lawn question

[glen]

how do i get rid of clovers and creeping ivy from my lawn. It`s only in small patches not over the entire lawn.

[JNJ]

Clover is not a bad thing in your lawn per se -- it fixes nitrogen in the soil. You should consider carefully whether nor not this is really a bad thing -- a healthy lawn isn't typically just grass but includes other small plants such as clover (of course, grass should be the PRIMARY ingredient!).

That said, there are two courses of action I would consider:

1) Pull the ivy/vines out by hand. You have to get them all the way out -- if you leave root, they'll come back. If they continue to propagate after about a month's pulling move on to step #2. 2) RoundUp -- If there are desirable plants around the area in question, use a paint brush to apply.

Another option to consider is to kill the area with something like plastic then reseed or sod. Simplest way to do that is to cover the area with black plastic held down by rocks. After several months (like next spring) it's pretty much a given there will be nothing living there. Takes longer but it does not involve the use of chemicals and depending on your climate you'll be limited in what you can do now anyway.

James

[NorMinn]

Broadleaf herbicides work pretty well on clover and other broadleaf weeds. Some lawns, such as St. Augustine, require special care. Used properly, it works well on most broadleaf weeds. If you have English ivy (or any of the "houseplant" varieties), you may have to work with something more deadly. You can cut all of the vines, wait for three or so new leaves to appear where you have cut, and then brush on RoundUP. Spray it on if the area is too large. It is deadly to lots of vegetation, so you need to take care it doesn't drift. No wind, no overspray.

Clover and bees are attractive in lots of gardens, but being allergic to bee stings is one good reason to get rid of clover.

[Charlie Bress]

Depending on where the lawn is, clear plastic in the sun will kill off the lawn even faster. I discovered that by accident when a house painter left a couple oh sheets of clear poly that he had been using as drop cloths out on the lawn. It seems that with a lot of sun shining through the normal aspiration of water from the vegetation and the lack of any water getting into the ground dehydrated everything fairly fast.

Charlie

[Joseph Meehan]

Assuming it is real clover, it means you don't have enough nitrogen in the soil. The clover is actually adding nitrogen so you grass will grow better.

You can kill it with repeated applications of a broad leaf week killer. Doing so will aggravate the nitrogen situation.

I suggest a better solution. Your lawn needs nitrogen. See that it gets it. Go a little heavy with a nitrogen rich fertilizer just before and during the times of the year that your type of lawn grass grows fast. Slow release is by far the best way to go, but just get the nitrogen in the soil. Don't add much if any during the slow growth months. Most of the US (mid to north, has grasses that grow best in the spring and fall. Cool damp times.

Follow this advice and over the next one to three years the clover will be crowded out by the nice healthy grass.

Don't over do it and don't expect immediate results. Too much nitrogen can damage the lawn grasses.

In short give the lawn a chance to do well and it will take care of the weeds.

One last suggestion. Don't cut your grass too short. It only weakens the grass and encourages all kinds of weeds.

[JNJ]

Just about any plastic will do, really -- black plastic has the added benefit of really heating up the soil and killing weed seeds and the like as well as blocking out all sunlight (i.e., no photosynthesis).

James

[CROM]

24D, mecoprop, dicamba product names killex or par3 spray in early spring use round up last resort topdress with triple mix topsoil and good seed

[mark Ransley]

3 cromba 2xrt 3xfer 5xeas . Wake up , as Joe says treat it good , dont f*ck with chemicals they are bad for the brain.

[Phisherman]

Use Weed-B-Gone or Spectricide mix in a spray bottle, or if there is a lot of spraying to do use a garden sprayer. Use on a sunny day with no rain in the forcast. The best time to kill broadleaf weeds is in the spring.

[CROM]

Ground ivy will spread through entire lawn digging it up wont help