Killing off yard and starting over.

[Brandon Herlein]

My yards has been taken over by weeds. I am thinking of killing it all off with Round-up and starting from new. What is the best way, time, etc to start a new lawn. I live in Iowa.

[Peter H]

Try a selective herbicide first. Normally you can wack the weeds a second time in a couple of weeks. Then twice more in the spring and I'll bet you're going to have a lawn.

Peter H

[Brandon Herlein]

What kind of herbicide do you suggest?

[Peter H]

Any of the 3-way will do the job. Here in Ontario, Canada Killex is the most popular. Don't use the weed-n-feed. Use the liquid.

Peter H

[Chet Hayes]

Killing the lawn and starting over can be an appropriate solution, depending on what's there now. If it's mostly weeds and undesirable grass, that is the best solution. Undesirable grass would include those that might be too coarse, disease prone, not drought tolerant, etc.

Now is the time to do it. You can apply Roundup and then use a slice seeder a week later. I'd make sure you have decent soil, 6-9 inchs, and if not I'd recommend fixing it before reseeding. Get the best grass seed for the application you can find. Rather than buying it at a home center, I'd look online. I got mine from seedland.com, which has a good selection.

[Dan Hartung]

It's a great time to seed, but you'll have to move fast. Personally, this late in the game (in Iowa -- I'm in Wisconsin), I'd go with a remediation program. It's likely that the grass you have is just stressed and with decent care and overseeding can recover. Ease off on the mower height, put down some starter fertilizer, overseed, and top-dress (topsoil, humus, mulch). Guaranteed this will help your lawn a lot.

For full renovation, you may not want to put Roundup in the soil because it will take a couple of weeks for it to dissipate. If you had more time it would be OK as a first step. Till the weeds in, add peat or other organics to the soil, overseed, topdress, water to keep moist for up to two weeks then back off.

The weeds will come back, but not as strong, and you can do pre-emergent and 2,4D broadleaf weedkiller applications next year to whack them once the new grass is healthy.

[Chet Hayes]

With Roundup you can reseed 7 days after application.