On Nov 1, 9:54 am, Alan Hamlyn Alan.Hamlyn.
wrote:
'SteveB[_2_ Wrote:





;757288']I'm new here, but from the group name, it seems to be the place
for this.

We recently bought a home in rural Southern Utah. Zone 10. It is
basically
sand dunes on top of lava caps and caliche.

Our back yard is a rolling sand dune. We got the irrigation water
system
working this past summer, and what a mistake! I now have lots and lots
of
cockleburs. Little spiky spheres about 1/4" in diameter. I went out
and
sprayed Roundup on them and the other weeds and grasses I wanted to
kill,
but it only killed about half of them. I took a large propane weed
burner
to the rest of them. Some burned down, but some still have green
centers
that lived.

I have since removed all Rain Bird Maxi Paw sprinklers. I have sprayed
with
Roundup, and got the big concentrate bottle so I can spray more during
this
winter. At the end, I will burn it again, and have my BIL come in with
his
tractor rototiller to turn it over so I can rake out the roots. Maybe
some
of the eight billion cockleburs will bury in the soil and not germinate
due
to the Roundup.

Is this the logical approach? Suggestions which would be easier or
better.

When finished, we'll coutour the yard, place retaining wall, reinstall
the
sprinklers, and start from scratch. I just don't want a lot of weeds
sprouting through the new grass.

It's probably going to be constant war trying to keep the windblown
seeds
and bird borne seeds from getting hold in the new grass.

Steve

Before Considering using chemical weed killers, try some organic
techiques to control your weeds, manual weeding, put more grass down so
the weeds cant survive, really go all out on them! Remember your garden
is alive, weed killer is a chemical i dont always believe its the only
solution!

--
Alan Hamlyn- Hide quoted text -

- Show quoted text -

Roundup works in a week with minimal labor. Pulling weeds by hand,
in any sizable area is backbreaking work and doesn't work with weeds
that have root systems that just spring back. And trying to grow
grass in an area over run by weeds without first getting rid of them
is a costly, labor intensive, time consuming, water wasting
proposition, destined to fail. If you kill the weeds first, then
seed, it's a one time sure deal. How much pulling, repeat seeding,
watering, and screwing around is it reasonable to do to avoid one
application of Roundup?