We have a HUUUUGE back yard. I mean, HUGE. It is about 15,000 square feet. The average home site, entire is only about 7, 000 square feet.. Ok anyway.... We are covered in CLOVER, and there is a bit of sod (San Augustine) next ot theouse proper. Now, Here is our plan. (Tell me whwere we agr going wrong...) WE plan to use herbacide to kill the weeds. Right now we are going to try Ortho Weed B Gone and see how it takes. Once we kit the ground cover brown... We planned to rent a powerfull tiller to break up the mount sof weed strings (Roots and stems). Then scrpe it all off the ground, leaving nothing but bare ground. Our ground is mostly CLAY, which is why we madea raised bed garden. We are doing this trouble so that we can enjoy the back yard without fear of being eaten alive by those tiny sticker BURRs that drive us nuts and stick to everything and hurt your feet. (They are from the clover) Ok, after we scrape the ground clean, we planned on puuting ddown weed preventer and sod parts... 2foot by 1 foot sections of sod to plug it because we cannot afford to sod the whole thing... Ok, so where are we going wrong? What are we missing?? Thanks
I don't think you are missing anything we did our yard like that a year ago Jen and love it.. no more burr's love it...
I think that the grass there is completely different from the grass up north. My sisters lawn does hurt the feet, she lives near Austin. Personally, I like the weeds and all. If it's green- I'm happy.
And what would you do with your children when they want to run in the lawn? The clover brings BURS. OUCH! They are millions everywhere come spring. This is what is in your feet.... (These are not the exact ones but VERY similar) So although the thought of pretty clovers in your lawn sound great.... by the time April rolls around, it is no fun in our yard, because these seed cases (Burrs) dry up and brown up and become razor sharp. AAHHH!!!
We get a lot of California burclover. We hoe the ground while they are small otherwise we have them all over the place and those burs are nasty once they dry out. Not to mention if the bur breaks, it releases more seed.
Exactly! It is like releasing the kids to go run into razor wire. It took me three months to get my DD, who was newly five at the time, to go in the back yard without me carrying her to the play fort, after she fell into a patch of the burs.. Not that I blame her for not caring to get stuck/ Problem was, she thought the sticker burs were ALIVE and going to GET her! Whooo Nightmare!
Okay, I get it now. That clover is not the sweet, thick, harmless little clover we get on out lawn! And I've never seen clover with burrs before. Ouch!
Ouch. I grew up in the northeast, and I was trying to figure out WHAT your problem with clover was...I've been trying to get red clover started in our own lawn (now, now...I have my reasons). Glad you posted the pic - yikes. If you want to avoid chemicals, you could treat your lawn with corn gluten. The gluten prevents seed germination (so those burr seeds can't sprout) and also provides fertilizer for the grass that is growing. My understanding is that is costs a bit more than chemicals, but you do get a double benefit.
Reminds me how much I hated Texas lawns, LOL. Growing up in the northwest my husband and I couldn't believe that in Texas they purposely use grasses like Burmuda in lawns, here we try to kill those out of our yards, LOL. Even the best, nicest lawns there didn't feel comfy and nice to walk on barefoot. Hubby laughed at me when we first moved back up north because every time i would walk out back I would smile and comment on how nice the grass felt And teh very best thing is we don't have to constantly watch out for fire ants. Man, I hated those. Sorry for the crazy tangent, now back to the actual topic. I think your plan sounds good. There may need to be a waiting time after the weed b gone before you can plant anything else on that ground. I hope you can figure out a way to make the yard much more pleasant and useable.
Yeah, those aren't really clovers, the leaves just kinda look like them. They're awful! Corn gluten is a great pre-emergent - it will stop any new seeds from popping up, but it won't help with the plants that are already up. Keep weed 'n feed away from trees - it will kill them.
Here are pics pof what we had last february.... Before the burs dried up and we learned that the beautiful bed of clovers had a bad side hahahahaha! So, I mean they ARE clovers, right? I just don't have a photo of the burs.
Those are... umm.. shoot. I know the name of them... They aren't actually clover, though, no. I have them, too. Arrrgh... I hate it when my brain does this! Can I copy the photo of the plant without your kids in it and post it on my gardening forum? Someone will know the proper name very quickly. I'd go take a photo of the same plant that is springing up in our front yard, but our camera was dropped this week and has gone to digital heaven.:cry:
Okeydoke, it's posted. Someone should come along with an answer very quickly. They're REALLY good over there! http://davesgarden.com/community/forums/t/953894/
Well, it is called "Burr Clover", so you were right. I think I was thinking oxalis when you said clover. Here's an info page about it: http://davesgarden.com/guides/pf/go/89863/
Apparently it's good for feeding to cattle, like regular clover. Who knew? Here is some advice I found: "There are several ways to attempt to get rid of this invasive weed. The best method is to do something before they go to seed—right now! Too low for the lawnmower to affect them, they spread more and more each year as the prickers get carried throughout your yard. If you just have a few, digging them up helps tremendously, and they‘re easy to spot right now. Of course, if there are any seeds from last year, they’ll come up again. Same thing with the seeds being tracked in from somewhere else. The other option is to spray. Chemicals that will help are Atrazine, or anything containing Trimec or 2-4-D. Use caution when spraying close to the root zone of ornamentals, as always. These sprays shouldn’t hurt your grass because the grass should still be dormant." Don't till it... that'll just make it worse next year. It will die on its own by May, but by that time the kids won't want to go out to the backyard ever again.
