Question
Hi

I am a total newbie at gardening. Our newly established lawn (seeded 6 weeks ago) was overrun with weeds. So when we were at Prairie Gardens, I asked the lady there what I could do with our new lawn. I told her it was established 6 weeks ago.  She suggested that i use Weed B Gone Weedkiller + Crabgrass Control that says it is rainproof in 1 hour. We had some rain in the morning, but no rain was forecast so I was told to go ahead and use the product.

I just came in after spraying our backyard with 1.33 Gallon of this read to spray product. While surfing the net, I found that one is not supposed to apply these weedkillers until the lawn has been mowed 3 times. And I haven't even mowed the yard even once. Did I screw up? Can I do anything to "undo" any damage I may have done. Also, we have little kids and I am beginning to get alarmed at what I am reading about weed killers. What can I do to minimize their exposure to this product?

Thanks for maintaining a most useful website. I only wish I had checked here first.

Answer
There are about as many websites dishing out advice about Lawns as there are recipes for Chicken Soup.  But none of those websites is nearly as powerful as the self-promoting Scotts Companies.  They have 'educated' the poor lady at Prairie Gardens (and Lowe's and Home Depot and everywhere) about how to use their products with no regard for the damage they do to people, pets, or your Lawn.

You did not mention where in the world you are writing from.  'Prairie Gardens' sounds like a garden center in Arizona or Nevada.  Please, would you provide a Zip Code or nearby City location so that I can give you better advice on this?

Meantime, let's look at a few things here.

Weed B Gone uses several chemicals that have all kinds of toxic side effects to everyone including your soil.  It's made of 'Mecoprop', 'Dicamba' and '2,4-D'.  The 2,4-D alone is a serious poison.  If you took a lifesaver size container of 2,4-D -- considered one of the safest pesticides on the market -- and poured it on the skin of 4 kindergarten children, you would kill 2 of them.  And they would not have to drink it, or breathe it.  All they'd have to do is put it on their skin.  That alone should tell you plenty about Weed B Gone.  I won't go into the Dicamba or the Mecoprop today but if someone at Prairie Gardens tries to tell you it is safe, remember that scenario.  2,4-D kills people every year who use it and they do not drink the stuff.  It's a poison.  That's why they put it in Weed B Gone.

As far as your Grass, after a full month, it is less vulnerable to harsh chemicals than if it was only an inch tall.  This time of year, I am guessing it is growing nicely.  The chemicals wipe out any microbes that were living in the soil and that is a problem, but you can deal with that.  If you water your Grass generously, you will at least dilute the effects of the chemicals, and they will be less potent.  This is really all you can do at this point.  More important, you have discovered that these products are not safe.  And that's a great lesson right there.  People who have been growing Lawns for decades still don't know that.  That is why Scotts owns something like 80 percent of the Lawn Care Products business.  They are incredibly powerful, their commercials are spectacular and expensive, and they have many people convinced that their products will give them great, healthy Grass.  And that they are safe.  Plenty of scientists and homeowners don't agree, but they are not buying commercial time on Superbowl Sunday to get that point across.

Next, tell me please what kind of Grass you sowed.  And get ready to mow it.  What kind of mower do you have?  I can advise you on that, too.  But we need the name of the Grass.  And your Zipcode.

Keep your kids off the Grass for now.  They shouldn't run around on baby Grass anyway.

rsvp