Dead Lawn... Help!?!
On Tuesday, October 1, 2013 9:19:07 AM UTC-4, echinosum wrote:
J.Gatley;992835 Wrote:
Hi Guys,
First time on here so I will get straight to it.
Basically I have just moved house and currently on the back there is
just trimmed down weeds, they were about hip height but before I moved
in they were cut back to ground level, I want to level the ground and
put new turf down in the spring.
I think you need to say where you are as this has an effect on the
timings.
When you do the weedkilling, you need to really kill the weeds off
including the roots, hence systemic weedkiller like glyphosate.
Rotovating before the roots are really dead is an excellent way of
progating perennial and difficult weeds. Whether it is too late in the
season or just right to do the killing depends upon where you live - you
need stuff to be in growth, and you need enough top growth for the
plants to take in the systemic weedkiller through the leaves, so your
cutting it all back to ground level may have been counter-productive
unless it is still all growing strongly in your climate. One application
often isn't enough, a second application to kill what comes back may be
required. And there will always be seeds of annuals (which is another
reason to be wary of a deep rotovation bringing lots of dormant seeds
up). Some particularly persistant stuff, brambles or whatever, needs
particular attention as a couple of applications of glyphosate doesn't
suffice.
--
echinosum
Agree with the above and what Bob said. But.... as they pointed
out, it's impossible to tell you what to do when you don't say
where you're located. If it's cool season grasses and it's Fall
now where you are, then you may still have time do it now.
But here in the NYC area, for example, it's already getting late
to start. You should have killed off everything with glyphosate
(Roundup) in late Aug or early Sept. As pointed out above, it
may take more than one application to kill everything and the
herbicide is less effective at lower temps. If you proceed now,
I'd use about a 4% solution to give you a better chance to kill
it all. It takes a week plus to die, so you can see spots you
might have missed, re-apply, etc.
Then you can seed or lay sod, which is what it appears you want
to do. Seeding is less expensive, but takes longer to establish,
time you may not have, but who knows because we don't know where you
are. For seeding, it may not be necessary to till everything up,
bring in topsoil, etc. That depends on what soil you have there
now. To seed, if the topsoil is OK, then just killing everything,
the core aerating, then seeding with an over-seeder is what I would do.
Have done it many times and it works.
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