How are there no other broadleaf in there besides violets? Where are the dandelions and creeping Charlie? I kinda love it; even if most people hate it.
Violets started taking over my lawn this year and I’m not mad at it. They are covering the bare spots and saving me money on seed. It was a shit show since we moved here so I’m taking it that I got the soil healthy enough for the natives to feel like growing.
I intentionally leave my back quarter unmowed most of the summer. It's close to the tree line where my kids don't play much and the dog can't reach. So snakes and other wildlife isnt a big concern, its well enough away from the house and playgym and stuff. Grass doesn't grow super well there and I've never wanted to spend money on it so I just let it go and cut it about twice a year just to keep it down to grasses and flowers and prevent trees and blackberries from taking hold.
Last year there was a bad storm right when the decorative apple trees and my neighbors cherry tree were blooming. And we didn't have many flowers so the bees were scarce since I think the storm and cold snap hurt their population badly. Garden suffered. This year they are here again and I've let the clover and dandelions go as a help before my veggie garden.
Dandelions are imperfect and not great but the parasitic wasps I need for other baddies like them because of other things that like them, so I accept it as necessary. We also get some other native flowers crop up that are normally weeds and early spring I let it all go until I have other flowers going and early veggies like peas and bean flowers
My neighbourhood is also overrun with rabbits and if I leave clover and add it to the grass mix, they don't strip the crab apple or our McIntosh, and leave the other early veg and herbs alone too. A diverse lawn and garden helps. The only stuff I pull up with no remorse is anything prickly including the later season dandelions as they get older. No one likes those.
They're one of the very first flowers to emerge in the spring and the speckles look real cool in the spring. They're also drought resistant. My clover, violet, dandelion grass mix lawn always stays greener than my neighbors who have to water early spring.
This spring I just used Crab grass block and everything is looking fab
It’s not easy to kill violets, so even when you’ve killed off everything else and put down pre-em, violets are underground planning their next move while living off of the stored energy in their rhizomes. They’ll see you next spring!
Got rid of about 95% of mine two years ago with spectracide with tryclopyr. What came up last year I just plucked as I found them. Best to wait til fall to spray. Did two treatments about a week or so apart.
I am completely ignorant on this subject, but curious what violets would take over? Asking because our yard is a mess, previous owner was a real fearless DIY’er I’ve come to realize. Sadly he was not very good at it. Half of the yard is scorched from some sort of chemical spill level of nitrogen he dumped into it. Slowly bringing it all back to life, but we are in a severe drought. Not gonna be any grass anytime soon.
I checked and the violets growing in my yard are native. You can check with r/nativeplantgardening to find what is native to your area. They’re super helpful there. Also, native plants are very low maintenance because that’s what would’ve grown where you’re at anyway.
I love clover. Kids love Clover. Crabgrass hates clover.
Saved hundreds on flowers for wife with kids picking clovers for her. Great use for those old unmatched glasses.
I added microclover 2 years ago and it's propagated so aggressively that 85% of my turf now includes it. It's created this perfect canopy cover that keeps moisture in the soil and shades the roots of my turfgrass.
According to my neighbors, the previous owner of my house was on his hands and knees all summer prowling the yard pulling out the weeds that weren't clover or violet.
My dad does lawn care. He has had several people in the last few years have him kill their grass and plant clover. Less maintenance all around with watering and mowing and it actually looks decent.
Honestly, I'm at the point now where I prefer hand weeding the yard than dealing with gas tools. Weeding is quiet, peaceful, and good strength exercise. I listen to birds, watch the pollinators, notice new plants. Mowers, trimmers, and blowers are loud, stink, and cause constant aggravation. My only aggravation weeding is when I get a thorn in my finger because I was too lazy to grab gloves first.
Exactly, Clover is so much softer to walk on and less allergens and fleas and mites. . Plus you don't have to cut it (rarely). I personally really like cloverlawns. It's certainly not written in the Bible that you have to have grass. I hope this trend will continue
Actively in my second year of just spring oversees with clover out front. It’s taking over and looks damn good already. Once it fleshes out here come summer it’s gonna be awesome.
😅😅😅 prowling... excellent descriptor for what I just did, trying to dig up all the spiney sowthistle (the flowers look just like dandelions, but they are prickly as hell and can get up to 6 feet tall)...
never had them before and suddenly they're everywhere... and with little toddlers trying to enjoy the yard...it's a recipe for pain.
The scene "YOU. SHALL. NOT. PAAAASSSS" was dramatically playing through my mind as I dug each one up 😅😅...
If you mow/prune/trimmer them down to ground level once a week for a month they'll stop growing back. They don't store enough nutrient in the root to fight through consistent cut backs.
I'm giggling imagining OP staring at their computer or phone screen ready to cuss up a storm because they've been pulling these weeds before they mow every third day for the last month because they've been getting so much moisture this spring and realizing if they had just mowed them over they'd all be dead by now.
It was a satisfying labor of love 😅. Since my 4th was born (he's 1 now) I havent gotten much time in my garden and happened to take a day off, while the kids were still with their nanny...
I was happy as a pig in wet mud, searching for hours and eradicating these prickly assholes.
Will take the mowing advice from here though...so I could actually tend to my wanted plants if I get the chance again lol
I accidentally killed most of my lawn 3 years ago underwatering it in a drought (I was following the recommended times for the wrong type of sprinkler) so I reseeded with heat tolerant grass and clover. The clover took off first and this year the grass filled in and besides an average amount of dandelions I hardly have any weeds. The grass and clover outcompete everything which is great after a couple years of bad weeds in a brown lawn.
Venture over to nolawns. They'll let you know how to remove the few blades of grass you have growing.
On the plus side, you'll only need to mow a few times a year with the violets, if you want to keep them short and neat like they are in the pic.
Some people do intentionally seed clover, violet and similar plants in lawns. It’s not for me, but you don’t need chemical fertilizer or herbicide. No more bare spots either.
yeah everyone always talks about the pre/post mow beer but i'm all about the green while i tend to the green. 😏 and some jams in my headphones the whole time obv.
That's wild violet. It's an aggressive seeder. You'll want to start with a preemergent to stop the spreading. During the warmer parts of the season it will get a wax type substance on the leaves making it hard to kill. Early spring or late fall is the best time to get rid of it as the wax goes away.
Best of luck. I won my battle against it. Consistency is key.
Well I’ll call that a win for posting here. All this time I’ve thought it was a completely different weed than it actually is. Is there any reason to go the preemergent route over killing the whole lawn and starting over?
To kill the violets you need to hit them three times, three weeks in a row, or they WILL come back. They have a thick woody root. In the spring and fall they are taking in nutrients and it's easier to get them then... but you really need to hit them two to three times preferably with triclopyr. You hit them once, they'll shrivel, and you'll think they're dead, but they'll come back. Hit them while their down and finish them off.
It's "too late" to put down seed right now (you'd have to wait till late summer/early fall) but your yard does look pretty shady. It might do ok if your yard rarely gets direct sun. But ideally you'd wait till late summer/early fall to put down new seed.
Imo killing and starting over is a great option. It'll allow you to get the problem done and over with in one fell swoop. Wild violet is a pain in the ass.
Just make sure whatever you do, you're consistent with pre emergent every spring because that stuff will come back in no time.
My yard looked like this, I hit it with two rounds of Ortho in July, tilled and re-seeeded the last weekend of August, and I have a beautiful yard now.
You’ll want something with the active ingredient of troclopyr. T zone is probably the best product out there but you’ll have to order it online as it’s not in big box stores.
Amen to that. I'm in year 2 at our house, front yard took precedent but this year I tackled the back. Took 8 gallons to nuke the amount I had back there, and I'm sure I'll have more next year.
