GardenBanter.co.uk - Clover Control

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I have a bad clover problem here in the DC area. As much as I hate to use
chemicals, I may have to. We are planning to take a 3 week vacation
starting at the beginning of August.

Would I do damage to my grass if I sprayed a weedkiller on right before we
left, so as to minimize our exposure to it?

left, so as to minimize our exposure to it?

Nah not a problem I'd try to get some 3/4 dca to kill kill kill.

Moron

--
Bill S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden
What use one more wake up call?

How long have you been afflicted with a personality disorder?

In article ,
"Frank McElrath" wrote:

left, so as to minimize our exposure to it?

Nah not a problem I'd try to get some 3/4 dca to kill kill kill.

Moron

--
Bill S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden
What use one more wake up call?

How long have you been afflicted with a personality disorder?

All my life, how long have you been using chemicals in such an asinine
manner?

--
Bill S. Jersey USA zone 5 shade garden
What use one more wake up call?

How long have you been afflicted with a personality disorder?

All my life, how long have you been using chemicals in such an asinine
manner?

--

Never. That's why I am asking, you inbred cretin.

On Thu, 20 May 2010 18:57:10 -0400, "Frank McElrath"
wrote:

I have a bad clover problem here in the DC area. As much as I hate to use
chemicals, I may have to. We are planning to take a 3 week vacation
starting at the beginning of August.

Would I do damage to my grass if I sprayed a weedkiller on right before we
left, so as to minimize our exposure to it?

I love clover, especially red, but crimson is pretty and is a good
cover crop. Yellow sweet clover - I love the smell, although I think
its in the pea family and not really a clover. You probably have white
clover, which I also have plenty of. I need to buy some crimson clover
seed - I haven't grown that in a few years.

Thanks for the reminder! Can't help with with weedkillers - never used
them. Mowing seems to keep white clover looking tidy.

On 5/20/10 3:57 PM, Frank McElrath wrote:
I have a bad clover problem here in the DC area. As much as I hate to use
chemicals, I may have to. We are planning to take a 3 week vacation
starting at the beginning of August.

Would I do damage to my grass if I sprayed a weedkiller on right before we
left, so as to minimize our exposure to it?

If it's truly clover and not oxalis, try using a paring knife to cut the
root just below the soil and lift the plant. The remaining roots
contain nitrogen nodules that will nourish your lawn.

If it's oxalis or if you are really insistent on killing the clover, use
a lawn food with weed killer instead of spraying.

--
David E. Ross
Climate: California Mediterranean
Sunset Zone: 21 -- interior Santa Monica Mountains with some ocean
influence (USDA 10a, very close to Sunset Zone 19)
Gardening diary at http://www.rossde.com/garden/diary

brooklyn1 wrote:
On Thu, 20 May 2010 18:57:10 -0400, "Frank McElrath"
wrote:

I have a bad clover problem here in the DC area. As much as I hate
to use chemicals, I may have to. We are planning to take a 3 week
vacation starting at the beginning of August.

Would I do damage to my grass if I sprayed a weedkiller on right
before we left, so as to minimize our exposure to it?

What's a clover problem? I have no clover problem, the deer and
Canada geese think it's gourmet vittles... not to mention the bees.

So do horses and cattle but I doubt they have any of those.

D

In article ,
"Frank McElrath" wrote:

I have a bad clover problem here in the DC area. As much as I hate to use
chemicals, I may have to. We are planning to take a 3 week vacation
starting at the beginning of August.

Would I do damage to my grass if I sprayed a weedkiller on right before we
left, so as to minimize our exposure to it?

Our love of tidy but not very diverse yards is imprinted on us by our
culture. The immaculate lawn, under siege from ecological writers
everywhere, developed in the mild and evenly moist climate of Great
Britain. Its implications are deeply woven into our psyche. A lawn in
preindustrial times trumpeted to all that the owner possessed enough
wealth to use some land for sheer ornament, instead of planting all of
it to food crops.

And close-mowed grass proclaimed affluence, too: a herd of sheep large
enough to crop the lawn uniformly short. These indicators of status
whisper to us down the centuries. By consciously recognizing the
influence of this history, we can free ourselves of it and let go of the
reflexive impulse to roll sod over the entire landscape.

