New House - yard full of weeds - Help!

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dlatin

100+ Posts
Just moved into a new house which the previous owner did not care much for lawn maintenance. The base would be bermuda, but it is pretty much all weeds.

I started working on the major weeds today, hand pulling, but then I realized it would take about a week of pulling to pull all the weeds by hand.

Does anyone recommend how I should go about re-claiming the yard? Does weed and feed really work in such extreme cases? Should I re-seed?

Any help would be appreciated.

Thanks
 
While I am only a gardener in the process of learning, slowly, I will say that it may behoove you to put the back breaking stuff in now. I would not want to use any chemicals, not that you would. You gotta get the roots out or they could pop back up. Go get some tall brown garden bags and make a goal to fill two up a day. You have the added sunshine to do this.

Just make sure to get the roots. Then you can maybe turn the soil over and treat the yard? I am going on hunch here. I am sure the actual gardeners will have a better solution but that is what I woud do.
 
I have a tool that is about 1 foot long and has a metal end that looks like a snake's tongue. I am basically on all 4s. I have yet to use the weed hopper but the tool I have plus a glove on the hand I'm using it with (otherwise say hello to blisters) works like a charm. But takes hours. I did the backyard this weekend for 2 hours and the front yard after work on Wed. for 2 hours. Not fun but I know that I have fewer weeds this year than last.
 
weed and feed sucks. Really, monoculture kind of sucks, but I understand about getting things under control.

Really, weeds are a symptom of poor soil health. Those are the plants that do well in the condition your yard is in. My thinking would be to
1) buy a weed popper or a diamond head hoe, and take down the weeds as you have time.
2) Top dress your lawn with about 1" of manure compost now and water it in to improve your soil.
3) Use a good organic fertilizer in mid april
4) Mow your yard as high as your mower goes, but do it every week. DO NOT BAG YOUR CLIPPINGS. The chopped up clippings are mulch, which hold moisture, protect the soil from high temps, and decompose nutrition back into the soil.
5) Water 1X/Week and not more, deeply.
6) In the fall, fertilize with a good organic fert and overseed with rye. Most people use annual ryegrass, but I'm beginning to think cereal rye is better. Either way, do it.
7) Next spring, spread Corn Gluten Meal in mid-February and start over.

Overtime, this will create a set of conditions that the grass will like and most of the weeds won't. A few really nice "weeds" that are superior in 1000 ways to bermuda grass (like sweet clover) will probably like it, but that's a good thing.
 
I'll try that. Rye grows in cool weather so the yard is green in winter. A healthy stand of rye would presumably inhibit the ability of weed seeds to germinate over the winter when the Bermuda is brown and dormant.
 
If you water the lawn first to get the soil nice and soft, the weeds will come up by the root easier, instead of snapping off at the base.
 
Man, I spent all day yesterday doing the same thing. My hands are toast today. Basically 4 kinds of weeds:

I had this kind of creeper weed that I could just rake up but that SOB stuck to everything.
Dandelions
Something that looked like parsley and had a white taproot
Wild Onion
 
I have no idea what the parsley weed was called,, but they were pretty easy to pull up. There were just a lot of them.

I had the same issue as you as we have moved into a new house where the previous owner did not take good care of the yard. I figure this is a 3-5 year project of cleaning the mess up.

Man, I hate to be the bearer of bad news here, but pulling is not going to cut it with nut grass. Usually they have 3 or 4 nodules/tubers/nuts that are weakly connected to the main stem. 98% of the time I tried to pull those up I did not get everything.

I suggest you use Image and reapply in 6 weeks.
 
GB-that's why I recommend the weed popper specifically- it gets the nutgrass, root and all.

I guess I just get very concerned about putting anything (like imazaquin) that kills a plant like dollarweed or nutsedge being anywhere near my kids, my dogs, me, or my water supply.
 
parsley weed - could it be purple nutsedge? That freaking weed is kicking my yard's *** this year. I have pulled tons of it up - only to learn that this is probably not a good thing. The seeds (nuts) reside under ground and when you pull them up you mess with the nuts and a few new weeds sprout up.

If anyone knows more about this stupid weed - fill me in.
 
Try this (homemade natural weed killer) The Link It is similar to some mixes I've read or heard about, except for the salt.

Here's another site: Link
 
nutsedgechain.JPG


this is the nutsedge I have been having. It is really broad leaf pain in the ***. pulling is bad - at least that is what the internet tells me.

kind of looks like parsley to me. The other pictures that showed up on yuor link - I haven't seen that stage yet.

I ordered some sedge hammer stuff last week. Put it on on a Sunday (wasn't supposed to rain for about 8 hours) and it started raining almost an hour and half later. I think I may have wasted 30 bucks on that ****
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I need to have my head examined. That doesn't look anything like parsley. my bad.

I was thinking onions.

What an idoit.
 
I would not recommend hand pulling the weeds unless you are a masochist. As others have said, you want to get your burmuda healthy. Begin by mowing the weeds ever week to prevent them from going to seed and to stunt their growth. This will also allow your bermuda to compete.

Apply the Image. The bermuda won't really start growing until April. Them make sure you are watering on a regular basis, especially if we have not had any rain. Once the temps are consistently over 80 degrees you can apply MSMA which should kill the weeds that are left. This stuff works great in bermuda but not for St. A.

I also would recommend compost. Once the grass is growing make sure to mow weekly and water regularly.

My comment on Ryegrass is this. I mow my yard all summer and enjoy the break in the winter. If you have Ryegrass you will have to mow it. In a warm winter it will grown like crazy. Also once the temps start to warm up Rye looks like crap.
 
Where can I get Image? Is it bad for the yard?

I don't want winter rye b/c I don't want to be mowing in the winter.
 
I'm saying that mowing will take care of the ones that get to be taller than your grass normally would be and you can then treat what is still alive in May with MSMA. It is a broadleaf weed killer that doesn't kill the bermuda.

Like I said in my last email, worry more about getting your bermuda healthy and it will take care of your weed problem for the most part. Yes, your yard won't be outstanding for a while because the bermuda is not actively growing yet. If you pull out all your weeds by hand you'll end up doing this every weekend as new weeds sprout.

If you put down a pre-emergent in the late fall it will reduce the amount of winter weeds that are coming up now.
 
I think we missed a very important question. What type of grass do you have and what type of grass do you want? There isn't a one size fits all solution.
 
Thanks for the input Bozo and others.

I have bermuda and will probably like to keep bermuda, but mainly that is what I grew up with.

Perhaps I wasn't clear, I started pulling weeds, using the weed puller tool, the hand tool with the metal bar with the snake tongue end. I gave up because I don't have 2 hours a day for weeks to work through my yard.

I don't have any nutsedge at this moment (fingers crossed).

Looks like I need to think LONG term, i was hoping to get it under control this year so I'm not that guy with the crappy yard.
 
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