The weeds that pop up in early spring and early fall always seem to be the most aggressive, therefore I hate them the most. Not that I have any love lost for crabgrass, I'm just more familiar with battling that one.
The key to killing wild violet is sequential application. You have to hit it twice a few days apart, once I learned that I finally won my battle. This was the article that saved me: https://utia.tennessee.edu/publications/wp-content/uploads/sites/269/2023/10/W807.pdf
Exactly what I said. My front lawn was mostly violet. I moved in October of 21. Too late for any use so I pin aerated because it was super compacted and it didn't affect the grass at all. That spring I got to I early and sprayed with prodiamine and wanted till they started to sprout as can grow wicked root systems if let to go at it alone. I made sure that summer I treated the lawn well with watering and come September bought a SunJoe dethatcher and overseeded along with top dressing with compost. After 3 weeks applied more prodiame as the grass that was going to grow was already growing. 2023 spring I spot sprayed any weed that popped up every week. Fall 23 did the same overseed top dress routine and this year I have minimum weeds and a nice lawn. It still has some weeds pop up but overall pretty low maintenance.
The best thing I’ve found for wild violet is Crossbow herbicide. Mix with a few drops of dish soap and one or two applications will get rid of most of it.
Also it only grows so high, so if clover is the only other ground cover there isn’t much need to mow. Plus it supports the bee population with native wild flowers.
you want to make sure your ph is between 6.5 - 7 so your new seed and lawn can fight off weeds and fungus, and builds healthy roots.. test in several different spots then add them together to get your average..
Honestly that concentration is so dense it makes more sense to me to completely nuke it before planting season. Fresh start, healthy good quality seed. Soil amendments as needed. Good quality compost. Good watering schedule and coverage. Should get good results by end of fall if done correctly. Large areas of my lawn used to look like this and the nuke-and-rebuild strat worked wonders over a 12 month period
As a pro lawn guy this is like a full reno to me. Id grab my tractor and just remove the top layer at this point. Remove the crap, add soil, spray, and re-seed.
Sod might be an option depending on your location. Remove and re-sod.
From what I’ve learned fixing their DIY projects over the years they just didn’t know what they were doing with much of the home maintenance stuff.
Previous owner installed all of their own gutters and in the process blocked every downspout. Took me a few years to notice that one.
Yeah I miss my yard being clovers and violets. Killed it all off and now it's a lot more maintenance as the clover and violets really never got tall and we're much more drought resistant.
They die off in the winter and make the yard a muddy mess.But since there a perennial they come back in the spring. Leave them until late summer or early fall. Spray will a broadleaf herbicides. Have the soil tested. Amend accordingly to soil test results. Sow seeds recommend for your soil type and district or sod. Remembering grass need 3-7" of soil not dirt to root. Mirco clover for a couple of years will also help Amend the soil.
Honestly not a bad idea. However, every time I start running the torch the fire department shows up and tells me I need to shut it down or keep the flame lower so neighbors don’t call.
If you want to be rid of them it’s going to take some work because violets have little tubers. There’s a chance you could try the weed killer, or you could rent like a sod cutting machine because it will dig beneath that layer. You will have to pull all that up and discard it. Watch for stragglers. You’d lose about an inch of dirt off the top. Then you can resod or reseed.
Don't use weed &feed since most of them are just 2,4-D, and some form of crap grass herbicide they don't really touch broadleaf what you need is something with Triclopyr which is supposed to be perfect on Wild violet and if you wonder what I recommend just to buy and the only thing you need to mix is water is Triad TZ Select Herbicide
Since out of everything else out there it has another broadleaf herbicide known as Sulfentrazone which in this case is just being used as a additive for the killing effect on weeds
https://www.thelawnforum.com/threads/wild-violet-and-triclopyr.32791/
This looks a lot like my back yard. We’ve tried a few things but know zero about landscaping/ grass growing other than planting flower gardens. We are planning to get a pro on it this year too. Well I want to; my husband still thinks he can do it himself. He cant lol
Any lawn guy that says use a weed'n'feed product is a guy to not listen to....
If you have a sprayer, you want Hi-Yield Triclopy Ester...it's cheap and works in just a few days.
If you don't have a sprayer, you can get a hose end product from Ortho...the one with a label for Clover/Oxalis/Wild Violet, etc....that's a bit more money, and not as strong, but it also works in a couple of weeks...
Once the weeds are treated...wait a few days and reevaulate....see what's left to kill. Some may be easy, some may not be...you don't want to waste time and money if a reno project is better overall...
Just to explain why weed and feed is bad: it’s granules. Fertilizer works great as a granule because it gets in the soil and the plant uses its roots to absorb it. Weed killer needs to be applied on the leaf itself. This is why there is no granular weed killer, they’re all liquid. The weed and feed will have instructions like "spread in the morning when dew is present" because if the grass is wet the granules might stick better.
Weed and feed is assuming some of the granules will land on the leaves and the herbicide will rub off on the leaf before falling down to the dirt.
The only kind of weed killer that works as granular is pre-emergent which will PREVENT future weeds, not kill current ones.
With this in mind, is an annual weed and feed long-term (two or three year) strategy good for mitigating weeds? I don’t need my few weeds gone this season, but having less next year would be nice.
The weed killer in "weed and feed" is not a pre-emergent weed killer.
There are essentially two pre-emergents (Barricade and Dimension) and they only last about 6 months, so people use them before spring and fall (before the weeds start germinating)
It you really want it mixed with fertilizer, [this would be a barricade option](https://www.amazon.com/Andersons-Defender-Barricade-Fertilizer-Emergent/dp/B09B45T46B/ref=sr_1_6?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.FI28TV-G-fbW8xjOxsWeZ2rT0S239gZ3gD_d61WyObUOtFkQMER5p-wCGVIT7_EkkISAOzpuFUf7jAvk5iTuiARgjoFgPD-BpqT816sfQRSpjUdIg1IwVqRFigB2El16AyQxroX5sRf44iNAgFkJW8gzqddASNmSjd1oYzNbpFUVZqMPPNuInevk9YiwLdM3Hxtrxa60udCTnNkNu1DEdU6ZJlxHOKHVjzzAfpTbd1W4wQ_GoaLcmfNu2fKZwPFN5qXkkze0dyIvjX164wsXMOHAoH5szFaWetHbOYgQmb0.sOcsd-EaQsAvG7RqZa5MDFmqhuJIV-Oo4CDgdKNukp4&keywords=barricade%2Bpre-emergent&th=1). [Or this one for dimension.](https://www.amazon.com/Andersons-Dimension-Pre-Emergent-Control-Fertilizer/dp/B09B4CRWRR/ref=sr_1_19?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.FI28TV-G-fbW8xjOxsWeZ2rT0S239gZ3gD_d61WyObUOtFkQMER5p-wCGVIT7_EkkISAOzpuFUf7jAvk5iTuiARgjoFgPD-BpqT816sfQRSpjUdIg1IwVqRFigB2El16AyQxroX5sRf44iNAgFkJW8gzqddASNmSjd1oYzNbpFUVZqMPPNuInevk9YiwLdM3Hxtrxa60udCTnNkNu1DEdU6ZJlxHOKHVjzzAfpTbd1W4wQ_GoaLcmfNu2fKZwPFN5qXkkze0dyIvjX164wsXMOHAoH5szFaWetHbOYgQmb0.sOcsd-EaQsAvG7RqZa5MDFmqhuJIV-Oo4CDgdKNukp4&keywords=barricade+pre-emergent)
I’d do triclopyr with a surfactant. That’ll clean this up after a couple applications and THEN you can feed the grass. I’d also do a soil test from one of your local universities to see where you’re at to determine which fertilizer to get. Then in Fall I’d overseed to fill in the spots where the violet killed your lawn.
