Budget solutions for a very weedy lawn?

When I moved into my house last fall I really had no idea just how bad the yard was. Now, as things warm up and the grass is greening, I'm seeing that my lawn is probably 60% weeds, from chickweed to dandelions to creeping charlie to thistles.

I've been gardening for a few years, but lawn care isn't really my specialty. It's green, it grows, I mow it and go back to tending my perennials. However, now it looks like I'm going to have to take some serious time to figure out how to best tackle this weedy situation before it gets totally out of hand. (Well, it's out of hand already, but...it can only get worse.)

Some of the lawn care books I've read recommend a complete do-over--rip out the lawn and start again, they say. I have about 1/3rd acre, so that's just not practical for me. I'd much rather add more perennial beds than try to redo the green space. But I realize that if I don't get the lawn under control, those weeds are going to keep attacking my perennial beds anyhow. So, my question is...what can I do? I need some affordable solutions to get these weeds under control and help the grass reclaim the ground it has lost. Any hints and tips are deeply appreciated!

I wouldn't do anything. Weeds are green...LOL

See this article for some info:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/791/

and this one:
http://davesgarden.com/guides/articles/view/1530/

My lawn is 90% weeds as well. Driving by in a car doing 80MPH you'd never know it though. I keep my lawn regularly cut. It's lovely with the clover and butter cups blooming in the summer!! they bloom now at grass height, couldn't have made a prettier lawn if I'd tried to.

Do you see signs of any type of grass? Many weeds can't survive in soil that has a good nitrogen content so, if you have some grass, a good dose of something like 13-13-13 should bring it to life and, once the grass gets going good, it will likely choke out many of the weeds.

You can buy weed killer at Walmart, Lowes, etc. The bottle attaches to your hose and you just spray the lawn.

I had to laugh at what you said three gardeners about weeds being green. My hubby says that same thing when I complain about the weeds. We have real sandy soil and while it is hard to grow regular green grass it is really easy to grow weeds and I mean lots of them!!

I actually bought weed killer about 2 weeks ago: I have not used it and still have the receipt...it goes back to the store tomorrow. I realized something as I looked at my lawn from many angles (including driving by in my car): WHAT AM I DOING? Every single thing is green...lovely...some of them bloom. I mow as need be and leave it at that.

Agree for the most part. My yard matches the neighborhood yards. If everyone else had perfectly manicured zoysia, I would try harder....
Plus, the chemicals you need to keep a good looking yard are sometimes bad for the environment.

If you would like a lawn that's low cost and low maintenance, look into starting centipede grass. It grows in poor ground (actually doesn't like too much nitrogen) and will crowd out weeds as it grows. It grows more outward than up so it doesn't need to be mowed nearly as often as other grass types or weeds :-}

I will have to look into the centipede grass. I have even thought about thyme. That would be expensive though I think. A couple of my neighbors do have nice lawns but I am not willing to pay for the chemicals they have sprayed on theirs. I don't want it and I cannot afford it. So, my hubby wins. Weeds it is.

We "discovered" centipede by accident. Down here most folks have Bermuda because it's what normally grows best in our climate. But when we built our house about 5 years ago, the ridges had to be bulldozed down by about 20 feet so we have NO topsoil. We tried planting Bermuda and it tried to grow but the only way to get it to thrive is to put lots of fertilizer on it at least once a year. We have 5 1/2 acres in lawn and currently a bag of 13-13-13 is about $15--way out of our retirement budget! We have lots of centipede volunteering in large patches--guess it's a gift from all the birds I feed. I got curious about it so ran a search to find out what type of grass it is and thats when I discovered it doesn't like rich soil and doesn't care for too much nitrogen. That makes it the perfect grass for us :-} Initially, the seed is expensive but, when we consider how much we spent trying to get that #$*&@ Bermuda to grow and ended up just throwing all that money away, it seems cheap. Plus we love that the centipede needs so little mowing. Having to mow all these weeds we currently have costs us 5 gallons of gas per week and, of course, gas is going back up too! When I'm mowing and I run across a patch of centipede (which doesn't really need mowing yet) I find myself thinking, "Hurry up and cover the whole yard!"

Rip it up and plant a vegetable garden!

I think creeping charlie is prettier than grass. Thistles, though, are another story. You gotta have a barefoot-friendly yard.

I love the purple creeping charlie flowers!
It can creep all it wants to in my lawn...only when it starts to creep into my gardens do I have a talk with it.

You know, now that you all mention it I really don't mind weeds on my lawn all that much. (Although the yellow dandelions everywhere when the neighbor's grass is yellow-dot-free worries me a little.) The problem is that I don't want them invading my perennial beds, so I figured keeping them out of my lawn was something I needed to do. I suppose I could just Preen the perennial beds and let the lawn do its thing. The thistles will have to go, though.

yaaaayy that DGers protected you from catching the grass-growing obsession!

Have you guys seen this Scott's (I think) commercial where they have the guy who implies that the neighbors hate him because his lawn has dandelions? And now that he uses x product, all the neighbors wave and smile? Whatever. I can think of better things to do than grow perfect grass and look down my nose at people who don't.

My neighbor did not like when i planted milkweed into my butterfly garden. The neighbor on his other side has it all over their yard too. Lol. I guess he used to be a farmer and they don't like it. I like it though and so do the monarchs, which I think I saw my first one today.

We live out in the country and are surrounded by woods so none of our neighbors can see our house. Most of them have no idea that I have milkweed growing in my butterfly flowerbeds. I also make sure hubby doesn't weedeat it down around the edges of the property where it grows wild :-} Our "lawn" is currently a mass of blooming clover which all the bees just dearly love. As stated earlier, we do have some volunteer centipede coming up. I'm happy because it will keep us from having to mow as often which, in turn, will save money on gas and lawnmower repairs.

Quite actually it isn't that expensive or that difficult to get a weed free lawn. Now is the perfect time to do it. You cut the grass as low as the mower goes and then put weedkiller on that doesn't kill crabgrass. Wait two weeks, rake up the dead stuff and spread new grass seed and a slow release fertilizer like Milogranite (9.99 per bag). It is best to use the best quality of seed you can afford but I did use bulk seed that was like 99 cents a pound. Water it twice a day for two weeks straight. Don't cut the grass till it is 2.5 to 3 inches long and then never cut it shorter than 2.5 inches. It will keep the weed seeds from getting light and keep the lawn from drying out. Use a Mulching mower and feed with Milogranite in the spring and very late fall. We did this in the spring and then again in the fall and now we have one of the best looking lawns on the block. You can find more information about overseeding at this website which I used when I did mine. www,gardening.yardener.com

you make it sound like it is way too easy. lol. I will haveto write it down and then get hubby's cooperation. LOL

The hardest thing for us was to make sure it got watered twice a day for 2 weeks straight. We do have 2 maple trees and it drove my husband crazy that we had all these little seedlings taking root in our lawn but if you keep cutting with the lawn mower at 2.5 inches they eventually die out. We have not had to use any chemicals since except for the Milogranite which is organic. Lawn care now for my husband is so easy. He doesn't even have to use the bagger except in the spring to get the maple seeds up. In the fall he mulches the leaves where they lay on the lawn as it feeds the good soil critters for the winter so his yard work is now at a minimal. It gives us more time to watch the flowers grow. We dug out a planting bed next to our deck yesterday and the roots to our grass was very thick. He has noticed some errant crabgrass in the lawn and he is going to spray that this year. We put down corn gluten but it didn't quite do the trick. I think we put it down too late. Just so you know how easy it was, he did the alley way next to our house (city adcess for utility pole only) and our side of the alley looks just as good as the yard LOL.