"Mind your own business" - help!

QTPie

Hi

We have a big lawn (well quite a lot at the front and a large amount at the back): beautiful. We have lawn treatment from green thumb (since March) and, although expensive, seems to control the weeds (apart from one!) and help the grass to stay thick and green.

Was chatting with the green thumb guy and he said that the patches of weed in an otherwise beautiful lawn are "mind your own business". He says it grows very quickly and there isn't much you can do about it (and didn't have a solution or treatment plan for it).

We have only lived here since March and it does seem to have spread. So I am now rather worried: are we spending quite a lot of money just to progressively loose our lawn to this weed?

Is there anything that we can do? Are there companies out there that can effectively treat it?

Thanks

DaftyDuck

I am very surprised.... It does spread like wildfire, it is irritating, but even the cheap and easily available Verdone lawn weedkiller kills it on a single application. I know, I have just done it.

It's available for a tenner on Amazon if you want to do it yourself, but I'd want to sack any lawn care company that couldn't get rid of such an easy weed.

You can also just attack with a rake on a hot dry day, leaving the debris in situ so not to spread it.... It'll dry out and die.

dogmaryxx

DaftyDuck wrote: »

I am very surprised.... It does spread like wildfire, it is irritating, but even the cheap and easily available Verdone lawn weedkiller kills it on a single application. I know, I have just done it.

It's available for a tenner on Amazon if you want to do it yourself, but I'd want to sack any lawn care company that couldn't get rid of such an easy weed

You can also just attack with a rake on a hot dry day, leaving the debris in situ so not to spread it.... It'll dry out and die.

Let the Royal Horticultural Society know so they can update their website.

https://www.rhs.org.uk/advice/profile?PID=348

DaftyDuck

They are wrong - they often are!

They tend to be very dogmatic on many issues.

Have a wider search, and you'll turn up plenty of sites saying it works on MYOB! Oh, and plenty saying it doesn't. Let MSE hereby state that it does!

Anyway, works fine for me, as does regular raking to lift it free of the soil. It's surface-rooted, and very prone to dehydration.

To the OP... I'd certainly try raking it on any sunny day around now, and it's also the right time of year to use Verdone (though not for much longer).

Give it a go, and report back! I'd still worry about an apathetic Green Thumb guy.

Steve_xx

DaftyDuck wrote: »

They are wrong - they often are!

They tend to be very dogmatic on many issues.

Have a wider search, and you'll turn up plenty of sites saying it works on MYOB! Oh, and plenty saying it doesn't. Let MSE hereby state that it does!

Anyway, works fine for me, as does regular raking to lift it free of the soil. It's surface-rooted, and very prone to dehydration.

To the OP... I'd certainly try raking it on any sunny day around now, and it's also the right time of year to use Verdone (though not for much longer).

Give it a go, and report back! I'd still worry about an apathetic Green Thumb guy.

Thanks for this information, it's very useful. I have this stuff and it is prolific and I've often pondered how to deal with it. In the past I've simply scraped it from the surface of the soil and binned it, but I'm noting that when I do so that it comes back pretty thick and much harder to scrape it away.


Reading about the Verdone product it seems to be selective about what it kills, which is great. Do you think it would be selective enough not to kill plants other than weeds?

Davesnave

Steve_xx wrote: »

Reading about the Verdone product it seems to be selective about what it kills, which is great. Do you think it would be selective enough not to kill plants other than weeds?

Verdone kills plants that are not grasses, that's all.

I don't use Verdone, but I use a selective product on my fields which leaves the grass intact, but bumps-off thistles and docks growing amongst it.

There's a number of plants developing resistance to glyphosate, American willow herb being one.

DaftyDuck

Given I publicly disagreed with the RHS, and my membership card will be summarily torn up and my dibber smashed, I emailed Scotts to see what they'd have to say......

Tim Farrant has replied that it does work, but it's fairly time-critical for MYOB. Even that surprises me, as given the life-cycle of MYOB, it's at all stages of growth most of the non-winter year....

Steve_xx As Dave says, Verdone is designed for lawn use... there are quite a few similar products around (I prefer the liquid ones like Verdone, as you can use them as spot weedkillers as well, but the granular ones tend to be mixed with moss killers & feed for lawns, so can be useful). Cheap on Amazon.


I would suspect we are getting rather late in the year for complete success, but I'd frankly hit it with Verdone now, and then expect to re-do it next year. I scarified a couple of weeks before, waited for (all the) weeds to start showing vigorous recovery growth, then wopped them with the Verdone. I wouldn't want to bring the scarification any closer to the application, as 1) the grass will be weakened and, 2) the weed needs to be in full & active growth to be affected by the weedkiller.

Don't apply overstrength; it will actually be less effective in the medium & long run. Kill the top growth too quickly and the roots and lower growth will survive.

Steve_xx

Many thanks for this information.

glasgowdan

Greenthumb are total muppets - anyone can buy a franchise, NO experience or knowledge required. Find an honest local lawn care provider instead. You'll pay more but your lawn will thank you.

QTPie

Thanks very much.

I am looking for a local lawn care business, but am struggling... There seem to be a few around that cover the area, but they seem to all be franchises (rather than independents). I will keep looking.