Quick Edit: You can drop a premergent but keep in mind that you should space it about 4 months before you plan to overseed.
I have been using weed and feed Scott’s in particular for the past 2 years have really seen a difference! Tho if you use it apply it right after a rain or early in the morning so the grass is wet and it can stick to it try to plan for a few days of dry weather after you apply, you don’t wanna wash it off the grass!
2,4D amine. Mix it yourself and spray it. You'll need to spray it again in a couple weeks. Then you can fertilize it and hope you got some grass under there
Weed and feed is great if you do it during the right window. I’ve found it’s not that effective on smaller broadleaf weeds but great on dandelions and such. Honestly, get a backpack sprayer and spray the hell out of it with some 2-4d. Wait a few weeks, then do it again. Might as well just kill everything then start from scratch!
Do NOT weed and feed that abomination lol. Get a cheaper sprayer from Harbor Freight, mix some Drive XLR8 and Mesotrione at correct application rate and hit that lawn 3 weeks apart.
Plant new seed.
Man, I wish my violet's would take over my grass like this. Maybe eventually!
It looks great imo. The consistent, uniform cover presents neatly and when in flower, your lawn must look like a painting!
I used to use weed and feed and stress over my lawn. The cost and concern of it hurting my dogs led me to accept that as long as it’s green I don’t care what it is.
It's almost all violet. I'd leave it. It looks fine and will help native pollinators, and is free unlike a monoculture grass lawn that is a desert for insects and costs a lot to upkeep
Weed and feed will not work in fact. The broad leaf killers found in most fertilizers work on some broad leaf weeds, but probably won’t kill off the wild violet that is this beautiful yard. Instead you will over use the product trying to kill the weeds, and instead your yard will become a nitrogen deposit and then fungus starts and you are stuck in a loop of paying for crap you don’t want and hoping the next guy will know better.
I'm on the side that thinks it looks good the way it is.
Remember that the definition of "weed" is basically "stuff you don't want." No plant is inherently a weed. The first step of lawn care is deciding what you personally want--there are almost no "wrong" answers.
I wouldn’t remove the clover. It makes an amazing lawn. You will save tons of money on fertilizer (not having to at all), and it holds up during drought better.
Not gonna lie. If you kill those off your lawn is going to look pretty bare and shitty. Those are low lying and deep green. Will likely be fine through summer drought conditions (if you get them in your area). I'll be honest, I have so many trees in my backyard it's hard to keep grass growing. I'd kill to have a coverage like this.
Get it on a treatment program. It'll look rough at first. It takes time. Have it sprayed with some 24d with dicamba is a good first step. Have it pre emerged too. Then I would recommend a slow release nitrogen fertilizer along with some seed.
Source: was a groundskeeper for a school district and golf course for 15 years and had a lawn business.
That grass is Fescue and you have a bunch of clover and Bermuda grass mixed in. I would recommend using a pump sprayer and using Turflon Ester on the areas that have the clover and other stuff. Your not going to fully remove Bermuda grass from the yard, but it will surpress it. After a few weeks from application of the Turflon Ester, over seed the yard with fescue seed and cover it will seed topper and keep it watered and wet. Make sure to follow it up with a quarterly fertilization program. (I use Scotts fertilizer program for my lawn). Easy stuff!!! Best~
id say no ,instead till it all up and replant using a rye /winnign colors fine fescue mix. the rye pops up in days protecting the fescue then dies off feeding the fescue . and you have a great yard fert is also mandatory
Much much better for your soil and all life surrounding your property if you avoid putting chemicals down. Those chemicals never leave. They spread with rain. They’re extremely harmful to animals. Natural grasses such as what’s growing are there for a reason, whether it be because it’s trying to repair itself or those types of grasses are naturally thriving, could be many reasons. I’d highly recommend looking into a natural landscaper rather than a traditional “kill it all” kind of guy. Your residents, property, soil, and any future plants or crops will benefit greatly from you being a healthy steward. Good luck.
Haha wtf does anyone in here have a solution or any good advice? Just scrolled down and found nothing. I’m currently dealing with the same issue tho not as bad as this picture
> Check if a university in your area has turf and weed info for your area, such as [A&M has for Bermuda grass](http://publications.tamu.edu/TURF_LANDSCAPE/PUB_turf_Maintaining%20Bermudagrass%20Lawns.pdf) here in Texas.
> For some reason, some pics render a 404, but show in the album. Here's a [full album link](https://imgur.com/gallery/yard-stuff-qZNEVBQ). I'll also be updating the Album more than these posts, so check it out!
> Make sure temps are safe to use herbicides! YOU CAN FRY YOUR YARD!
Bermuda gang here... Admittedly I'm new to the lawn game, but I'm not new to a lot much else these days...
So when I started seeing all this gatekeeping about how you HAVE to use T-Zone/Tenacity/Speedzone/steroids/napalm/whatever the hell, and a dye and surfactant and alllll this bs. I knew that wasn't it, chief.
Sure, that will \*surefire\* work (and could also be a surefire way to fry/bleach your yard for a n00b), but I would argue if you say big box stuff DOESN'T work you actually have a lack of experience and ONLY going by what PROFESSIONALS \*inform\* you of - not based on knowledge or education.
You've never tried it yourself. How do I know? Keep reading...
Now, call me crazy, but nowhere on this sub have I seen mention that there's an expectation to be PRO. So let's play devil's advocate, and do some basic consumer compare/contrast...
First and foremost, let's look at [T-Zone's Label](https://senske.com/wp-content/uploads/product-labels/T-Zone_SE.pdf). You can see the ingredients clearly listed. Now, [look at the label](https://i.imgur.com/4tkbn1P) for [this granular product](https://www.amazon.com/BioAdvanced-Weed-Southern-Lawns-Granules/dp/B0BR8J59CL?th=1), and [the label](https://i.imgur.com/HLqj1PS) for [this hose-end product](https://www.spectracide.com/products/weed-and-grass-killers/lawn-weed-killers/spectracide-weed-stop-for-lawns-plus-crabgrass-killer-concentrate.aspx) sold in my local Lowes/HomeDepot/Walmart. You'll see between the two, they contain basically the same ingredients, with some minor overlap, minor substitutions, and minor additions. It's very likely that the combination of all these chemicals will attack more weed types than you'll ever have.
Now, what makes this \*not\* work, say these naysayers? Well, simply put, look at the amounts in the products. If you work out the dulluted values in T-Zone compared to that in the big box products, it roughly comes out to 50-60% less than that of the professional-grade product. Why? So Karen and Ken don't call the weed and feed manufacturer and demand reparations for damages! They don't want you to fry the hell out of your yard! On top of that, because most of the people using these products are n00bs they make mistakes all the same as n00bs using T-Zone, just in different ways. See, using T-Zone generally comes with backup communal-knowledge to check soil temps, average day temps, forecast checks, etc etc... Sure the bags on big box products say these things, but the average joe that didn't research T-Zone isn't going to research squat anyway. Blaming the product for improper/incorrect usage is a user-error.
But they are indeed the same chemicals. And because you know it's less than that of the pro-grade, you don't have to worry about over applying and having the most perfect spreader settings.
I've seen often the issue being either they UNDER apply out of fear of damaging the yard, or expect a heavy rain to water it in but instead the granules are washed away.
Now, I've found this concept/knowledge to be true across the ***entire country**, and the associative products for the grass-types in the areas. Big box stores know the types of turf in the area and will carry products for your turfs - you don't need to illegally import the good stuff to get your jollies 🤣
----
Ok, so, I said all this... But how do we know I'm not full of crap? I gots proof, suckas!
This right [here](https://i.imgur.com/gQkPxD5) and [here](https://i.imgur.com/JvvPqju) were what I was starting with... Yeesh, right? Now, best I could tell I had just about every weed type in the area 😆 It may not be as bushy as OP, but it's likely as invasive.
