Question
I have recently returned home from four years in the Marines and I am home now for good.  I am anxious to fix up my back yard, but it is overrun with clover and dandelions.  I would like to spray it all and be done with it, but my wife and I don't want to use any chemicals on the grass because of our 3 year old son who plays in the yard for most of every day.  How can I get around that and still make progress on my lawn?

Answer
Hi Marine.
First,
THANK YOU!!!!!!!!! I appreciate what you and others like you have done and are doing for us all !!!!

Simple, go organic and you will do away with the weeds, and it won't matter what reason your kids have for putting grass in their mouths ( and they do.LOL) it will be safe.
just go out and buy enough sugar to put 1 pound per 250 sq.ft. all over your yard, and water it in well.
DO NOT use fertilizers, or you will undo the benefits of the sugar.
I am going to copy and paste here, what i just answered for another questioner.
Most of it is about loosening up the soil, but if your soil is a little too tight from too much clay, it will benefit you too.
Mostly the sugar. I can't recommend that enough. that is all i have used for 8 years.


Hi Paul;
The best weed prevention I have ever found is a total organic program.
Weeds like poor soil and don't thrive in rich soil.
Concentrate on making rich soil and the weeds and insect problems will take care of themselves.
for every harmful insect that can invade your lawn and garden, there are hundreds of beneficial ones that will feed on the harmful ones.
chemicals kill all the beneficial ones along with the harmful ones, but killing the natural predators make it a perfect enviornment for the harmful ones coming back.
Lizards, toads and grass snakes will take up residents in a healthy enviornment, and the toads will eat, ants, slugs, and a lot of other nasty pests, lizards will eat ALL the aphids that invade roses. they keep mine aphid free.
Grass snakles and lizards eat a lot of pasts, and get fat and sassy, and don't harm any of your plants, or make a nuisance of themselves.
I haven't seen a weed even come up in my lawn for at least 5 years. i started my organic program 8 years ago.
I put down sugar and watered it in well. Fertilizers kill the baneficial microbes that enrich your soil. sugar nourishes them.
These microbes work round the clock, all year long, enriching and making your soil better.

Chemicals CAUSE problems, they don't cure them
I worked my self to death and spent at least two smal;l fortunes trying to have a good lawn, and battled weeds and grubs, army worms, you name it, for over 40 yeras.
Then 8 years ago, when I started with just using the sugar, the weeds started fading away in a couple of weeks, and fewer were there every week, until in a couple of months there were none.
I had about 50% weeds, because my next door neighbor had a weed farm that seeded my lawn every year.
I threw the sugar down again in the fall, and watered it in well.
the next spring, about half as many weeds came up as had the year before, and in a few weeks they were all gone, with no chemicals and no pulling or digging.
the third year, none even came up.
I have not put anything on my lawn for 8 years except sugar in the sopring and fall.
I always water deeply, to a depth of at least 6 inches, to encoyurage a deep root systen. That protects against heat, cold and drought damage, and prevents a thatch buildup.
All we have done to the grass for 8 years is feed it sugar twice a year, water deeply, mow and edge.
Our lawn id thich and lush, and dark green, and weedfree.
Buying topsil is an unnecessary expense.
Turn what you have into top soil.
Add bark mulch to loosen it up.
You can mix 3 parts bark mulch ( cedar is best), 1 part humus, and 1 part peat moss. Mix these together and put down 3 inches of this mixture, and mix it in with the top three inches of your existing soil, and in about 4 to 6 months you will have 6 inches of good topsoil.
Ot, you can do enough bark mulch to cover about 3 inches deep, add lava sand, and corn gluten.
Mix thet with 3 top inches of your soil, and that will also make good top soil.
Lava sand is full of nutrients, and corn gluten is both a weed and feed, according to Howard Garrett. He is Texaas organic guru.LOl.
He is a degreed horticulturist, has other degrees relating to agriculure too.
His website is   www.dirtdoctor.com
I have joined his ground crew ( paid the $25.00 fee to have total access to forums and videos on his site) and I am really learning a lot of new things to do, organically to improve my lawn and garden even more.


The rest of what I wrote for him, and other answers on organics are in my question archives.
Please write me any time you have a question about organics, or think I can help with anything.
I don't use chemicals in the house or yard, and i have no unwanted insects, and no worrying about my grandchildren or my dogs, and very little yard wotrk to do.
the herbs i grow for cooking and aroma theraly are also good for repelling insects from my house.
again, THANK YOU Matt, and any way I can be of help to you and your family, just let me know.
I enjoy gardening so much, especially since I can  take time to look at t, instead of slaving in it, and i am very happy to share what I have learned about organics.
Charlotte