Source
r/lawncare•
splicepoint

My lawn guy says to nuke the front and start over, do you agree?

Cool Season

Photos: https://imgur.com/a/0RUS03W

I was talking to our lawncare guy (he's great, solo outfit - super honest, hardworking dude) who, until now, we've only outsourced mowing/edging to. I've taken care of the spraying & fertilizing. We moved into this place last March and it's coming time for the fall overseed.

The previous owners completely let the yard go and we've also taken down some large trees (it was time, unfortunately - hate taking down mature trees) where there are gaps but overall the backyard is 85%+ decent lawn and so we're planning to treat where needed and overseed to see if we can't crowd the weeds out and keep improving it.

However, not so on the front. When speaking to him about coming to aerate, we got into a conversation where he suggested nuking the front and starting fresh. (FWIW, We're in Zone 6a and I plan on using a high quality TTTF.)

I had taken a look and was thinking I'd be able to avoid the nuclear option but he does this for a living and now I'm reconsidering. I usually lurk on this sub, but wanted to get the group's opinion on whether I can otherwise treat the front yard without nuking or whether it's easier/better to just nuke it like he says and start over.

Thanks in advance for your opinions/votes.

Posted Aug 17, 2020, 1:35 PM UTC · edited

120
swmill08•

So I’m in season 2 of my house and it was neglected for 5+ years. Looked immensely worse than yours. Regular feeding/watering, weed control and fall overseeding, as well as proper mowing and it’s an entirely different lawn. Personally, I don’t think you are anywhere near nuke stage. 5lb/1k sq ft of overseeding, and killing weeds next season, and I think you’ll be in an entirely different boat and save a lot of headache

15
splicepointOP6a•

Thanks for your perspective. Obviously would rather not kill it off if I can still achieve a good result.

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peanut_brettle4b•

I definitely agree with this plan. All those weeds are manageable. Have you sprayed anything on it yet?

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splicepointOP6a•

I put down Triclopyr yesterday, but nothing otherwise. Happy for your recommendations! I have options in the garage (2-4 D, Triclopyr, Tenacity)

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zeroibis•

Recommend to look up exactly what sort of weeds you got so you can look up what chemicals best kill them. This way when you are going out there you are using the best possible thing to take them out. If you buy those hose end weed killers you can use that to easily do a broadcast treatment to the entire yard. Just be sure to follow the directions. From my experience they come out VERY VERY SLOW so that you do not need to worry about running around your yard and over applying but you may find that it is taking too long or that your going too fast and need to do a couple passes to get the correct amount applied.

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peanut_brettle4b•

Looks to me like you have Spotted Spurge and Dichondra Repens for sure. The 2-4 D should take care of that. I always recommend a little dish soap mixed in your sprayer, 1oz/gallon. Helps the weed killer to stick on the plant.

But I think you would get great results with a TTTF overseed once the weeds are gone. Be sure to use a covering like peat moss and water well.

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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mozillagenesis•

It doesn’t look horrible tbh. My front lawn has maybe 50% weeds (I killed off the dandelion and clover this spring, now the broadleaf weeds are popping up) and I’m just aerating and overseeding. There are certain areas I’m considering nuking among the whole yard, but I’m not decided yet.

6
ajb83_•

Yea I didn't think it looked that bad either

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DUNNmessingaround•

I'd only nuke if you have undesirable grasses that can't be treated. Those all look like weeds that can be treated with different chemicals. I have clumps of fescue and crabgrass and I don't know what other kinds of crap grass that I know can't be treated. So I nuked mine last weekend.

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splicepointOP6a•

Thanks!

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splicepointOP6a•

Thanks. That’s sort of how I feel. Doesn’t look awful but it needs work. I’m on the fence about it. Thought I’d collect as many perspectives as possible.

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zeroibis•

Looks good, if it already is the same type of grass that you want and it appears that it it TTTF and you want TTTF you should just kill the weeds with a selective herbicide and reseed.

I just took a yard that had nothing done to it for about 4-5 years other than cutting. About 30% of the lard land mass was poa in a zoysia lawn. I killed the poa although I knew it would die in the summer just to help the grass out as much as I could. There was also a ton of other weeds as you can imagine of years with no treatment. I hit with a weed and feed in the spring after using Image to hit the poa and applying my first preM app. After that I have just continued to kill weeds and fert every 4 weeks(at label rates). After the scotts Weed and feed I switched to Carbom X to get it growing strong and backed down to Milo before the 4th and have been on XGN since then. I also have been using the bio stimulants. Within just this season I now have the best grass in the neighborhood by a large margin. I have areas that were completely baron soil, holes over a foot wide filled with 300lbs of sand that are now completely filled with thick grass. Other than the ferts and bio stim I cut at 2" 2x a week to try to encourage the grass to thicken and spread as much as possible. I still get some breakouts of weeds on the edges of the lawn that I am fighting but the lawn looks so good some have jokingly called it astro turf after saying that it looked so good to them they could not believe it was real. (Helps that I but down micro green about 10 days before and milo 7 days before the 4th lol) Honestly, I do not personally think it is that amazing, especially compared to what most people on these forums have. It just looks to an average person that has never seen domination before like the greatest thing ever.

Now, you obviously are in a different situation with TTTF but I think the take away is if you just kill the weeds and do the stuff you can get great results and repair the lawn pretty fast if you are aggressive. Now TTTF is not going to spread or fill like my warm season grass does so the only way to thicken it is to be ready to get a great overseed this fall. Your real challenge which you would have ether way will be the winter weeds because you may not be able to get a preM app in on time after your overseed depending on where you live. However, this challenge would be even harder if you burned your lawn down.

Now if you really want to see where a burn down is needed I could post a pic of my back yard. Now although I think there is still about 20% grass left back there this is a good example of just start over. (I am having a bunch of heavy equipment for major tree removal that is going to destroy that yard so I have been waiting until after that to even bother with that space)

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splicepointOP6a•

Thanks for the lengthy write-up. After all the perspective shared in this thread going to forego the full nuke and treat selectively while going for an aggressive seed this fall.

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zeroibis•

Here is a great reseeding guide that LCN just put up today: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1-HW34xmUEYAPYRcbm7kqNUTipWhQgKDJ/view?fbclid=IwAR19vwW738nHBCQPNy39glJFuR6WuM2mLyRn9n-7-fDRdU04Yr-hLlI4HdQ

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splicepointOP6a•

Thanks, appreciate that!

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tetrine7a•

Rule of thumb I've seen is when it's about 60% weeds or more, that's when you want to consider a full nuke renovation. Of course if there's other major issues that a renovation could aid in resolving, there's some positives there as well.

For me, I've got almost 100% weeds, but need to do grading, address compaction problems that aeration hasn't solved yet in 4 years and will likely redo our drainage ditch with some buried permeable pipe since we'll have everything torn up.

So even if I was at 50% weeds, I'd still do the full nuke since I have other things best done with a torn up lawn. Just some things to consider.

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splicepointOP6a•

Thanks, helpful context.

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moneymouf•

In a similar situation. Curious to hear the response.

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[deleted]•

[deleted]

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double_e5⛳️ Reely Good•

That lawn does not “need” to be nuked, so I’m kind of interested in the expectations you have and what you talked about with your lawn care guy.

If you want the best lawn in your neighborhood, then I’d agree with him. If you want a perfectly acceptable to very nice lawn, you’ve got plenty there to work with.

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splicepointOP6a•

Thanks for the input. I don’t need the best lawn in the neighborhood.

Most of the reason that I came here looking for some additional input was because our view was that we could work with what we had out front. From the feedback in the thread, sounds like that’s the prevailing wisdom here.

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