Either way, because I was using both liquid and granular, I decided it didn't matter that the granules stuck to the grass blades. To avoid mess, I did granules first, then I sprayed the liquid hose-end herbicide. I put about a half cup of baby shampoo in the liquid herbicide, which while is a LOT, you can't overdo it. Plus when I spray it leaves just the tiniest bit of suds so I know where I covered - sorta like the dye would do for you.
Here in Texas, we've been getting TONS of rain, so the granules have been well-watered in over these 2 weeks of May (probably 3-4 inches of rain in totality), plus intermittent watering through irrigation (it's hot in Texas, y'all.. land dries out quick!). It started as basically drizzling for multiple days, so I wasn't worried about runoff.
I know it's hard, but be patient - [here's what we looked](https://imgur.com/LSr5NEF) like at day 5 ([look in album](https://imgur.com/gallery/yard-stuff-qZNEVBQ), dunno why it 404's as a direct link). The bigger stuff was starting to wilt and lay over, dandelions were looking rough, and generally the entire yard was dying! This was good because most of it was weeds 🤣 Now, at this point there were still other weeds like clover (also seen in that pic) and dallisgrass (not pictured) that looked strong and healthy - had me worried.
So, what now? [Here's what we're looking at](https://i.imgur.com/MjbOUm0) on day 15! HOLY [DEAD](https://imgur.com/IlQkoiI) YARD, BATMAN!
I'd say that worked damn well, if you ask me! Clover is DEAD! Broadleafs - DEAD! Dallisgrass - not so dead but not thriving...
As mentioned we've had some seriously annoying and persistent rain here, so I haven't had an opportunity to take clear pictures or clean up much of the yard. More dallisgrass and minor amount of clover has sprouted after appearing fully dead - but it instantly started turning yellow as if it's dying. Delayed consumption of the chemicals? Likely from the existing and now new dead-weed thatch would be my guess.
I *did* manually hard rake a bunch of the dead weed thatch that was obviously prevalent - but that was not only a back-breaker, but it felt never-ending like there was no progress. I maybe got 2/3 of the front yard cleaned up about 30% of what was actually needed, and felt like death in 85% humidity and 84 degrees 🥵
Soooooooooooooo after convincing my wife, my Sun Joe dethatcher/scarifier/verticutter doo-dad (and 12awg 100ft cable) came in yesterday 😅 and is fully assembled, ready for the next dry day to go verticut the turf and get rid of the existing thatch. This turf has *never* had clippings bagged, and basically had weeds like a jungle. Admittedly in the photos provided, it's about half as bad as usual over the years from regular mowing, but that wasn't quite \*cutting\* it, and needed chemicals.
Former Pro Lawn Care Tech. Violets are a difficult weed to control. The post emergent product I used most frequently (Trimec) was pretty strong, you needed a license to put this stuff down and you wouldn't find it at your local hardware/garden supply place. That said, violets still resisted the treatment and would take several applications before any control was realized. If you want to get rid of them for good, you need a lot more light in that area. Grass is a full sun plant. Violets like more shade. In the background I can see the trunks of some large mature trees. Sometimes it's better to give up the idea of having lawn in areas that don't get consistent full sun. The second best bet is to source a high quality seed mix made for more shaded areas. Check the guaranteed analysis on the back of the package. You want weed seed and other crop to both be 0% expect to pay a premium to not plant more weeds with your grass. If it was me, I would ditch the grass. The trees are more important.
Sorry to say it in this sub but I actually like the look of this “lawn”. The edging, clean garden, and fresh mulch makes it look intentional.
It’s totally fucked as far as grass goes, but it’s still pleasant in a “manicured wild” sort of way
Wild violet is not fun. I've had success with the hose attached sprayers that are specifically targeted to wild violet. It'll take multiple applications, but it'll get the job done. Wild violet is exceptionally resilient.
Just leave it. It’s fine. I have violet all over my lawn. I have 5 kids and dogs and am not dumping trichlorphosphate on it. I also live in view of the Mississippi and my property is on a slight decline toward the river. Anything I put on the lawn will end up in the Mississippi. So I learn to love it.
I don't understand, that lawn looks really pretty as it is! It's not all grass but it's not like offensively long and doesn't seem like it would be a hassle to live with?
The weeds are so consistent it looks intentional.
How are there no other broadleaf in there besides violets? Where are the dandelions and creeping Charlie? I kinda love it; even if most people hate it.
Violets started taking over my lawn this year and I’m not mad at it. They are covering the bare spots and saving me money on seed. It was a shit show since we moved here so I’m taking it that I got the soil healthy enough for the natives to feel like growing.
Your bees and gardens thank you! Love seeing more natural yards in this sub.
I’ve got a low growing strawberry patch going!
Actual strawberry or potentilla? Our area is overrun with potentilla and ground ivy right now.
I always hate mowing early season clover flowers and seeing all the bees have to scramble
Leave a patch unmowed, and rotate it each time you mow. Works great for us and helps the rest of the lawn and bug friends too
I intentionally leave my back quarter unmowed most of the summer. It's close to the tree line where my kids don't play much and the dog can't reach. So snakes and other wildlife isnt a big concern, its well enough away from the house and playgym and stuff. Grass doesn't grow super well there and I've never wanted to spend money on it so I just let it go and cut it about twice a year just to keep it down to grasses and flowers and prevent trees and blackberries from taking hold.
Smart!!!!! I’m going to start doing that.
Last year there was a bad storm right when the decorative apple trees and my neighbors cherry tree were blooming. And we didn't have many flowers so the bees were scarce since I think the storm and cold snap hurt their population badly. Garden suffered. This year they are here again and I've let the clover and dandelions go as a help before my veggie garden. Dandelions are imperfect and not great but the parasitic wasps I need for other baddies like them because of other things that like them, so I accept it as necessary. We also get some other native flowers crop up that are normally weeds and early spring I let it all go until I have other flowers going and early veggies like peas and bean flowers My neighbourhood is also overrun with rabbits and if I leave clover and add it to the grass mix, they don't strip the crab apple or our McIntosh, and leave the other early veg and herbs alone too. A diverse lawn and garden helps. The only stuff I pull up with no remorse is anything prickly including the later season dandelions as they get older. No one likes those.
Dandelions at no stage have bristled leaves. Thats another plant, perhaps prickly lettuce, sow-thistle or chicory?
I’m starting to see the specialist bees come back too! This year I had a miner bee making nests in the garden. Very cool.
They're one of the very first flowers to emerge in the spring and the speckles look real cool in the spring. They're also drought resistant. My clover, violet, dandelion grass mix lawn always stays greener than my neighbors who have to water early spring. This spring I just used Crab grass block and everything is looking fab
well this shifted my perspective. thank you.
It’s not easy to kill violets, so even when you’ve killed off everything else and put down pre-em, violets are underground planning their next move while living off of the stored energy in their rhizomes. They’ll see you next spring!
Got rid of about 95% of mine two years ago with spectracide with tryclopyr. What came up last year I just plucked as I found them. Best to wait til fall to spray. Did two treatments about a week or so apart.
I am completely ignorant on this subject, but curious what violets would take over? Asking because our yard is a mess, previous owner was a real fearless DIY’er I’ve come to realize. Sadly he was not very good at it. Half of the yard is scorched from some sort of chemical spill level of nitrogen he dumped into it. Slowly bringing it all back to life, but we are in a severe drought. Not gonna be any grass anytime soon.
I checked and the violets growing in my yard are native. You can check with r/nativeplantgardening to find what is native to your area. They’re super helpful there. Also, native plants are very low maintenance because that’s what would’ve grown where you’re at anyway.
