jags_the1

Hello,
well i am a PR in canada and we got a house like 2 years before and one constant problems we ran into is maintaining the garden . i would really appreciate any help , tips and tricks for a great looking garden .

Few problems:
1) i have a lot of weed growing in my backyard and in Canada we cant use weed killers. i have tried to manually remove them with yardworks weed remover, but still i am not able to get rid of them . and all that weed remover does is leave patches of empty spaces (since when we use it it rips off the soil and weed together.. no matter how hard u try to put the soil back .. it just is not the same again). i have tried using vinegar to kill weed , doesn't seem to work. i have also heard vegetable oil works good to kill weeds? is it true? what method do u guys recommend.

2) i have dead grass infront lawn .. like lot of it .. and dead grass looks brownish and ugly .. how can u prevent accumulating dead grass ? do we have to water it everyday ( we never water it) .

Thanks for your time!
Pls let me know about your advise .
thanks!

genuinegirly

Canada is a very large country, with a huge number of microclimates that impact what will do well and what will fail.
Here is some general cold-climate advice:
Add new seed to your lawn every springtime. Buy whatever your local horticulture shop / garden center recommends for your soil type. Aerate your soil every summer. Also, when you mow, make sure that organic matter makes it back into the lawn, with a mulching mower or a compost system. Autumn is one of the many times to fertilize. Before the first snow, spread out some manure and cover lower 2 inches of stems of fragile perennials with a layer of straw, hay, or mulch. Do ask local people what they do for their lawn.

My favorite weed killers are my hands. Weeding by hand may seem a futile effort at first, but it works well and is an excellent work-out. Gardening gloves were designed for this, they'll give you extra grip. My father has purchased a number of handy weeding tools - dandelion pullers and the like. I don't much care for them, but he swears by them. The biggest trick with weeds is making sure you pull them up completely, including their roots.

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Leto

is the dead grass in the front in patches? or just dried out from not watering? If it is patches, then maybe you have grubs. These are the larvae of beetles like june bugs or Japanese Staghorns - they munch on the roots of grass killing it. Another sign is if patches of grass is torn or rolled up. Usually done by racoons digging for the grubs. They like them as much as we like shrimp.

The way to get rid of grub now (since as you said we can't use pesticides anymore) is to buy nemotodes from a garden centre. These are little worms that munch away on the grubs. It's the circle of life working for you.

I haven't found these nemotodes to be effective at all. Usually I encourage the racoons to forage, or the robins to peck away, and subsquently repair the grass after they are done.

As GG says, we live in a big country, so you may have different climatic issues than I do. But crab grass etc are still weeds, and I usually hand pull them, then overseed my lawn. Just about everything GG says applies. But there is a danger with over-watering your lawn. This promotes shallow root growth and may prevent the grass from becoming hardy enough to survive a long dry spell.

By the way, what is a PR?

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aberkok

jags you should phone into CBC's Ontario Today on Mondays. I listen to Ed Lawrence's gardening segment and he sounds like a genius about these things:

CBC.ca | Ontario Today

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MelissaBenton88

What do you mean about this ???

well i am a PR in canada and we got a house like 2 years before and one constant problems we ran into is maintaining the garden . i would really appreciate any help , tips and tricks for a great looking garden .

Few problems:
1) i have a lot of weed growing in my backyard and in Canada we cant use weed killers. i have tried to manually remove them with yardworks weed remover, but still i am not able to get rid of them . and all that weed remover does is leave patches of empty spaces (since when we use it it rips off the soil and weed together.. no matter how hard u try to put the soil back .. it just is not the same again). i have tried using vinegar to kill weed , doesn't seem to work. i have also heard vegetable oil works good to kill weeds? is it true? what method do u guys recommend.............

EventHorizon

weed or weeds? also, oil and gasoline do work great but i recommend it as a solution to sidewalk weeds and for plants where plants don't belong, otherwise its basically a perma-kill on that patch of ground

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