what is this in my lawn??

[merseygull]

Hi there... first post..can anyone help?.....

last year i got seriously angry with our back lawn... it's been a mess for years, really since the house as built...made a BIG mistake about five years ago when I had it rotivated and then seeded it almost a week later..

ANYWAY, I got sick of the dandelions and thistles some, literally as big as a dinner plate.. so I sprayed one of those "kill weeds and roots" thingys on them, gradually killing the weeds, but also large areas of the grass...

OK, by feb, about 90% of everything was dead, so I killed the rest off....

raked out all the dead stuff, then in mid April (warm enough down here) I sowed the whole thing with new seed....

All was well for a few weeks, then I noticed large clumps of something that wasn't grass...something quite thick and bushy, that sends out "creepers" and expands to form large areas quite quickly... bushy, but as I dig them up, the plant has got a single thin taproot type structure...

Anyone know what it is??

Any tips as to how to get rid?

(short of digging huge areas up and starting again??

The attached pictures show a small plant (about 3cm)... which becomes the triffid in the later pics...

ATB,J.

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[Pat Kiewicz]

Hmmm...does it have sort of a strong smell? Looks something like tansy. I would suggest a broad-leaf weed killer, carefully applied, if you are inclined to such solutions. Read the label and follow the directions carefully...

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[trader4]

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Two basic things very wrong here. First, using a total vegetation killer to kill broadleaf weeds like dandelions in turf. Use a broadleaf weed killer which will kill the weeds and not the grass. Second, while seeding in Spring can be done, it's far from optimal. Fall is by far the best time. Lower temps give the grass many more months to establish before higher temp weather, it requires far less water, and weed competition is much less,