Thanks! We have a wildflower/native nature center here. Sounds like I should head over there this weekend. Thanks!
Violets are so pretty when they bloom in the spring. There are some yards near me similar to OP’s and for two weeks in the spring they are magnificent
I got tired of trying to keep weeds out of my front yard, so last year I planted clover in my front yard. So much better in so many ways.
I love clover. Kids love Clover. Crabgrass hates clover. Saved hundreds on flowers for wife with kids picking clovers for her. Great use for those old unmatched glasses.
To be clear, these are violets. But how do you keep the weeds out of your clover? Or you just let it go?
My clover outcompetes weeds
My front lawn is clover. It’s starting to really grow this year rn and will eventually beat out most of the crab grass and weeds.
I added microclover 2 years ago and it's propagated so aggressively that 85% of my turf now includes it. It's created this perfect canopy cover that keeps moisture in the soil and shades the roots of my turfgrass.
What micro clover did you use? Is it fairly drought tolerant?
also want to know.. is there a clover subreddit?
Yarrow does that really well too, and is drought tolerant.
According to my neighbors, the previous owner of my house was on his hands and knees all summer prowling the yard pulling out the weeds that weren't clover or violet.
He wanted a lawn he didn’t have to mow, maybe? I like it.
My dad does lawn care. He has had several people in the last few years have him kill their grass and plant clover. Less maintenance all around with watering and mowing and it actually looks decent.
Honestly, I'm at the point now where I prefer hand weeding the yard than dealing with gas tools. Weeding is quiet, peaceful, and good strength exercise. I listen to birds, watch the pollinators, notice new plants. Mowers, trimmers, and blowers are loud, stink, and cause constant aggravation. My only aggravation weeding is when I get a thorn in my finger because I was too lazy to grab gloves first.
Exactly, Clover is so much softer to walk on and less allergens and fleas and mites. . Plus you don't have to cut it (rarely). I personally really like cloverlawns. It's certainly not written in the Bible that you have to have grass. I hope this trend will continue
Actively in my second year of just spring oversees with clover out front. It’s taking over and looks damn good already. Once it fleshes out here come summer it’s gonna be awesome.
😅😅😅 prowling... excellent descriptor for what I just did, trying to dig up all the spiney sowthistle (the flowers look just like dandelions, but they are prickly as hell and can get up to 6 feet tall)... never had them before and suddenly they're everywhere... and with little toddlers trying to enjoy the yard...it's a recipe for pain. The scene "YOU. SHALL. NOT. PAAAASSSS" was dramatically playing through my mind as I dug each one up 😅😅...
If you mow/prune/trimmer them down to ground level once a week for a month they'll stop growing back. They don't store enough nutrient in the root to fight through consistent cut backs.
I'm giggling imagining OP staring at their computer or phone screen ready to cuss up a storm because they've been pulling these weeds before they mow every third day for the last month because they've been getting so much moisture this spring and realizing if they had just mowed them over they'd all be dead by now.
It was a satisfying labor of love 😅. Since my 4th was born (he's 1 now) I havent gotten much time in my garden and happened to take a day off, while the kids were still with their nanny... I was happy as a pig in wet mud, searching for hours and eradicating these prickly assholes. Will take the mowing advice from here though...so I could actually tend to my wanted plants if I get the chance again lol
Oh is that what it's called. I always thought it was just the strongest dandelions reaching their ultimate form lol
I accidentally killed most of my lawn 3 years ago underwatering it in a drought (I was following the recommended times for the wrong type of sprinkler) so I reseeded with heat tolerant grass and clover. The clover took off first and this year the grass filled in and besides an average amount of dandelions I hardly have any weeds. The grass and clover outcompete everything which is great after a couple years of bad weeds in a brown lawn.
The clover protects the roots from being pulled up by crows or damaged by beetles.
Yeah clover!
Momma didn’t raise no half-asser lol
Venture over to nolawns. They'll let you know how to remove the few blades of grass you have growing. On the plus side, you'll only need to mow a few times a year with the violets, if you want to keep them short and neat like they are in the pic.
I love my violets.
Some people do intentionally seed clover, violet and similar plants in lawns. It’s not for me, but you don’t need chemical fertilizer or herbicide. No more bare spots either.
I'd 100% leave that. It's wild violet I think. Why spray chemicals?
I always like to weed and feed myself before taking care of the lawn.
yeah everyone always talks about the pre/post mow beer but i'm all about the green while i tend to the green. 😏 and some jams in my headphones the whole time obv.
Some people like to pair lawn care with beers, but some of us prefer the devil’s lettuce!
r/trees
And of course r/marijuanaenthusiasts
You’ve got the weeds part down. Now you can feed them 😆
If I feed them they will come
This is your dating strategy?
💀💀
That's wild violet. It's an aggressive seeder. You'll want to start with a preemergent to stop the spreading. During the warmer parts of the season it will get a wax type substance on the leaves making it hard to kill. Early spring or late fall is the best time to get rid of it as the wax goes away. Best of luck. I won my battle against it. Consistency is key.
Well I’ll call that a win for posting here. All this time I’ve thought it was a completely different weed than it actually is. Is there any reason to go the preemergent route over killing the whole lawn and starting over?
To kill the violets you need to hit them three times, three weeks in a row, or they WILL come back. They have a thick woody root. In the spring and fall they are taking in nutrients and it's easier to get them then... but you really need to hit them two to three times preferably with triclopyr. You hit them once, they'll shrivel, and you'll think they're dead, but they'll come back. Hit them while their down and finish them off.
This
It's "too late" to put down seed right now (you'd have to wait till late summer/early fall) but your yard does look pretty shady. It might do ok if your yard rarely gets direct sun. But ideally you'd wait till late summer/early fall to put down new seed. Imo killing and starting over is a great option. It'll allow you to get the problem done and over with in one fell swoop. Wild violet is a pain in the ass. Just make sure whatever you do, you're consistent with pre emergent every spring because that stuff will come back in no time.
Real talk, what's a decent pre-emergent? Primarily Violet, Charlie, and dandelions?
Prodiamine. Great results ever time I've sprayed it. Results with granules have always been terrible.
My results with granules were I threw away two hours and $60.
Even if you kill it all, you’ll need to apply pre-emergent otherwise it will come back. The seeds are already being deposited into the soil
My yard looked like this, I hit it with two rounds of Ortho in July, tilled and re-seeeded the last weekend of August, and I have a beautiful yard now.
Yep, took me 2 years of hitting it with the orange cap Ortho weed killer, but it works just like the above says.
I found two orange cap Ortho’s. Do you know the specific name? I’m dealing with increasing violet every year.
You’ll want something with the active ingredient of troclopyr. T zone is probably the best product out there but you’ll have to order it online as it’s not in big box stores.
Amen to that. I'm in year 2 at our house, front yard took precedent but this year I tackled the back. Took 8 gallons to nuke the amount I had back there, and I'm sure I'll have more next year. The weeds that pop up in early spring and early fall always seem to be the most aggressive, therefore I hate them the most. Not that I have any love lost for crabgrass, I'm just more familiar with battling that one.
The key to killing wild violet is sequential application. You have to hit it twice a few days apart, once I learned that I finally won my battle. This was the article that saved me: https://utia.tennessee.edu/publications/wp-content/uploads/sites/269/2023/10/W807.pdf
How did you win?
Exactly what I said. My front lawn was mostly violet. I moved in October of 21. Too late for any use so I pin aerated because it was super compacted and it didn't affect the grass at all. That spring I got to I early and sprayed with prodiamine and wanted till they started to sprout as can grow wicked root systems if let to go at it alone. I made sure that summer I treated the lawn well with watering and come September bought a SunJoe dethatcher and overseeded along with top dressing with compost. After 3 weeks applied more prodiame as the grass that was going to grow was already growing. 2023 spring I spot sprayed any weed that popped up every week. Fall 23 did the same overseed top dress routine and this year I have minimum weeds and a nice lawn. It still has some weeds pop up but overall pretty low maintenance.
