Weed and Feed for lawns

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Spreckly
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Weed and Feed for lawns

Post by Spreckly »

After my attempt to kill plantains on our back lawn failed - within the week the little monkeys are growing back again. So a kettle of boiling water does not work - I am contemplating Weed and Feed for our back lawn.

My youngest son has also recently applied it to his grass. I have just read a very negative review, to the effect that with Weed and Feed we are poisoning the earth, and it can be trodden into the house on our shoes, etc.

We have a long, narrow back garden, with loads of growing plantains, daisies, and other weed, and I just thought we could treat it bit by bit.

Have any gardeners got any thoughts?
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lancashire lass
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Re: Weed and Feed for lawns

Post by lancashire lass »

Depending on the active ingredient, it's difficult to say, but presumably the one you are referring to is 2,4-dichlorophenoxyacetic acid

Most weedkillers target the plant metabolism rather than animal but my take on any weedkiller is that you treat it as a poison anyway, after all it is there to kill something - so take precautions and avoid exposure. I always wear gloves (like marigolds) and wash my hands immediately after using and definitely if I had come into contact, and yes, I suppose changing footwear would be a good idea too so that you didn't tread it into the house. When I used to use feed and weed (the previous owner thought the mass of yellow dandelions was so pretty when she was showing me the house LOL), I wouldn't allow the dog on the treated part of the lawn until a good amount of time had passed and after rain or heavy watering in had occurred to allow it time to degrade.

Spreckly wrote:We have a long, narrow back garden, with loads of growing plantains, daisies, and other weed, and I just thought we could treat it bit by bit.


Probably the best way - cordon it off (use some netting on canes) so that no-one or animal will accidentally walk on it.

I'm surprised you are having difficulty getting rid of plantains as there were a few growing on my plot recently and they didn't seem that difficult to dig up.
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Spreckly
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Re: Weed and Feed for lawns

Post by Spreckly »

Thank you Lancashire Lass for your response. We have so many plantains, long trails of them, that to dig them up would be a massive task. We have never had so many before, just the odd one or two, but these are like a plague.

I will have a bash at digging a few up, though, just to see how time consuming it will be to do the whole back lawn.
rhubarb93
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Re: Weed and Feed for lawns

Post by rhubarb93 »

Or borrow a bunny or a goat?
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