Quick Landscaping question

[Jerome Stanek]

Is it too late to put weed and feed or something similar that I can use a spreader to put on the lawn? What do you recommend for a large amount of dandelions in the yard?

Are you sure they are dandelions. We have hawk weed that looks like dandeions and they come up this time of the year. I used a weed killer that you hook to a hose to get rid of them. Sprayed one day and by the next they were dead

[Marshall Harrison]

Use this online app to determine what's best for you lawn: My Lawn Care Plan

[John Terefenko]

John since you live in NJ as well this is good info, so would you recommend doing a weed and feed in the fall or next spring? Also I don't get why you shouldn't have dandelions at this time of year. If grass is starting to go dormant now, that means it is still growing up to this point. I don't like doing landscaping so I'm not well versed in this subject except for basic mowing and similar.

Weed and feed is good for the spring. My reminder to put down in time is when the neighbors yellow crocus start blooming. This year they were late because we had a late arriving spring. I do not fertilize at all in the summer because you do not want to stress grass in the heat. I will spot seed or overseed in the fall after labor day. Fall is the best time to grow grass. I will use winter fertilizer late in the fall. I bet those are not dandelions but some other weed flower. Spot spray with weed killer. I have to spot spray for nut grass every year. That is my enemy weed.

[John K Jordan]

Is it too late to put weed and feed or something similar that I can use a spreader to put on the lawn? What do you recommend for a large amount of dandelions in the yard?

I never use weed&feed. Too expensive and not always useful for what needs to be accomplished. What farmers use is an herbicide that targets broad leaf plants, 2,4-D, available from a farm store. Best if applied early in the spring but there is a version that can by applied later. When spot spraying I mix it with dye so I can see where I've sprayed. (When spraying entire fields I mix up 50 gal at a tome and use a boom sprayer - it flat took care of the noxious buttercup that was overtaking some over my fields last year. I walked around and spot sprayed any that came up again this year - didn't take long to do about 5 acres.

Just like wide spectrum herbicides like Roundup, a farmer cannot afford to buy the name brands but instead uses the generic (glyphosate in this case) in concentrated form at a fraction of the cost. The staff at a good farmer's co-op can tell you what is best to use and when to use it.

It is usually better to use a separate fertilizer if you need it. Pelletized fertilizer formulated for grass would be cheaper. The farm store can also advise about the fertilizer. Fertilizer really needs to go down in the spring anyway. I buy fertilizer for my fields in bulk, usually 2 tons at a time, but you can get almost any formulation in bags.

I'm with Jim, though - I quit my war on dandilions some years ago because of the bees. For the same reason I also don't mow areas that have a lot of clover until later in the summer - without bees 1/4 to 1/3 of our food supply would likely disappear.

JKJ