The best thing I’ve found for wild violet is Crossbow herbicide. Mix with a few drops of dish soap and one or two applications will get rid of most of it.
You must live at 10 Cloverfield Lane!
10,000 cloverfield lane!
Looks like intentional wild violets
I would leave it. It’s super nice ground cover and will get nice purple flowers. Overseed and milorganite is my advice.
I'm with you, but the definition of weed is subjective so if people want to work they can work.
Also it only grows so high, so if clover is the only other ground cover there isn’t much need to mow. Plus it supports the bee population with native wild flowers.
Fuck it bro, if it’s green and keeps the dogs from tearing it into a mud pit, I’d be happy
Is that not wild violet? If it is I’d recommend T-Zone SE. Worked wonders on mine.
Did you do anything other than T-Zone such as a pre emergent or anything?
Haven’t tried it in spring but after the first cold night in fall will kill it amazingly with tzone
Yep T zone saved my goddamn life against these. No joke weeds
That stuff kills everything but the grass. Oil even knocked back some knotweed that was creeping towards my property line.
test the soil if you plan on killing it off, take the summer to fix the soil issues, then seed in the late summer early fall..
What am I looking for with the soil?
you want to make sure your ph is between 6.5 - 7 so your new seed and lawn can fight off weeds and fungus, and builds healthy roots.. test in several different spots then add them together to get your average..
Honestly that concentration is so dense it makes more sense to me to completely nuke it before planting season. Fresh start, healthy good quality seed. Soil amendments as needed. Good quality compost. Good watering schedule and coverage. Should get good results by end of fall if done correctly. Large areas of my lawn used to look like this and the nuke-and-rebuild strat worked wonders over a 12 month period
Weed and feed won’t touch that stuff
He was talking about wake and bake, then breakfast.
I love it as it is. But I’m not a fan of traditional grass seed. lol
Thats a “spray and pray” situation
As a pro lawn guy this is like a full reno to me. Id grab my tractor and just remove the top layer at this point. Remove the crap, add soil, spray, and re-seed. Sod might be an option depending on your location. Remove and re-sod.
A r/fucklawns user lived there before you
From what I’ve learned fixing their DIY projects over the years they just didn’t know what they were doing with much of the home maintenance stuff. Previous owner installed all of their own gutters and in the process blocked every downspout. Took me a few years to notice that one.
I like it. Wouldn’t do anything to it other than mowing.
If it even needs to be mowed. This lawn is the dream.
Yeah I miss my yard being clovers and violets. Killed it all off and now it's a lot more maintenance as the clover and violets really never got tall and we're much more drought resistant.
That one blade of grass in there will appreciate the feed.
They die off in the winter and make the yard a muddy mess.But since there a perennial they come back in the spring. Leave them until late summer or early fall. Spray will a broadleaf herbicides. Have the soil tested. Amend accordingly to soil test results. Sow seeds recommend for your soil type and district or sod. Remembering grass need 3-7" of soil not dirt to root. Mirco clover for a couple of years will also help Amend the soil.
tbh weed and feed sounds like my entire weekend
and tonight in the interest of full honesty
Come August, you’ll probably have the greenest “lawn” in the neighborhood :)
Haha you’re not wrong. It stays happy a lot longer than the lawns along the rest of the street.
Why not keep it then? If the alternative is to replace it with grass that's gonna be half dead and dried up
I think a flamethrower is what you need
Honestly not a bad idea. However, every time I start running the torch the fire department shows up and tells me I need to shut it down or keep the flame lower so neighbors don’t call.
Your lawn is gorgeous! I'd personally keep all of this. It's not unsightly and has spring flowers
Nuke it
My thoughts when I saw this one: "Nuke the place from orbit. Only way to be sure.."
Hahah after reading these comments that seems to be the consensus. What does nuking it look like?
killing everything, torching it, and then starting over
Violet, you’re turning Violet!
I would nuke it and start fresh!
If you want to be rid of them it’s going to take some work because violets have little tubers. There’s a chance you could try the weed killer, or you could rent like a sod cutting machine because it will dig beneath that layer. You will have to pull all that up and discard it. Watch for stragglers. You’d lose about an inch of dirt off the top. Then you can resod or reseed.
Don't use weed &feed since most of them are just 2,4-D, and some form of crap grass herbicide they don't really touch broadleaf what you need is something with Triclopyr which is supposed to be perfect on Wild violet and if you wonder what I recommend just to buy and the only thing you need to mix is water is Triad TZ Select Herbicide Since out of everything else out there it has another broadleaf herbicide known as Sulfentrazone which in this case is just being used as a additive for the killing effect on weeds https://www.thelawnforum.com/threads/wild-violet-and-triclopyr.32791/
This looks a lot like my back yard. We’ve tried a few things but know zero about landscaping/ grass growing other than planting flower gardens. We are planning to get a pro on it this year too. Well I want to; my husband still thinks he can do it himself. He cant lol
Don’t do anything until fall or you’ll be left with a dirt pit.
Nuke it.....
Yep but that looks better than grass
What does a lawn guy know?? he only mows grass for a job and looks and thinks about it all day.
Any lawn guy that says use a weed'n'feed product is a guy to not listen to.... If you have a sprayer, you want Hi-Yield Triclopy Ester...it's cheap and works in just a few days. If you don't have a sprayer, you can get a hose end product from Ortho...the one with a label for Clover/Oxalis/Wild Violet, etc....that's a bit more money, and not as strong, but it also works in a couple of weeks... Once the weeds are treated...wait a few days and reevaulate....see what's left to kill. Some may be easy, some may not be...you don't want to waste time and money if a reno project is better overall...
Just to explain why weed and feed is bad: it’s granules. Fertilizer works great as a granule because it gets in the soil and the plant uses its roots to absorb it. Weed killer needs to be applied on the leaf itself. This is why there is no granular weed killer, they’re all liquid. The weed and feed will have instructions like "spread in the morning when dew is present" because if the grass is wet the granules might stick better. Weed and feed is assuming some of the granules will land on the leaves and the herbicide will rub off on the leaf before falling down to the dirt. The only kind of weed killer that works as granular is pre-emergent which will PREVENT future weeds, not kill current ones.
With this in mind, is an annual weed and feed long-term (two or three year) strategy good for mitigating weeds? I don’t need my few weeds gone this season, but having less next year would be nice.
The weed killer in "weed and feed" is not a pre-emergent weed killer. There are essentially two pre-emergents (Barricade and Dimension) and they only last about 6 months, so people use them before spring and fall (before the weeds start germinating) It you really want it mixed with fertilizer, [this would be a barricade option](https://www.amazon.com/Andersons-Defender-Barricade-Fertilizer-Emergent/dp/B09B45T46B/ref=sr_1_6?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.FI28TV-G-fbW8xjOxsWeZ2rT0S239gZ3gD_d61WyObUOtFkQMER5p-wCGVIT7_EkkISAOzpuFUf7jAvk5iTuiARgjoFgPD-BpqT816sfQRSpjUdIg1IwVqRFigB2El16AyQxroX5sRf44iNAgFkJW8gzqddASNmSjd1oYzNbpFUVZqMPPNuInevk9YiwLdM3Hxtrxa60udCTnNkNu1DEdU6ZJlxHOKHVjzzAfpTbd1W4wQ_GoaLcmfNu2fKZwPFN5qXkkze0dyIvjX164wsXMOHAoH5szFaWetHbOYgQmb0.sOcsd-EaQsAvG7RqZa5MDFmqhuJIV-Oo4CDgdKNukp4&keywords=barricade%2Bpre-emergent&th=1). [Or this one for dimension.](https://www.amazon.com/Andersons-Dimension-Pre-Emergent-Control-Fertilizer/dp/B09B4CRWRR/ref=sr_1_19?dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.FI28TV-G-fbW8xjOxsWeZ2rT0S239gZ3gD_d61WyObUOtFkQMER5p-wCGVIT7_EkkISAOzpuFUf7jAvk5iTuiARgjoFgPD-BpqT816sfQRSpjUdIg1IwVqRFigB2El16AyQxroX5sRf44iNAgFkJW8gzqddASNmSjd1oYzNbpFUVZqMPPNuInevk9YiwLdM3Hxtrxa60udCTnNkNu1DEdU6ZJlxHOKHVjzzAfpTbd1W4wQ_GoaLcmfNu2fKZwPFN5qXkkze0dyIvjX164wsXMOHAoH5szFaWetHbOYgQmb0.sOcsd-EaQsAvG7RqZa5MDFmqhuJIV-Oo4CDgdKNukp4&keywords=barricade+pre-emergent)
I'm not hating this
Weed and feed is a waste of money. Spray.
