Question
Hello, this year in Minnesota has been very dry and tough on our lawns but one thing the heat has not been tough enough on are the weeds and I have a lot of them.

At what point so I give up on spraying and plucking and start fresh by wiping it clean with roundup and seeding?

I have about 30,000 sq. feet of lawn, what would be a fair price for a professional to do this for me?

Thanks for your help Mr. Expert!

Answer
Oh, I do feel your pain.

Weeds, Weeds, everywhere.  Your Cool Season Minnesota Grass retires as the temperatures rise.  Midsummer is Siesta Time for Cool Season Lawns.  Weeds on the other hand -- excuse the expression -- have a field day when it gets hot and dry.  They grow fast and furious.   The hotter and the dryer, the better.

You're asking a question however that is a little confusing to me.  You want to know when you should 'give up on spraying'....? What sir are you spraying on your Weeds?  You suggest it is Earth friendly because you have not gone the RoundUp route (very smart of you).  But sprays of ANYTHING are rarely an effective to eliminate Weeds.  Clarify, please.

That's some mother of a Lawn you have to deal with.  If you have the equipment and the expertise -- sounds like you are a pretty intelligent guy, I think you would have that -- it should be done best by you.  Of course, we'd all build our own houses if we could, and we'd know it was quality from the inside out.  That's how it is with your Lawn.  Landscapers know very little about Lawns except what they read on the bags of powders and sprays they buy.  There's a reason you don't need a Green Card for this job, sorry to say -- and that segment of the population is least equipped to deal with the weird diseases and side effects of the chemicals they put on other peoples' Lawns.

That said, tell me a little about your Lawn.

What first of all did you 'spray' if anything?

What kind of Grass are you growing?  Bluegrass?  Fescue?  etc.

What's the sun situation -- a lot?  A little?  Any Trees?

How have you fertilized and watered your Lawn this year?  How did last year go?

What kind of Lawnmower do you have (let me guess -- you can ride it...)

What do you use you your Lawn for -- friendly games of touch football?  Dog Frisbee?  BBQ's?  the view?

rsvp and we'll figure out how to attack this problem.  It's easy.  You can do this.