My yard: The Weed Farm

I realize it's only February, so it probably sounds too early to start thinking about yard work, much less doing any, but we've pretty much had no winter here in Austin, so the result is that my yard is already overrun with weeds! It's like April back there.

If I could think of any way to make money with dandelions and such, I might just let it go - "Be free, weeds! Be fruitful and multiply!" But as yet, there is no market for anything that appears in my yard naturally, so the volunteer plants must go. Besides, they have sharp edges on the leaves and they cut me!

Now, in the past, I've spent a back-breaking few weeks going into the yard everyday armed with a digger tool and some gloves, and I've hand dug-up every single offender. It's no small chore. It's pretty effective - I don't have to do too much follow-up digging as the warm season goes on (that would be from March-October, maybe November). But I noticed last year that I never really got much of my yard back either. Oh, I still had to mow as the lawn that *was* there would get unruly. But it never looked like a nice, even lawn. It was patchy.

On top of that, none of my neighbors seemed to have the mass of weeds I had. Okay, one of my neighbors did, but they never stepped foot in their yard. None of the neighbors who seemed aware they HAD a yard seemed to have the problems my yard had. So, they all must be using something I'm not.

The first year, I went with no chemicals - trying to help the environment. That nearly killed me. So, last year, I tried some fertilizer - the granulated kind you use a spreader to distribute across the lawn. I think it was supposed to have weed control in it, but it didn't seem to do too terribly much. So, this year, I'm ready to get serious. Load me up with the miracles of modern science, people. What do you use to control weeds and promote grass in your yards? I'm ready to go to war on the weeds!