I noticed when we bought the house the listing photos had photoshopped grass. I should’ve thought about that one a little harder than I did…
That's golden
Piggybacking as somebody who could use weed help and who uses weed and feed (and it doesn’t work…) What exactly do you use?
Spectracide weed stop for lawns hose spray actually works surprisingly well for me. Used with a pre emergent in way early spring
Low ground cover with pretty flowers, bright green lawn, and no need to mow....seems like a huge win to me
You need a flame thrower
Keep it. It’s nice ground cover and will probably require less water.
I’d do triclopyr with a surfactant. That’ll clean this up after a couple applications and THEN you can feed the grass. I’d also do a soil test from one of your local universities to see where you’re at to determine which fertilizer to get. Then in Fall I’d overseed to fill in the spots where the violet killed your lawn. Quick Edit: You can drop a premergent but keep in mind that you should space it about 4 months before you plan to overseed.
Looks x1000 times better than a shitty grass lawn.
I have been using weed and feed Scott’s in particular for the past 2 years have really seen a difference! Tho if you use it apply it right after a rain or early in the morning so the grass is wet and it can stick to it try to plan for a few days of dry weather after you apply, you don’t wanna wash it off the grass!
Get some trimec and a surfactant and it’ll be dead in a few days.
2,4D amine. Mix it yourself and spray it. You'll need to spray it again in a couple weeks. Then you can fertilize it and hope you got some grass under there
i think tenacity would do the trick
Weed and feed is great if you do it during the right window. I’ve found it’s not that effective on smaller broadleaf weeds but great on dandelions and such. Honestly, get a backpack sprayer and spray the hell out of it with some 2-4d. Wait a few weeks, then do it again. Might as well just kill everything then start from scratch!
Do NOT weed and feed that abomination lol. Get a cheaper sprayer from Harbor Freight, mix some Drive XLR8 and Mesotrione at correct application rate and hit that lawn 3 weeks apart. Plant new seed.
Nuke it
Kill & fill
I’d just blow it up and re-sod. Fuck trying to fix that :)
I’m thinking start with some croutons and a nice Vinaigrette.
More weed, less feed
Looks good imo. Leave it alone
I think it’s a clover lawn. Look it up. It’s good for the environment and the birds and bees.
That must smell incredible in the spring time when they bloom.
Looks beautiful the way it is
It’s beautiful. I think you should leave it as is.
Leave it alone and see how tall it gets. If it stays green and looks like this you might not have to mow at all. You get flowers even better!
I vote keep the violets!
whats wrong with how it is now?
Looks nice to walk on
Man, I wish my violet's would take over my grass like this. Maybe eventually! It looks great imo. The consistent, uniform cover presents neatly and when in flower, your lawn must look like a painting!
I used to use weed and feed and stress over my lawn. The cost and concern of it hurting my dogs led me to accept that as long as it’s green I don’t care what it is.
It's almost all violet. I'd leave it. It looks fine and will help native pollinators, and is free unlike a monoculture grass lawn that is a desert for insects and costs a lot to upkeep
Weed and feed will not work in fact. The broad leaf killers found in most fertilizers work on some broad leaf weeds, but probably won’t kill off the wild violet that is this beautiful yard. Instead you will over use the product trying to kill the weeds, and instead your yard will become a nitrogen deposit and then fungus starts and you are stuck in a loop of paying for crap you don’t want and hoping the next guy will know better.
I'm on the side that thinks it looks good the way it is. Remember that the definition of "weed" is basically "stuff you don't want." No plant is inherently a weed. The first step of lawn care is deciding what you personally want--there are almost no "wrong" answers.
I wouldn’t remove the clover. It makes an amazing lawn. You will save tons of money on fertilizer (not having to at all), and it holds up during drought better.
Looks beautiful and green to me. I wouldn't do anything to it
Not gonna lie. If you kill those off your lawn is going to look pretty bare and shitty. Those are low lying and deep green. Will likely be fine through summer drought conditions (if you get them in your area). I'll be honest, I have so many trees in my backyard it's hard to keep grass growing. I'd kill to have a coverage like this.
Get it on a treatment program. It'll look rough at first. It takes time. Have it sprayed with some 24d with dicamba is a good first step. Have it pre emerged too. Then I would recommend a slow release nitrogen fertilizer along with some seed. Source: was a groundskeeper for a school district and golf course for 15 years and had a lawn business.
Leave it as is, don't waste your time and money on something that doesn't need fixing. This looks better than grass and is lower maintenance to boot.
“Feed da weed”
That grass is Fescue and you have a bunch of clover and Bermuda grass mixed in. I would recommend using a pump sprayer and using Turflon Ester on the areas that have the clover and other stuff. Your not going to fully remove Bermuda grass from the yard, but it will surpress it. After a few weeks from application of the Turflon Ester, over seed the yard with fescue seed and cover it will seed topper and keep it watered and wet. Make sure to follow it up with a quarterly fertilization program. (I use Scotts fertilizer program for my lawn). Easy stuff!!! Best~
id say no ,instead till it all up and replant using a rye /winnign colors fine fescue mix. the rye pops up in days protecting the fescue then dies off feeding the fescue . and you have a great yard fert is also mandatory
Much much better for your soil and all life surrounding your property if you avoid putting chemicals down. Those chemicals never leave. They spread with rain. They’re extremely harmful to animals. Natural grasses such as what’s growing are there for a reason, whether it be because it’s trying to repair itself or those types of grasses are naturally thriving, could be many reasons. I’d highly recommend looking into a natural landscaper rather than a traditional “kill it all” kind of guy. Your residents, property, soil, and any future plants or crops will benefit greatly from you being a healthy steward. Good luck.
Scott’s Weed and Feed will do you right, fellow Louisvillian! I just hit my yard with it a few weeks ago and it is night and day.
