WEED AND FEED

[kayri]

I second the corn gluten product that SeaChick mentioned.

Kay

 

[1acrefarm]

Quote:
Why kill the clover? It is the most beneficial plant in your yard plus it's good forage for the chickens. Clover is drought tolerant and fixes nitrogen in your soil negating the need for fertilizer. Back in the good ole days people would not buy grass seed unless it included clover. I purposely plant it myself.
An interesting read. http://www.lesslawn.com/articles/article1061.html Another interesting read with a pic of a clover lawn. http://versicolor.ca/lawns/docs/trends/index.html

I would keep the leaves cut off the dandelions right next to the ground if I wanted to get rid of them. This will keep them from seeding plus eventually starve the roots. I prefer to keep dandelions though because they attract ladybugs which kill aphids. Good natural pest control. Chickens can also get calcium as well as other nutrients from those dandelions while freeranging. They also have long roots which draw nutrients from deep in the soil and bring them up. When you mow those nutrients are released if you don't use a bagger. Imo using one chemical always brings the need for more chemicals and more watering. A diverse lawn is a healthy lawn. Monoculture in a lawn is a heck of alot of work and a waste of resources.

I don't let everything grow in my lawn. If it is invasive, non beneficial and no good for forage it gets manually removed as many times as necessary before going to seed and eventually the grass chokes it out. I do not have alot of problems with weeds though.