wild weeds and srooms

kdunn – posted 29 August 2004 09:55

we have just moved into our new home we had built about a month ago. we had the entire yard laid with sod and not seeded. we have a few problems.1. we have some kind of critter (probably skunk or something) that comes sometime through the night and rolls up our sod. well that sod now looks dead and he is moving on to other areas of the yard. what can we do?2. along our fence line, there are trees that hand over from the common areas and are making wild leaves and weeds develop in our yard. how can i get rid of them without killing my sod?3. last, i assume our landscaper did a poor job os spraying the beds. we now are getting alot of weeds, wild grass, mushrooms in our beds and yard. what can we do?

Dchall_San_Antonio – posted 03 September 2004 11:40

1. The critter is going after insect grubs in the soil. Roots cannot grow into air, so you need to mash that soil back down. Too late now for any you missed back when you wrote this. If you kill the grubs, the critter will go away. I use beneficial nematodes to kill grubs. If you want to use a chemical, that’s up to you. I can’t suggest any.

2. Trees don’t make weeds. Improper watering and mowing allow weeds to sprout and grow. If you water only weekly in the summer and monthly in the cooler months, the seeds cannot sprout. If you mow tall, at the highest setting on your mower, the tall grass will shade out the seeds and prevent them from sprouting. Any that do sprout will be pretty weak and likely pushed out by the grass. So proper watering and mowing will kill your weeds.

3. Can’t blame the landscaper. Beds should be mulched. Bare soil will allow weeds to grow wild. Mushrooms are usually caused by waaaaaaaaaay too much watering. I water once a week for 2 hours at a time in each zone. Then I don’t water again for at least a week – when the grass blades fold together indicating they are dry.