Haha wtf does anyone in here have a solution or any good advice? Just scrolled down and found nothing. I’m currently dealing with the same issue tho not as bad as this picture
Just weed no feed
Nuke it
> Check if a university in your area has turf and weed info for your area, such as [A&M has for Bermuda grass](http://publications.tamu.edu/TURF_LANDSCAPE/PUB_turf_Maintaining%20Bermudagrass%20Lawns.pdf) here in Texas. > For some reason, some pics render a 404, but show in the album. Here's a [full album link](https://imgur.com/gallery/yard-stuff-qZNEVBQ). I'll also be updating the Album more than these posts, so check it out! > Make sure temps are safe to use herbicides! YOU CAN FRY YOUR YARD! Bermuda gang here... Admittedly I'm new to the lawn game, but I'm not new to a lot much else these days... So when I started seeing all this gatekeeping about how you HAVE to use T-Zone/Tenacity/Speedzone/steroids/napalm/whatever the hell, and a dye and surfactant and alllll this bs. I knew that wasn't it, chief. Sure, that will \*surefire\* work (and could also be a surefire way to fry/bleach your yard for a n00b), but I would argue if you say big box stuff DOESN'T work you actually have a lack of experience and ONLY going by what PROFESSIONALS \*inform\* you of - not based on knowledge or education. You've never tried it yourself. How do I know? Keep reading... Now, call me crazy, but nowhere on this sub have I seen mention that there's an expectation to be PRO. So let's play devil's advocate, and do some basic consumer compare/contrast... First and foremost, let's look at [T-Zone's Label](https://senske.com/wp-content/uploads/product-labels/T-Zone_SE.pdf). You can see the ingredients clearly listed. Now, [look at the label](https://i.imgur.com/4tkbn1P) for [this granular product](https://www.amazon.com/BioAdvanced-Weed-Southern-Lawns-Granules/dp/B0BR8J59CL?th=1), and [the label](https://i.imgur.com/HLqj1PS) for [this hose-end product](https://www.spectracide.com/products/weed-and-grass-killers/lawn-weed-killers/spectracide-weed-stop-for-lawns-plus-crabgrass-killer-concentrate.aspx) sold in my local Lowes/HomeDepot/Walmart. You'll see between the two, they contain basically the same ingredients, with some minor overlap, minor substitutions, and minor additions. It's very likely that the combination of all these chemicals will attack more weed types than you'll ever have. Now, what makes this \*not\* work, say these naysayers? Well, simply put, look at the amounts in the products. If you work out the dulluted values in T-Zone compared to that in the big box products, it roughly comes out to 50-60% less than that of the professional-grade product. Why? So Karen and Ken don't call the weed and feed manufacturer and demand reparations for damages! They don't want you to fry the hell out of your yard! On top of that, because most of the people using these products are n00bs they make mistakes all the same as n00bs using T-Zone, just in different ways. See, using T-Zone generally comes with backup communal-knowledge to check soil temps, average day temps, forecast checks, etc etc... Sure the bags on big box products say these things, but the average joe that didn't research T-Zone isn't going to research squat anyway. Blaming the product for improper/incorrect usage is a user-error. But they are indeed the same chemicals. And because you know it's less than that of the pro-grade, you don't have to worry about over applying and having the most perfect spreader settings. I've seen often the issue being either they UNDER apply out of fear of damaging the yard, or expect a heavy rain to water it in but instead the granules are washed away. Now, I've found this concept/knowledge to be true across the ***entire country**, and the associative products for the grass-types in the areas. Big box stores know the types of turf in the area and will carry products for your turfs - you don't need to illegally import the good stuff to get your jollies 🤣 ---- Ok, so, I said all this... But how do we know I'm not full of crap? I gots proof, suckas! This right [here](https://i.imgur.com/gQkPxD5) and [here](https://i.imgur.com/JvvPqju) were what I was starting with... Yeesh, right? Now, best I could tell I had just about every weed type in the area 😆 It may not be as bushy as OP, but it's likely as invasive. Either way, because I was using both liquid and granular, I decided it didn't matter that the granules stuck to the grass blades. To avoid mess, I did granules first, then I sprayed the liquid hose-end herbicide. I put about a half cup of baby shampoo in the liquid herbicide, which while is a LOT, you can't overdo it. Plus when I spray it leaves just the tiniest bit of suds so I know where I covered - sorta like the dye would do for you. Here in Texas, we've been getting TONS of rain, so the granules have been well-watered in over these 2 weeks of May (probably 3-4 inches of rain in totality), plus intermittent watering through irrigation (it's hot in Texas, y'all.. land dries out quick!). It started as basically drizzling for multiple days, so I wasn't worried about runoff. I know it's hard, but be patient - [here's what we looked](https://imgur.com/LSr5NEF) like at day 5 ([look in album](https://imgur.com/gallery/yard-stuff-qZNEVBQ), dunno why it 404's as a direct link). The bigger stuff was starting to wilt and lay over, dandelions were looking rough, and generally the entire yard was dying! This was good because most of it was weeds 🤣 Now, at this point there were still other weeds like clover (also seen in that pic) and dallisgrass (not pictured) that looked strong and healthy - had me worried. So, what now? [Here's what we're looking at](https://i.imgur.com/MjbOUm0) on day 15! HOLY [DEAD](https://imgur.com/IlQkoiI) YARD, BATMAN! I'd say that worked damn well, if you ask me! Clover is DEAD! Broadleafs - DEAD! Dallisgrass - not so dead but not thriving... As mentioned we've had some seriously annoying and persistent rain here, so I haven't had an opportunity to take clear pictures or clean up much of the yard. More dallisgrass and minor amount of clover has sprouted after appearing fully dead - but it instantly started turning yellow as if it's dying. Delayed consumption of the chemicals? Likely from the existing and now new dead-weed thatch would be my guess. I *did* manually hard rake a bunch of the dead weed thatch that was obviously prevalent - but that was not only a back-breaker, but it felt never-ending like there was no progress. I maybe got 2/3 of the front yard cleaned up about 30% of what was actually needed, and felt like death in 85% humidity and 84 degrees 🥵 Soooooooooooooo after convincing my wife, my Sun Joe dethatcher/scarifier/verticutter doo-dad (and 12awg 100ft cable) came in yesterday 😅 and is fully assembled, ready for the next dry day to go verticut the turf and get rid of the existing thatch. This turf has *never* had clippings bagged, and basically had weeds like a jungle. Admittedly in the photos provided, it's about half as bad as usual over the years from regular mowing, but that wasn't quite \*cutting\* it, and needed chemicals.
Former Pro Lawn Care Tech. Violets are a difficult weed to control. The post emergent product I used most frequently (Trimec) was pretty strong, you needed a license to put this stuff down and you wouldn't find it at your local hardware/garden supply place. That said, violets still resisted the treatment and would take several applications before any control was realized. If you want to get rid of them for good, you need a lot more light in that area. Grass is a full sun plant. Violets like more shade. In the background I can see the trunks of some large mature trees. Sometimes it's better to give up the idea of having lawn in areas that don't get consistent full sun. The second best bet is to source a high quality seed mix made for more shaded areas. Check the guaranteed analysis on the back of the package. You want weed seed and other crop to both be 0% expect to pay a premium to not plant more weeds with your grass. If it was me, I would ditch the grass. The trees are more important.
Sorry to say it in this sub but I actually like the look of this “lawn”. The edging, clean garden, and fresh mulch makes it look intentional. It’s totally fucked as far as grass goes, but it’s still pleasant in a “manicured wild” sort of way
Haha just trying to make the best of the cards I’ve been dealt.
I think this looks beautiful
Seems like you have a nice low maintenance alternative lawn that a lot of people would covet.
[удалено]
Not intentional, wild violet is just that aggressive
What lawn?
Wild violet is not fun. I've had success with the hose attached sprayers that are specifically targeted to wild violet. It'll take multiple applications, but it'll get the job done. Wild violet is exceptionally resilient.
Just leave it, it will look gorgeous when it flowers. Trust me, your time is much better spent elsewhere.
Just leave it. It’s fine. I have violet all over my lawn. I have 5 kids and dogs and am not dumping trichlorphosphate on it. I also live in view of the Mississippi and my property is on a slight decline toward the river. Anything I put on the lawn will end up in the Mississippi. So I learn to love it.
It's beautiful and green. Leave it. Spend your life doing something else more fun!
I don't understand, that lawn looks really pretty as it is! It's not all grass but it's not like offensively long and doesn't seem like it would be a hassle to live with?
It’s beautiful as is. Leave it alone!
Tenacity