Whole-yard weed control?

[tsfairy]

My yard is completely overrun with weeds. I'm not sure if there's any actual grass left!

I don't mind so much (at least it's green!) but there are some prickly plants that really hurt to walk on barefoot, and the weeds grow SO FAST, especially this time of year with the heavy rains we've been having.

I read in some old threads about using vinegar or boiling water to get rid of weeds in isolated areas, but that will kill everything right? I'd like to have some kind of grass eventually and I don't want to use any commercial pesticides like Weed N Feed, which my mom and sister recommended.

Do I need to just wipe out the whole yard and start from scratch with grass seed or something? Or is there some way to prune out the weeds and cultivate the grass?

[ASusan]

I believe that vinegar or boiling water (certainly) will kill everything. I use boiling water on my sidewalk cracks.

I use corn gluten on the whole lawn.

I have also been known to weed by hand. One year I had some ground ivy that was threatening the whole front yard. It was the same year I was reading Having Faith: An Ecologists Journey to Motherhood (Sandra Steingraber), so I could NOT use a single pesticide. Every day after work, I was in the yard on my hands and knees for at least an hour. I did this for at least 2 weeks, but it was really successful. (I had no kids.)

I also spread grass seed at least once a year to keep the lawn thick.

[tinybutterfly]

We also have a yard full of weeds. My husband planted some Zosia grass last year. The theory is that this grass is so aggressive, it will overtake the weeds and win. I'll let you know in about 5 years if it worked. :

Glad to hear about pouring boiling water on cracks. We have just pulled the weeds out, and that is hard to do when they are stuck in a crack! I'll try this instead. Thanks!

[CarrieMF]

We use a mini spade and dig the weeds out. Since we've started this we have hardly any weeds and the only ones we really get are dandelions. It takes time at first but the effort is worth it in the long run. Now every year we start pulling them out as soon as we see them pop up. The first time of the season it can take 20min or so but after that it is maintenance once a week. Within a couple of weeks we don't have to do it anymore because they stop coming. Meanwhile our neighbors on both sides of us & across the street have yellow & then white lawns.

My neighbors paid $150 for lawn care people to come in, fertilize, aerate, mow & treat their lawns. Their lawns were worse last year than any other year.

Dandelions just duck under the mower so that does nothing.

Between pulling the weeds I"d make sure to do regular mowing to keep them from going to seed. You'll notice a huge difference next year by not letting them seed.