I have a lot of moss, buttercup and dandelion in my lawn and want to get rid of it. I also have
naturalised crocus. I gave the lawn its first cut recently (which decapitated the crocus) and am
now planning a chemical assault towards the end of May.

I need something that will kill the weeds but leave the near-dormant crocus alone.

What should I go for or avoid?

Thanks!

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com
A useful bit of gardening software at http://www.netservs.com/garden/

On 2008-05-07 10:39:00 +0100, (Steve Harris) said:

I have a lot of moss, buttercup and dandelion in my lawn and want to
get rid of it. I also have
naturalised crocus. I gave the lawn its first cut recently (which
decapitated the crocus) and am
now planning a chemical assault towards the end of May.

I need something that will kill the weeds but leave the near-dormant
crocus alone.

What should I go for or avoid?

Thanks!

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com
A useful bit of gardening software at http://www.netservs.com/garden/

If you have a lot of moss, you might want to look at scarifying it
before you treat it with chemicals. You can hire a petrol scarifier for
about £25 a day and it doesn't take long to go over it and rip out all
of the moss.

I scarified my 1/2 acre a couple of weeks ago - it took around three
hours to scarify it, but then another 3 to gather up the thatch (it was
no use using the collection bag on the back of the scarifier as it
filled up every 5 seconds or so!) I was shocked at how much moss and
thatch came out - I ended up with a pile the size of a family car.

Anyway - if you scarify it, then weed n feed you'll probably end up
with much better results all around (and you won't have to rake out the
dead moss afterwards).

Can't help you on the choice of weed n feed as I have Green Thumb
(www.greenthumb.co.uk)come and apply their proprietary stuff to my
lawn. It works extrememy l well though and works out only a little more
expensive than if I have go and buy sacks of the stuff myself. By the
time I factor in my time, it's probably cheaer in the end.

On Wed, 7 May 2008 10:39 +0100 (BST), Steve Harris
wrote:
I have a lot of moss, buttercup and dandelion in my lawn and want to get rid of it. I also have
naturalised crocus. I gave the lawn its first cut recently (which decapitated the crocus) and am
now planning a chemical assault towards the end of May.

I need something that will kill the weeds but leave the near-dormant crocus alone.

What should I go for or avoid?

Have you considered lawn sand?

Steven

The scarifying in spring really works treat as to enhancing thehealth of ones lawn as it allows moisture and oxygen to get into the base of the grass.

I dont use weed killers but prefer to remove dandilions etc with a long knife ditto the flat weeds like plantain and thistle. To fill in the gaps left by weeding i have a coupl eof pot carrying trays from the GC which I fill the circles with compost into which I sow grass seed. This produces any number of circular grass turfs. I just take out a weed and pop in circle of grass 'any time'. No hassle. looks good straight away!

I buy a liquid lawn feed called lawn Magic from a website www.superspray.co.uk and have one of their supersprays to apply it with. It fixes to a hosepipe. I find that the pelleted feeds can burn the lawn if it doesnt rain soon after application. Lawn Magic name sounds a bit corny but the stuff really is good. 1l or 5litre.

Hope this helps

Im going to try to get a picture of this superspray onto this site but not sure what im doing!!

http://www.superspray.co.uk/feeding%20long%20lawn.JPG

In article , ldomain (Steven Wayne)
wrote:

Have you considered lawn sand?

Thanks for the suggestion but I understand that it is not very effective against buttercup -
which I have lots of.

Steve Harris - Cheltenham - Real address steve AT netservs DOT com
A useful bit of gardening software at http://www.netservs.com/garden/

Steve Harris wrote:
I have a lot of moss, buttercup and dandelion in my lawn and want to get rid of it. I also have
naturalised crocus. I gave the lawn its first cut recently (which decapitated the crocus) and am
now planning a chemical assault towards the end of May.

I need something that will kill the weeds but leave the near-dormant crocus alone.

What should I go for or avoid?

Rather than apply combined weed and feed which might cause some
collateral damage to the crocus if they are still actively growing with
green leaves above ground why not spot weed with a broadleaf specific
herbicide and then add the fertiliser (if at all) separately.

You can then hit the worst of the dandelions (I find yanking them out
with a 12" screwdriver very satisfying for this rather than chemical
means YMMV) and buttercup with a sprayer wand.

This way uses a lot less chemical on just the areas that need it than a
full weed and feed for the whole lawn.

The moss you will fight with forever if there is poor drainage.

Regards,
Martin Brown
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...
Steve Harris wrote:
I have a lot of moss, buttercup and dandelion in my lawn and want to get
rid of it. I also have naturalised crocus. I gave the lawn its first cut
recently (which decapitated the crocus) and am now planning a chemical
assault towards the end of May.

I need something that will kill the weeds but leave the near-dormant
crocus alone. What should I go for or avoid?

Rather than apply combined weed and feed which might cause some collateral
damage to the crocus if they are still actively growing with green leaves
above ground why not spot weed with a broadleaf specific herbicide and
then add the fertiliser (if at all) separately.

You can then hit the worst of the dandelions (I find yanking them out with
a 12" screwdriver very satisfying for this rather than chemical means
YMMV) and buttercup with a sprayer wand.

This way uses a lot less chemical on just the areas that need it than a
full weed and feed for the whole lawn.

The moss you will fight with forever if there is poor drainage.

Regards,
Martin Brown
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **

I am suffering with the same problem, except my dandelions are all over the
lawn, like a blanket, so spot doing a bit of spot weed would be a fruitless
task. I need something that can zap them all at once.
James

the_constructor wrote:
"Martin Brown" wrote in message
...
Steve Harris wrote:
I have a lot of moss, buttercup and dandelion in my lawn and want to get
rid of it.

I need something that will kill the weeds but leave the near-dormant
crocus alone. What should I go for or avoid?

Rather than apply combined weed and feed which might cause some collateral
damage to the crocus if they are still actively growing with green leaves
above ground why not spot weed with a broadleaf specific herbicide and
then add the fertiliser (if at all) separately.

You can then hit the worst of the dandelions (I find yanking them out with
a 12" screwdriver very satisfying for this rather than chemical means
YMMV) and buttercup with a sprayer wand.

This way uses a lot less chemical on just the areas that need it than a
full weed and feed for the whole lawn.

I am suffering with the same problem, except my dandelions are all over the
lawn, like a blanket, so spot doing a bit of spot weed would be a fruitless
task. I need something that can zap them all at once.
James

Be careful what you wish for.

Any broadleaf specific weedkiller or lawn weed & feed will do to knock
down a mostly weeds lawn. My preference would still be to use a sprayer
to apply it. But you may have to wait a while for the grass to
recolonise the large gaps left when the dandelions expire. Hit it soon
before the dandelions can set seed and meanwhile keep zapping the flowers.

If it is really really bad with lots of deep rooted perennial weeds then
killing everything stone dead with glyphosate and making a new lawn from
scratch might be the best solution.

Regards,
Martin Brown
** Posted from http://www.teranews.com **