Mowing the Yard

[HarleyDog]

(04-30-2018, 10:54 PM)jfkbengals Wrote: Did my 6th mow Friday afternoon.

I ordinarily would have only done it once or twice this time of year, but I'm trying a new approach to a weed problem.

I get Hairy Bittercress in the yard in the spring and fall. It's the little weed that develops long stems with 5 or 6 long seed pods which, after drying up, explode at the slightest disturbance thus throwing hundreds of tiny seeds in all directions to grow the next season.

Every spring I go buy an appropriate weed killer to put down at the first sign of the stuff. While some of it does die off, most of it seems to recover and keep the cycle going for the fall. Making a second application almost always kills some of the lawn itself. In the fall, the daytime temperatures are too hot to put it down without doing major damage to the lawn, so it's a perpetual problem.

This year, at the first sign of the little bastards popping up, I decided to take a new approach. I fired up the tractor and dropped the mower deck down to the absolute shortest I can go without damaging the lawn and have been scalping the buggers below the height of the seed pods. I think this might be the D-Day of my war, as I have yet to have any seed spreading where as normally it would be done and over with by now.

I won't be able to use the tactic again in the fall as it could be detrimental to scalp the lawn in that heat, and the shaded areas need to be longer to thrive. But this approach should make a drastic reduction in the fall population, meaning less to combat the following spring. If I keep this regimen up for a several springs I should be able to wipe them out for good.

I’m so friggen tired of dandelions and weeds. I’m stepping it up a notch!