Hello everyone!

First time to the forum and I hope y'all can help. We bought our home in Sept. of last year. With the drought in Texas, there was very little in the way of grass in the yard. We have lots of weeds though - loads of them! But I also have pets and I am having to be very careful of what I use on the yard. I found Tenacity, which seems safer than most. My biggest issue is that most of the yard is covered in Burweed. Those things hurt like the devil and I really need to kill them off. I'm hoping that some of you might now how effective Tenacity is on Burweed, or if I need to use something different. Oh, and is there a pet safe surfactant if I go with Tenacity? My dogs like to eat anything and everything that is in their yard, so safety is a big deal for me! I can keep them off of it initially, but the long term residue is a concern.

We had plans of planting zoysia this spring, but with the forecast of more drought and water restrictions, I may just have to deal with a bare yard - weed free at least (I hope). We did seed with Rye grass during the winter, but the weeds have been winning. The previous owners apparently didn't do much towards lawn care, and with a pasture next door and woods behind us, the yard is very native.

Would appreciate any help you can give this new comer. I know I am in for a long battle with the state this yard is in! Thanks!

OK, there is good news and there are a few caveats...

Tenacity has Lawn Burweed identified as a controlled weed.

Now, there's that "who knows" listed under your "grass type". That's an issue, and it needs to be addressed. Tenacity will really harm Bermudagrass and Zoysia - as a matter of fact, there are articles listing "Bermudagrass Control" as a potential future approved use. And Common Bermuda is ummm, common in the warm-season areas, even to the point of being a weed.

Yeah, yeah, yeah -- I know that right now you're thinking "I don't care if I have bare soil". Bad idea.

Nature HATES bare soil, and it doesn't remain bare for long. There are no vacuums in nature. What will you do when you get rid of the Burweed and nature fills the void with things that Tenacity can't kill, and require more-toxic chemicals?

Slow down a bit, figure out what you have in grasses, figure out what you will do to your existing grasses if you apply Tenacity, and formulate a plan. Avoid knee-jerk decisions that will cause new problems.

What is the square footage of the lawn? Is irrigation out of the question to establish the Zoysia you want?

Most surfactants are OK for pets in the quantities that you will be using them for applying Tenacity. No, I wouldn't feed them to my pets right out of the bottle, but a teaspoon over a couple of thousand square feet isn't toxic, and most are quickly biodegraded.

Check those grass types that you have - it's work but worth it...

Thank you! Sorry I didn't get back with you yesterday, but it was chore day all day!

The back yard is roughly 4,000 sq ft? That is probably on the big side, but it is odd shaped and hard to get an exact measurement. One corner has a sprinkler off the aerobic septic system. The other side is close to pine trees. A sweet gum tree is also on this side of the yard. It is semi-shadey. When we moved in, there was a storage buidling that we moved. This half of the yard was totally bare - no grass at all. We actually had to level it up and remove lots of glass, trash bags, etc. The previous owners were older and didn't run much water through the system, so what water was pumped out grew only weeds. This half of the yard is almost pure burweed, though there are a half dozen other weeds competeting with it. Even the rye grass that we seeded for the winter can't compete with it. It's doing okay on the newly cleared area, but I'm seeing burweed moving in here too. The front yard is as weed choked as the back, but we aren't as concerned with the front right now. We live in the country, so 'native' looking front yard will do for now. The back yard is fenced for the dogs and I'd much rather get grass going back there so they have something to play on other than dirt.

This area was really hard hit by lack of rain. When I say there was no grass in the yard when we moved in, I'm not exaggerating. Anything we have this summer we will have to plant. We were hoping to use Zoysia since it is drought and shade tolerant. I've not been able to find anyone that has Zoysia sod here though, and knowing that Stage 3 water restrictions will be put into effect this summer, we are rethinking the Zoysia. Heck, I'd even be happy with the annual bluegrass that seems to be the bane of so many. We are debating Bermuda, though neither my husband or I are fond of it. Until Texas is getting better rainfall, I'm not sure what we'll do. Any suggestions would be appreciated!

What's the thought on Centipede? How is it for East Texas with our heat (and current drought), usage with 6 small dogs running around on it, shade tolerance?

I'm wondering how many applications of Tenacity I should do before we plant seed to kill all these blasted weeds....

Centipede is a little more shade tolerant than bermuda, it needs less water, but still needs some. It is easier to maintain than bermuda, but can't handle as much heavy traffic.

Remember that rennovations for warm season lawns are in about 2-3 months from now. What kind of grass do you have now? Unless it's centipede, you're going to have to kill the whole yard to switch- it's a tremendous amount of effort and the heat is fairly unforgiving.

I rennovated my front yard because I felt it was overgrown with weeds. Looking back, it would have been faster for me to simply attack the weeds with specific herbicides, improve my cultural practices and maybe overseed. The kill of the whole thing was probably wasted effort.

I feel your pain with those burrs as I lived in Del Rio for 5 years, but I also know the pain of rennovating in the heat and humidity.