On 23 Feb 2003 18:12:32 -0800, (Holger Friebe) wrote:


(...(

So what can I do with my lawn ( I treated only a part of it, so my
daughter still has places to play)? A nice neighbor told me that "Weed
& Feed" applied in winter made the lawn look better in spring. So I
blindly applied that stuff (I´ve never had heard of it, I am German
and still have to learn many terms and products of gardening).
Are there any internet pages to order organic fertilizers (do organic
herbicides even exist?).

Thank again, Pam!
Jana

Okay, start again. Rule number one: Never blindly do what a nice neighbor
tells you to do. My neighbor shoots and eats mourning doves in his backyard,
puts down 25 pounds of Ironite yearly, and waters every day for 5 minutes. I
wont be taking his advice!

The reason you are seeing these weeds are most likely an indication of very poor
soil structure. Building a good soil with healthy micro and macro organisms is
very important, particularly for turf. Personally, I don't like turf and remove
it every year till it's mostly gone. I'll have the proverbial patch in front to
appease the neighbors (yuk).

Right now is an ideal time (had you not already used a weed and feed product)
would be to put down an organic weed control called, corn gluten meal. Here is
a lot of information on how it works:

http://www.gluten.iastate.edu/

mo

http://www.bioscape.com/bioweed1.html

If you live in the U.S. you can buy it at Lowes Home Centers. It has, as an
added plus a 10% nitrogen faction, which makes it a natural weed and feed.
NEVER feed turf in winter, not even in the hot states, not if you have trees.
If you read the bag of weed and feed, it should tell you on there it is not safe
to use around trees as it is an indiscriminate herbicide and can kill mature
trees as well as saplings. Just nasty stuff, atrazine.

If you want to protect the baby, please just put a nice thick blanket under her
and don't let her crawl on the turf till it rains at least 5 times. I may sound
alarmist, and maybe I am, but this is some nasty stuff they put in bags.

I apologize for my initial, knee jerk response.

Victoria