Complete newbie lawn cock up ?

New here so hi to everyone :thumb:

What I know about lawns plants and gardening in general you could write on the back of a mtach box :rolleyes:

We have moved house and finally we have a nice sized rear lawn. The problem is it had lots of dandelion leaves all over it so like a bull at a gate I just grabbed the first spray on weed killer from homebase (roundup) and proceeded to spray all the dandelion leaves and anything else that wasn't grass. That was four weeks ago, now, the areas where I sprayed are free from the dandelion leaves but its all turned brown and the grass in those areas looks to me as if its died too :eek:

So I have tonight read the back of the roundup spray can (yes,yes i know) and it states in bright red bold letters NOT TO USE ON LAWNS UNLESS YOU WANT TO KILL THEM :eek:

What have I done ? will ALL my lawn die ? or will the effected areas recover ? What can I do ?

Please advise I'm feeling a bit of an idiot :(


Regards.

 

Oh dear!
Hopefully things are not as grim as they may seem... (quite). As long as you have been fairly accurate with your spraying, the areas of grass in between the treated areas should survive pretty much unscathed. I'm also fairly confident that the effects of the weedkiller will eventually wear off - don't have any Roundup to hand to check poss. time scales, but hopefully, going by most weedkillers, within a couple of months it will be possible for grass to begin to regrow. Others may have more accurate knowledge, but I would suggest that you leave well alone for a couple more weeks - perhaps watering the brown bits copiously if a dry spell happens to try and dilute any residual 'poison' - then scrape out the affected areas to a depth of an inch or so, and fill in with a mixture of fresh soil and grass seed. Keep it well watered, and you should see new grass shooting through quite quickly - hopefully by next Spring you'll never know the difference!

Good luck!

Anthony

 

Phew ! I feel much better now, and yes I was quite accurate in my spraying thankfully.

I just had this terrible dread that it would spread all over the lawn <sigh> I will take your advise.

Many thanks for the help and prompt reply



p.s (this information has seemed to dilute the look of disapproval from my wife, so cheers)
:rolleyes:

 

Scratch up the bald areas and over seed them, mix a handfull of compost int the seed to help 'stick' it. secondly water it with the sprinkler.

Next time use Verdone.

 

Thank you

 

Hi Abasconditus,

Got a tip for you....

Get an old funnel.
Unscrew the nozzel from the end of your sprayer lance.
Put the lance down through the funnel.
Re-attach the nozzle, which will stop the funnel falling off.
When spraying weedkiller, put the funnel down over the weed.
Weedkiller will now not stray onto other plants next to it.

Also, as a general tip never spray if there's any wind. The spray will always drift onto neighbouring plants. Not too bad if not systemic but potentially desasterous otherwise.

You are now equipped to rampage through the weeds safely.

Don't worry about your lawn. Grass is ridiculously hardy. It will be back before you know it.

Recommend using a very thin trowle and digging out weeds from the lawn. Dandelions has long deap taproots. Get it all out or it will be back.

Hope it helps.

 

I did something similar whilst spraying my patio, last year. Despite being very careful, the grass around the edges of the patio turned brown and died, but within a few months it was back to normal.

I've avoided using weedkiller on the patio this year and have just resorted to using a knife blade to dig out the moss and weeds. Then my lovely hubby, whilst re-waterproofing the tents, spilt the waterproofing stuff on the grass. Guess what? I now have a nice dead patch right in the middle of my lawn. :rolleyes:

 

"I now have a nice dead patch right in the middle of my lawn."

That'll be your Hubby, right? :D

 

Hehe... very nearly.