The Glade 4.0

Foamy and I have a problem with our backyard. Weeds have become so abundant across the yard, that we can't tell what is grass. We have three major weeds. Clover, Dandelions, and the most invasive is this crab grass vine. This year we want to be sure the grass takes hold first instead of the weeds. Anyone know anything about lawn care?

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"None is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the people safe as they are the
ultimate guardians of their own liberty."- Thomas Jefferson

"Yeah, I'm rehearsing my poker face. I don't handle stupid well. *sigh*" - Farsky

You can't get rid of crab grass easily. I'd go down to the gardening store and ask for the lawn guy to tell you what works, what is legal in your state, and what the hardiest type of lawn grass seed is for your area - it varies by climate and soil type.

I'm so tired of my lawn I'm thinking of encouraging the clover to just take over.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

If I remember you mentioned having a small yard? If so I recommend Ortho Weed-B-Gon. It is cheap, won't kill the grass, hooks up to the hose so you don't need a special spreader and kills them off PDQ:
http://www.homedepot.com/Outdoors-Garde ... ogId=10053

The only downside is that it only seems to last about two months for me before a new crop pops-up.

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Oh and as an aside, I've tried using various makes/combos with a spreader and this has actually worked out best for me.

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Someday, I'd like to own a house just outside the city limits or whatever, and just let my lawn/yard go to meadow.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

I've tried that, my neighbors don't like the meadow look next to their manicured lawns.

I live in a blue collar neighborhood too, whats with the manicured lawns, we're supposed to be too busy having BBQs and drinking beer to put that much effort into lawn care.

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The U. S. Constitution doesn't guarantee happiness, only the pursuit of it. You have to catch up with it yourself. B. Franklin

"A mind needs books like a sword needs a whetstone." -- Tyrion Lannister, A Game of Thrones

Yeah, the other caveat to that is that it would have to be a somewhat rural road/neighborhood, where you can have some woods and space between your driveway and the next.

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"Aaaah! Emotions are weird!" - Amdee
"... Mirrorshades prevent the forces of normalcy from realizing that one is crazed and possibly dangerous. They are the symbol of the sun-staring visionary, the biker, the rocker, the policeman, and similar outlaws." - Bruce Sterling, preface to Mirrorshades

Dandelion greens are awesome in salad and soups. Just sayin... they can't grow if you EAT THEM ALL

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If it's as bad as you describe, you may be best off:
Destroying it to save it.

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"Dress cops up as soldiers, give them military equipment, train them in military tactics, tell them they’re fighting a ‘war,’ and the consequences are predictable." —Radley Balko

Crabgrass is EASY PEASY to get rid of........Use Scotts lawn fertilizer with crab grass control!!!! You'll need to put it down ASAP! End of Feb/beginning of March is best. This will prevent "most" of it from popping up. Make sure when you put it down, do it on a day when you'll be expecting a nice soaking rain....not downpouring rain, but a long day of constant drizzle to get the chemicals down into the soil.

As for the Dandelions....a nice weed and feed....Scotts makes one will take care of the dandelions. I can't remember right off the top of my head when I put that down...I wanna say sometime after April.

For the Clover, get a nice species specific broad leaf weed killer. More than likely it'll take a few applications before all of the clover is gone. My yard was riddles with it and 2 applications of a nice weed killer took care of it all.

What I would do right now is go and OVERseed your yard with a good grass seed. during the spring, the grass will come up first and you'll see less and less weeds popping through. At the end of the year, for your last cut, cut the grass lower than normal (if you still have a ton of weeds) and the overseed again. Then put down a nice winterizer and you should be set by spring.

Desert landscaping FTW!

Still have to spray for weeds though...

Buy a sheep.

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Holy shitsnacks!

Both clover and dandelion are edible.

Besides you can't find 4 leaf clovers without any clover.

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"...but there exists also in the human heart a depraved taste for equality, which impels the weak to attempt to lower the powerful to their own level and reduces men to prefer equality in slavery to inequality with freedom." - De Tocqueville

I know their edible but I'm not putting them in my Salad, besides if I want to eat them i'll keep them. I want to vanquish the Evil Irish invader along with its pet the Dandy Lion, and I need to triumph over the vile and vicious crabby grassy.

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"None is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the people safe as they are the
ultimate guardians of their own liberty."- Thomas Jefferson

"Yeah, I'm rehearsing my poker face. I don't handle stupid well. *sigh*" - Farsky

OMG- It has started already the clover. AAAAAAAHHHHH, must apply scott's

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"None is more important, none more legitimate, than that of rendering the people safe as they are the
ultimate guardians of their own liberty."- Thomas Jefferson

"Yeah, I'm rehearsing my poker face. I don't handle stupid well. *sigh*" - Farsky

Lawns with dandelions and clovers are pretty IMO than nothing but drab uniform conforming grass.

I'm no expert but to be effective you probably need to bulldoze it all, put down new soil, and re-seed. There's probably other tricks you can do but I doubt they are solid solutions.

This.

I went with the scorched earth policy a few years back, and then resoiled and sodded my entire yard. The results are everything I had hoped they would be.

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Ezekiel 23:19-20 

I'm in the kill it all and start over. You don't really have to go crazy in prep even if you don't want to. Roundup the whole thing. When it dies cut it as short as you can and round up again and thatch it, and scalp the top.

Be sure when you reseed you rake the ground first for furrows for the seed to fall into and not just blow around. It's not really the weeds you need to worry about taking root in this, it's the wild grasses. I've put in a lot of lawns and this is the sure fire and probably cheaper way to do it. Be sure to get a good grass mix for your area/climate.