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June 2012 Moms
NBR - weed control
So this is our first house and I/we know NOTHING about yard care. DH doesn't seem to care as much as I do about having a nice yard (the lawn desperately needs a mow and he has been putting it off for over a week now). So - given that I care about it and DH doesn't, I am taking responsibility for what I can. I know that weeds are a huge issue - and if we don't get to them soon our entire lawn will be overrun.
But - I have no idea what products work well, which ones are a waste of money etc. I've been googling a bit, but want to check with you ladies - what works in your experience? Are there any non-chemical methods that seem to work?
Any lawn/yard care advice for a total n00b?
Thanks!
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Re: NBR - weed control
We actually have TruGreen take care of our yard. We have about an acre of land and it cost us 35 for the first 3 treatments (some type of promotional offer) and now it's $75 every other time it's treated..usually once a month in the summer. Our yard looks awesome! I'd highly recommend them if they are in your area. Also, after they treat your yard, if your not happen with the results 2 weeks later then they will come back out and re-treat it as many times until you are happy at no charge. I've only had to have them come out 2 times extra for the year we've lived in our home.
HTH!
We hire a company to come spray, fertilize, aerate, etc. They usually come 5 or 6 times each year and do their thing...our grass has never looked better! We pay $180 for the whole year of service. And that's cheap...we have a huge yard and the first time we tried to fertilize ourselves we spent $100 on fertilizer alone.
If it's in your budget I would definitely reccommend hiring a service.
There arent really any non-chemical treatments for your yard besides pulling the little suckers (very time consuming). For beds you can use vinegar and water spray. My method is: pre-emergent in the spring (we are past this window of spring, usually it's late April) this will prevent gross annual weeds like crabgrass from coming up. Then maybe a week later you can aerate then throw down some fertilizer/broad leaf pesticide. Its a nice combo to green up the yard as well as keep out things like clover and dandilions. If you have nice, well drained soil you only need to aerate once a year, if you have hard clay soil, you can aerate twice a year, spring and fall. And don't fertilize in the middle of summer when it's hot, only in spring and early fall (before late oct).
You can spread fertilizer while pregnant because it is basically just nitrogen pellets, low dust, low potential of breathing this in, but stay away from any kind of pesticide. Just drag DH to Lowes or something like that and ask a garden expert to hook you up with the right stuff. And buy a spreader if you go this route, hand spreading will be disastrous... Good luck!
I'm in this very same position - when I moved into DH's house, he had just let grass grow up in all the gardens, and everything was overrun with weeds. Ironically, though, his indifference about the yard kept weeds out of the grass. When you mow, you can let the grass that you cut lay in your yard, and it helps reseed the grass, as well as act a little like mulch, to help retain water and protect from weeds.
I use vinegar around the edges of the garden to kill weeds, and I use salt in the cracks of the driveway to keep things from growing there. You probably already know this, but wherever you put down salt, you'll NEVER get anything to grow there again, so don't put salt down anywhere that you might someday want to plant.
Mulch is the most useful thing that you can do in the gardens... you'll obviously have to pull some weeds as they come up, but if you get a good layer of mulch down, weeds won't pop up as frequently, and they'll be easier to pull.
Good luck!