WEEDS!!!!

[eggonlegz]

Hi i have recently moved into a house and the lawn is covered in weeds dandilions and more i don't even know what some of them are lol and too be honest the lawn is not the best dying in places! i have cut the lawn 3 times in about 6 weeks but it is not the lawn growing it is the weeds today after advice i put normal table salt in the middle of them all they do look to be wilting already does anyone have any tips for me? [/b]

[rainbowgardener]

Salt sterilizes the soil. It will kill whatever was growing there, but it is likely that nothing else you put in that spot will grow now either. Once the weeds you salted are dead, you should flush the soil out as well as you can...

If you have more weeds than lawn, you might want to just start over. Till it up and till in soil enrichments and lay down new grass seed. Fall is a good time to do that.

[applestar]

I just want to comment that THIS is the time to decide, BEFORE you put down anything toxic, whether you want to use conventional chemical herbicides, pesticides, and fertilizers, or try to stay non-toxic and organic all around, or take a middle stance.

Do read up on pro and con arguments -- look around in the Organic Gardening section and the four sub-forums therein, or use the search box available at top left of most pages.

The presence of a "weedy" lawn *to me* indicates a relatively poison-free property with a healthy eco-system, rather than a "neglected" one as some (or most?) may think.

[cynthia_h]

What about solarizing? Lots of threads here on that method: non-labor intensive, pretty low-cost. Not fast, though; takes several weeks to a couple of months, depending on where you live. But this buys you time for planning that nice garden...

Cynthia H.
Sunset Zone 17, USDA Zone 9