When it comes to lawn care, homeowners sometimes think the best solution for managing weeds is chemical-based weed killer. As easy as this may seem, one homeowner proves how dangerous it can be for your lawn, bank account, and the environment overall.
An Australian Redditor took to a lawn care subreddit, r/lawncare, to ask for help regrowing a lawn that a highly concentrated weed killer had completely killed. The OP told the community that their girlfriend applied the weed killer to a part of the lawn with hopes of eradicating a vine weed.
The photo shared shows a completely yellowed, damaged lawn.
"Apparently the weed killer was too concentrated because the lawn is basically dead," wrote the OP.
The powerful chemical within the weed killer was Glyphosate, which many gardeners in the community were quick to criticize.
"Glyphosate doesn't work well for woody plants," one commenter explained.
Weed killers have the potential to be extremely harmful to gardens — and wildlife and humans. Instead, gardeners from across the world are urging homeowners to rewild their yards. This not only brightens a lawn with natural, gorgeous plants, but it also cuts the cost and time needed to work on the yard.
One gardener from Wisconsin told The Cool Down their experience: "A few years ago, I tilled up all the grass on our corner lot and spread a bunch of native plant seeds. Our house is now neighborhood famous!"
Many within the guide explain how easy it is to make the change. Homeowners could save $225 yearly on water and $100 on fertilizer and pesticides annually, in addition to gaining the time back it would have taken to mow regularly.
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By filling the OP's lawn with native Australian plants, regrowth is possible.
"Not going to lie, it's not going to look great for a while," one helpful Redditor wrote. "There's going to be some really bad patches."
Another noted: "On the bright side, she did one hell of a good job with that blanket application if that is all from spraying. … Some of this could also be dormancy mixed in, so you might have to wait and see and winter."
Some believe this misstep could be the best-case scenario since they can start rewilding the lawn by leaving it alone for a few months so that it naturally rebalances itself. Then, they can find what native plants are perfect for their lawn.
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