Hi,
I am in Albuquerque, new mexico. I have some questions about lawn
care, especially weed control.

I asked a landscaping company installed my backyard lawn this
January. It was good until about 1-2 month ago: it seems all out of a
sudden lots lots of dandelions coming up over a night! Before that
there was few weeds.

My wife suspected that's because usually I mowed front yard just
before back yard and our front yard always has dandelion.

Now my question is how to control it.

I went to Home Depot, the guy there told me to buy Scotts Plus 2
Weed Control, I did that, but it worked not very good.
Then I went to Rowlands, a famous nursery store here, the guy told
me to buy some product branded Fertilome, again it worked some, but
some so good.

I checked web and book store, someone claims that no easy way at all
to terminate dandelion. The only effective way is to pull them out by
hand!

Because we are disappointed by the products, so we did it today, --
pull them by hand.

It is so much work! We did most, but not all. the reasons are some
broken roots are still there, some are so small that it is hard to
pull them from the good grass, and last, we are too tired to complete.

The question:
1) In pulling the dandelions, we digged many holes. How should we
do with them? Put some dirt, compost or it's fine to do nothing?

2) How to do with the small ones, wait until they grow?

3) In general what's your experience of southwest lawn care?
Someone does not like commercial programs such as Scotts program, how
do you think?

Thanks.

(bill) wrote:

1) In pulling the dandelions, we digged many holes. How should we
do with them? Put some dirt, compost or it's fine to do nothing?

Put any soil you removed back into the hole and let it go. You can add
soil or compost if you are concerned about having a holes in your lawn

2) How to do with the small ones, wait until they grow?

That is all you can do.

3) In general what's your experience of southwest lawn care?
Someone does not like commercial programs such as Scotts program, how
do you think?

In a dry climate, many granular products may not work. They require
either rain or irrigation within a couple days after applying. The
spray products work much better. There are liquid products that have
applicators available so that you can walk around and just spray the
weeds and not waste money on the rest of the lawn. You must do this
when there will be no rain or irrigation for a couple days. It is a lot
easier than digging.

Personally, I like the nice yellow flowers that appear in my lawn every
spring. They bloom about a couple weeks and then just look green like
the rest of the lawn. It is better to improve the health of the lawn
than to spend a lot of time on the weeds. As long as your neighbors
have weeds, the seeds will drift onto your property. If you choose to
fight the weeds, it is an endless battle.

--
Pardon my spam deterrent; send email to
Cheers, Steve Henning in Reading, PA USA http://home.earthlink.net/~rhodyman

In article ,
"S. M. Henning" wrote:

(bill) wrote:

1) In pulling the dandelions, we digged many holes. How should we
do with them? Put some dirt, compost or it's fine to do nothing?

Put any soil you removed back into the hole and let it go. You can add
soil or compost if you are concerned about having a holes in your lawn

2) How to do with the small ones, wait until they grow?

That is all you can do.

3) In general what's your experience of southwest lawn care?
Someone does not like commercial programs such as Scotts program, how
do you think?

In a dry climate, many granular products may not work. They require
either rain or irrigation within a couple days after applying. The
spray products work much better. There are liquid products that have
applicators available so that you can walk around and just spray the
weeds and not waste money on the rest of the lawn. You must do this
when there will be no rain or irrigation for a couple days. It is a lot
easier than digging.

Personally, I like the nice yellow flowers that appear in my lawn every
spring. They bloom about a couple weeks and then just look green like
the rest of the lawn. It is better to improve the health of the lawn
than to spend a lot of time on the weeds. As long as your neighbors
have weeds, the seeds will drift onto your property. If you choose to
fight the weeds, it is an endless battle.

I agree. I also live in Albuquerque and get a ton of baby dandelions in
my lawn in the fall and got tired of picking them. I overseed at this
time of year and water heavily; my lawn will thicken up so much in the
next month that those weeds will mostly get choked out, and my lawn
always looks great in the summer (I use a pre-emergent crabgrass
inhibitor and weed-n-feed in the early spring, and plain fertilizer
mid-summer; I don't use insecticidal lawn food).

For dandelions I've found using a spray broadleaf weed killer according to
the directions works well.


"bill" wrote in message
om...
Hi,
I am in Albuquerque, new mexico. I have some questions about lawn
care, especially weed control.

I asked a landscaping company installed my backyard lawn this
January. It was good until about 1-2 month ago: it seems all out of a
sudden lots lots of dandelions coming up over a night! Before that
there was few weeds.

My wife suspected that's because usually I mowed front yard just
before back yard and our front yard always has dandelion.

Now my question is how to control it.

I went to Home Depot, the guy there told me to buy Scotts Plus 2
Weed Control, I did that, but it worked not very good.
Then I went to Rowlands, a famous nursery store here, the guy told
me to buy some product branded Fertilome, again it worked some, but
some so good.

I checked web and book store, someone claims that no easy way at all
to terminate dandelion. The only effective way is to pull them out by
hand!

Because we are disappointed by the products, so we did it today, --
pull them by hand.

It is so much work! We did most, but not all. the reasons are some
broken roots are still there, some are so small that it is hard to
pull them from the good grass, and last, we are too tired to complete.

The question:
1) In pulling the dandelions, we digged many holes. How should we
do with them? Put some dirt, compost or it's fine to do nothing?

2) How to do with the small ones, wait until they grow?

3) In general what's your experience of southwest lawn care?
Someone does not like commercial programs such as Scotts program, how
do you think?

Thanks.

On Tue, 28 Sep 2004 14:30:11 GMT, "Mark Simon"
wrote:

"bill" wrote

I asked a landscaping company installed my backyard lawn this
January. It was good until about 1-2 month ago: it seems all out of a
sudden lots lots of dandelions coming up over a night! Before that
there was few weeds.

For dandelions I've found using a spray broadleaf weed killer according to
the directions works well.

I have had good luck spot-treating dandelions with a broadleaf killer
(Weed B Gon). Even with many next door, this reduced mine to a
manageable number after a couple of years. I don't think they can ever
be completely eradicated.