Dandelions, thistles and moss

[Mick F]

Just come in from giving ours the first cut of the year.

What grass there is doesn't need any encouragement for growing, so I don't need a lawn food.
Is there a recommended cure for dandelions, thistles and moss?

[NATURAL ANKLING]

Hi,
Roundup
Goats

[Cugel]

....
Is there a recommended cure for dandelions, thistles and moss?

Acceptance.

Cugel

[reohn2]

....
Is there a recommended cure for dandelions, thistles and moss?

Acceptance.

Cugel

[Ben@Forest]

Astroturf. It'll satisfy your need to bring nature to order.

[Mick F]

Very droll replies.
I gather that I have no sympathy.

Thanks.

[NUKe]

Agree with Land Surfer round up or dig them out if you do a few a t a time and don't let the m reseed you will get there .

[paddler]

You can make your own moss killer from washing up liquid and salt plus a couple of other easy to find ingredients (I had a quick Google the other day). As for weeds, I've dug them out myself before, but admittedly my lawn isn't massive!

If you did want to feed your grass there were some recipes for that too.

[Vorpal]

I pull up thistles where they will bother us, and all of them from out of my vegetables. But otherwise, I leave them alone, except for feeding some to our rabbits.
We have trees on two sides of our garden, raspberries and red currants growing, so I plan to make the garden into a semi-wild minitature forest transition zone. I'd really like to have a pond, but I think that might be more work than I want to do.

Moss provides nesting material for the birds and habitat for creepy crawlies. Thistles and dandelions are both food sources for birds & other creatures, as well as being bee-friendly.

IMO, lawns are a waste of resources.

[mercalia]

Astroturf. It'll satisfy your need to bring nature to order. artificial_lawn.jpg

I have a balcony outside my 3rd floor flat. The neighbour got some artificial grass and laid it down there on hers

[Cugel]

I pull up thistles where they will bother us, and all of them from out of my vegetables. But otherwise, I leave them alone, except for feeding some to our rabbits.
We have trees on two sides of our garden, raspberries and red currants growing, so I plan to make the garden into a semi-wild minitature forest transition zone. I'd really like to have a pond, but I think that might be more work than I want to do.

Moss provides nesting material for the birds and habitat for creepy crawlies. Thistles and dandelions are both food sources for birds & other creatures, as well as being bee-friendly.

IMO, lawns are a waste of resources.

I yam highly suspicious of them gardens in which are arranged serried ranks of identical flowers, neat lawns with crisp edges and symmetrically-lopped trees placed just-so. In my experience, such hooses are populated by righty-tighty ex-majors and similar (perhaps even some mad old squaddie) keen to impose order on not just his garden but mine ... and me! And everyone!!

If there is also a flag flying, especially a jack or a red cross on white field, I inform the new rozzer-branch that deals with them supremacists, before I find Mr Tighty on my doorstep bearing a large shovel and a threat about how I must be more tidy & neat or suffer the consequences.

Cugel, also a jungle-gardener.

[PDQ Mobile]

Just come in from giving ours the first cut of the year.

What grass there is doesn't need any encouragement for growing, so I don't need a lawn food.
Is there a recommended cure for dandelions, thistles and moss?

Dandelion (from the French "tooth of lion" after the leaf shape) are good for bees - the pollen mostly.
Young leaves are quite palatable in salad and said to be healthy.
I quite like the flash of colour they bring.

[661-Pete]

When we first moved into our present house (over 37 years ago) I did thorough job of hitting all the dandelions on our lawn with a touch-weeder. I think (and hope) it wasn't roundup - maybe that hadn't been invented back then. Paraquat possibly?

Anyway the dandelions did all disappear on schedule, and it was many years before any reappeared on our lawns. Something I now regret. A healthy lawn can cope with a certain percentage of weeds - and what is a weed after all? Merely a wild plant that you happen not to want growing there. Be more tolerant!

Anyway weedkillers are taboo in our household now - unless it's between the weeds and structural damage to the house...

[fausto copy]

Our front lawn is currently bright yellow, as it's been invaded by Celandine.
I don't mind it there actually but can't stand the stuff generally as it spreads everywhere and looks worst of all on the driveway (chippings) for some reason.
The back lawn is currently a mass of moss due to all the lovely wet Welsh weather this winter, but in time it'll all revert to how it should look.

And there's a message for Mr. Cugel from our local Sergeant Major:

"Get yer hair cut!"

[pwa]

The only long term cure for moss is better drainage. You can kill moss easily with iron sulphate and other things but it will return unless you improve the drainage.

You go to the worst affected area with a garden fork and drive it into the ground as far as it will go, all the way if you can manage it. Then wiggle it back and forth to widen the hole. Then pull it out, move along six inches and repeat. Carry on as long as you can stand it. Then empty a bag of sharp sand over the treated area and rake it back and forth so it drops down the holes. This will create sandy columns that will help surface drainage long into the future. I have done it and it works.