The War Against The Dandelions

April 9, 2005

This is my second summer owning a house with an actual yard. As opposed to owning a condo in the city. So last summer I had to spend my money accumulating the tools for lawn care–a mower, a string trimmer, hoses, sprinklers, rakes, hedge trimmer, and so on. Leaving me no budget for actual lawn care supplies.

So this year, now that I’ve put those big expenses behind me, it’s time to improve the lawn itself. And it needs some improving. It’s clear the previous owner did little besides mow it–the lawn is a profusion of different grasses intermingled with various species of weed and assorted ground cover. The worst part is that I’m getting nasty dandelions.

So I took a little trip to KMart this morning (yes I should have probably used Home Depot but the KMart is far less crowded). And I bought up some supplies to help me start the great War Against The Dandelions.

I’m gonna start tomorrow morning by laying down suppressing fire–the Ortho Max Weed B Gone. Give that a couple days to kill off the broad-leaf weeds.

Then I will do a re-seeding with the Kentucky Bluegrass seeds I picked up. Water the lawn lightly every day for a week to give the grass a good start, and then lay down some fertilizer with weed-killer on top. Then maybe once a month for the rest of the summer I’ll lay down another layer of fertilizer/weed killer mix. Hopefully that will do it.

I’m focusing my efforts on the front lawn this year. Next year I begin Phase II of the Great War, the backyard.