass seed, renting a slice seeder, fertilizing,
watering, and all the rest costs, not to mention labor?



2) Over seed alone (bad idea)
3) tear up the whole lawn and resod/reseed.

Personally the first option is the cheapest and easiest. But hire someone
to
spray the lawn, atleast the first time around, it'll cost you a lot less!

Why would it cost much less to hire someone to spray the lawn?
Weedkiller or glyphosate isn't that expensive. And most places, lawn
care companies aren't interested in one time treatment, nor are they
going to do it on the cheap.

Weedkiller is expensive when your buying it retail, and glyphosate is
extremely expensive when buying it retail.

Only if your stupid enough to buy it pre-mixed a gallon at a time.
It's readily available at agri supply centers or online for anyone that
cares to look. Even if you buy it concentrated at a home center, it's
not a major cost factor in any lawn renovation.


Also a spray truck will do a lawn in a lot less time.

Yes, that's true. Now go find one that will do a one time application
for a lawn renovation, without doing the whole job or taking a yearly
contract. Here in NJ they wouldn't even talk to you. But, I don't
recall that time was the issue. You claimed you could get a pro lawn
care company to apply a one time herbicide treatment and that it was
cheaper than doing it yourself. I can buy enough glyphosate for $50 to
kill all the grass and weeds in the whole neighborhood.