Friday was the closing day on our house. We've started a bathroom reno (less money for the garden :( ). Yesterday I sat in my yard and took it all in. Does it ever need a lot of work!!! But, at least now I can get to work on the designing and planting. I can't believe how many weeds are in the lawn (never mind the existing flower beds). This upcoming weekend is the big move. Hopefully all will go well and I'll be in the garden all next week!!!! What is the most effective child friendly way of weeding the lawn and gardens?
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Oh, if only I COULD pull all those dandelion seed heads out...before my kids do. They call them "wishing flowers" and just love to pick them and blow the seeds loose with a wish!
Oh well, they're only little for a while. I guess that's another reason why we haven't resorted to a chemical in the lawn. It's like that saying:
Cleaning the house
While kids are still growing
Is like shoveling snow
While it's still snowing
We just moved into our home in November and the weeds have gone crazy with the sun and rain this spring. I won't spray anything since we have kids and a cat, and I do all the weeding by hand. I have to say it seems like an endless job in the beginning--all I did was pull weeds to see more dandylion flowers the next day. But in only a few weeks, it really seems to have come under control. I do try to dig out the whole root, and definitely grab them once they flower before they go to seed. If you don't have time just rip off the flower when you see it and dig it out later.
and just take it day by day.
We had a lot of editing when we first moved here, so we didn't get much more than that done the first year. The second year, I was fortunate to have my FIL's help. He made a large standing screen out of plywood that has screen stuff on it with squares about 1" large, and screened all the soil in the garden beds I have in the front yard. Aside from a few select shrubs and trees, all we really kept was iris clumps. He also removed some landscape fabric that was placed in a border bed that runs the depth of the front lawn.
The screen is a really good idea if you have a totally weed-infested bed. In the back yard we had what I think was once a vegetable garden, a raised bed of about a foot high bordered with wood lengths-it was about 12' by 12'. Weeds were at least 3' high, and so entangled in the ground that you could not get the roots if you pulled them. It took 2 summers of taking sections of the earth with a shovel and hurling the whole thing at the screen to separate the good soil from the weed-with-root parts that went into bags. I did most of that. Backbreaking work! It was easy to pull new weeds that grew in the cleared areas once the soil had been turned over. A friend of my husband suggested a rototiller, but I think that would have just propogated the weeds that can regrow from fractional remains of roots that would have been shredded. We now approach our third summer season here, and the vegetable garden has finally been reduced to a small corner garden in the back yard, and all the good soil from it has been distributed to existing garden beds, a new border garden, and the unlevel areas of the lawn. Finally, the weeds are manageable.
I rely on hand-pulling in the garden beds now. Since most are stubborn, I use a hand shovel to dig down beneath them, and then with the soil loosened they can be freed, root and all. It saves a return performance if you get all of the root, so they don't just regrow. Also, it is good to get the ones that spread with seed early, before they scatter their seeds everywhere.
DH is in charge of the lawn, but he has only applied lime and some moss killer a few times. He does it early in Spring, before the kids are out playing. We haven't used weed and feed yet, as my husband has issues with it. Still, the lawn looks pretty good just keeping it in trim. He pulls dandelions once in a while, but that's all.
Good luck with your garden plans!
not to be sarcastic amy but.......pull them by hand...been doing that for many years...u have to keep on top of them but unless your yard is HUGE...its still the best way...if u keep the grass fertilized (and now is the time) and well watered and dont cut the grass too short...the weeds stay pretty well under control...i use an old steak knife and just dig out any deep rooted ones ie: dandelions...it seems to work...isnt it exciting to plan a garden?...just keep your eyes open for cheap plants and buy them as u can afford them...maybe neighbours and friends will share some of theirs with you...