Spray and split, and leave your neighbors holding the bag. Lacks a
little something in integrity, but shows damn fine survival skills.

Now, would I prefer to have an inbred cretin with an aversion to
herbicides living next to me, or someone who is prepared to turn their
home into a Superfund site in order to get rid of clover, hmmmm. As luck
would have it, Bill who putters is already surrounded by superfund
sites, 3 or 4 in a radius of 10 miles, maybe 2 dozen within a radius of
50 miles, so you can imagine his reaction to your proposal.

Anyway, as luck would have it, the herbicide seems to be most dangerous
to broadleaf plants, and legumes, those plants so important in making
topsoil, that have been wiped out by commercial farming. But the planet
isn't your problem, is it? Now your problem is that eIther you can go
squat, and slice the offending clover off at its base with a knife, or
you can hang around after you've done your dastardly deed, and reseed
the area that was poisoned, because the lawn won't spread quickly enough
to fill in the bare spots by itself. That of course means that that you
will need to be there to water the nascent lawn patch, and thereby
putting an ugly hole in you vacation schedule.

Or, you could learn to love clover, topsoil, and your planet.

Good luck.
--
- Billy
"Fascism should more properly be called corporatism because it is the
merger of state and corporate power." - Benito Mussolini.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Arn3lF5XSUg
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Zinn/HZinn_page.html

In article ,
brooklyn1 wrote:

On Thu, 20 May 2010 18:57:10 -0400, "Frank McElrath"
wrote:

I have a bad clover problem here in the DC area. As much as I hate to use
chemicals, I may have to. We are planning to take a 3 week vacation
starting at the beginning of August.

Would I do damage to my grass if I sprayed a weedkiller on right before we
left, so as to minimize our exposure to it?

What's a clover problem? I have no clover problem, the deer and
Canada geese think it's gourmet vittles... not to mention the bees.

WOW! and I planted one acre of clover next to the bees home.
MAN! I did not know that clover was that horrendous that it should be
eradicated from the planet. MAN! I am stupid! (Go ahead I can take it).

--
Enjoy Life... Dan

Garden in Zone 5 South East Michigan.

Frank McElrath wrote:
I have a bad clover problem here in the DC area. As much as I hate to use
chemicals, I may have to. We are planning to take a 3 week vacation
starting at the beginning of August.

Would I do damage to my grass if I sprayed a weedkiller on right before we
left, so as to minimize our exposure to it?

Fertilize lightly with a high-nitrogen fertilizer with no
phosphorus. Keep the grass mowed, and don't water it too much.
(clover likes moist, low-nitrogen soil with lots of phosphorus.) The
grass should overtake the clover in the hot summer months.

If you just have to spray something, try something containing
dicamba or triclopyr.

I like clover and a few violets in the lawn. Creeping Charlie is
the lawn weed that I hate. (fluffing it up with a steel rake, kind
of like dethatching, right before mowing does a number on it and
almost keeps it under control)

Bob

On Thu, 20 May 2010 18:57:10 -0400, "Frank McElrath"
wrote:

I have a bad clover problem here in the DC area. As much as I hate to use
chemicals, I may have to. We are planning to take a 3 week vacation
starting at the beginning of August.

Do you have black medic? The most effective time to treat weeds is in
the spring.

Would I do damage to my grass if I sprayed a weedkiller on right before we
left, so as to minimize our exposure to it?

Follow directions carefully. Use sprays on a windless day.

David Hare-Scott wrote:
Frank McElrath wrote:
I have a bad clover problem here in the DC area. As much as I hate
to use chemicals, I may have to. We are planning to take a 3 week
vacation starting at the beginning of August.

Would I do damage to my grass if I sprayed a weedkiller on right
before we left, so as to minimize our exposure to it?

What is wrong with clover? What catastrophe would ensue if you had
clover in your lawn?

My understanding is that a clover lawn seldom needs mowing, requires
less water and fertilizer, and is naturally nearly weed free when
established.

http://landscaping.about.com/cs/lawn...er_lawns_3.htm

So much for the pluses, all of this is balanced by being able to be
killed by broad leaf plant poisons. The beauty of grass lawns is a
marketing invention of the chemical companies supplying broad leaf
toxins. Suburbia has largely bought into this.

Jeff

David