How often do you mow? I feel like mowing every week should take care of most of this. |
Minimal time . . . and a boatload of cancer-causing chemicals, but why worry about that, right? |
Any amount of time is minimal if you don't have to put it in. |
Your neighbor can kill the weeds when/if they make it to his yard. If I were going to spend time weeding my yard, I'd just go ahead and get rid of all the grass and make it one big vegetable or flower garden.
Tell the neighbor that you will not put down chemicals but that you are considering other options, such as removing all the grass and starting a raked dirt yard or a wildflower garden. Maybe he'll be OK with your weeds and grass if he stops to consider what else you could be doing there. |
My neighbors' yard is nothing but weeds and it looks like shit. The husband is out there every weekend at about 8:00 a.m. mowing the weeds and then blowing something or the other around with his leaf blower for an ungodly amount of time. (Freud would have a field day, I think). |
OKay so I didn't read through all of the other comments (16 pages?!) But, there may be things you could do that do not require manual weeding. We moved into a home last year where previous owners did not do much more than mow the grass. It takes a long time, and we're still working on it, but if you plant new grass seed and put down some fertilizer/soil once or twice a year, the grass will eventually overtake the weeds.
You could have a landscaper come out once and give you some DIY tips. Also - I totally get the kid thing. My toddler son LOVES helping to "plant" grass. So, if you find ways to creatively involve the kids, it could end up being a fun activity you all do at home together, and look forward to each spring during grass planting season. |
How annoying, OP. I live in an upper middle class neighborhood (800K-1.5m homes) and have a natural lawn as well as a perennial, shrub, and tree garden around my house that is also anything but weed free. Believe it or not, I constantly get compliments from the neighbors around me, as well as from complete strangers, how beautiful my garden is. So glad to have neighbors who appreciate the beauty of a natural, well thought out landscape that doesn't focus on a sterile lawn. Maybe it has to do with the fact that this is a neighborhood full of liberals who are probably aware of the impacts of lawn care on our environment. Few people in our neighborhood have weed-free lawns, and thankfully there is no HOA to mandate spraying or limit anyone's creativity in their landscape design. |
have you tried crop dusting your neighbor's lawn? and by that I mean letting out a massive burrito fart while walking across their lawn. |
Buy a lot of corn gluten and put it down in the spring to prevent crabgrass seeds from germinating. Crabgrass is an annual weed, so if you can keep most of the seeds from germinating, it results less crabgrass. Corn gluten is safe for kids and pets (and is an ingredient in some pet foods). It also provides nitrogen, but no other nutrients, to your lawn. Overseed with grass seed in the fall, water daily for a month, and you'll have fewer weeds the next year because you'll have more grass and less space for weeds to grow. Don't worry about the clover, if that's your white weed. |
It is entirely your right to have a ghetto lawn. Yes it probably pollinates over into adjacent lawns. Your call OP. |
THANK YOU. +10,000 |
http://www.earthyreport.com/site/about/ lol I am sure he wants you to buy his products! The Earthy Report is the personal blog of John Vlahakis, a lifelong advocate for the environment, entrepreneur and community activist. He is the founder of Earth Friendly Products, a manufactuer of cleaning products that are safe for you, your home and the environment. |
Thanks for checking in from Concord California on a DC message board to revive a 3 year old post. Why do people do this??? |
Agree. But I wasn't on this board three years ago, and enjoyed reading it now! |
But you live in California. Your rules there have ZERO to do with DC, or this post. You can enjoy it all you want but shoot, keep your comments relevant, both in time frame to the original post and content. |