Sometimes a problem causes you to lose your cool, and you come to regret it. One gardener, fed up with weeds, accidentally damaged large sections of their yard.
In a brief post on Reddit, one person lamented their mistake and hoped for help. "I got bad weed killer rage and ended up creating significant sized yellow spots in my grass. Is the grass actually dead and I need to resod it, or can I cure it with water and fertilizer?" they asked.
Roundup is a popular herbicide sold around the world that owes its effectiveness to glyphosate. This herbicide has been approved for usage in the U.S. since 1974 and has been deemed safe by the Environmental Protection Agency. However, some research suggests this product can harm biodiversity and freshwater ecosystems.
If, like the original poster, you have accidentally used this product on your healthy lawn, you may have a long-term issue on your hands. Lawn care company Soils Alive wrote that the only recourse for this mistake is to remove the dead grass and reseed or resod. Unfortunately, this is a time-consuming and costly mistake.
If you have to reseed your lawn anyway, this may be a golden opportunity to switch to a low-maintenance natural lawn. Traditional grass lawns are often species that are non-native and take a lot of work and water. By choosing a native species like buffalo grass, you can significantly reduce the time and cost of your yard care. Lawn alternatives like clover also hold up well against pet damage.
These more natural lawn alternatives could save you hundreds of dollars a year on your water bill. Forbes reported on the benefits of a clover lawn, writing it is a fast-growing ground cover that will likely outcompete weeds and that its flowers are beneficial to pollinators.
Commenters on the r/LawnCare subreddit had plenty of feedback for this hapless gardener.
"If it's just spots here and there, that will grow back in. St. Aug can grow over concrete," wrote one person.
A less generous Redditor said: "What on earth possessed you to think it's a good idea to spray your grass with Roundup? You shouldn't even use that on weeds when they're too close to plants."
The OP was a good sport in the comments, responding to "you don't know how to follow directions?" with "I think it's more of not having patience and time, the two things a lawn requires the most."
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