Tortoise friendly weed killer
 

Hi, anyone got some good advice on what to use on my lawn to try and get rid of the weeds? I don't want poor Horacio to be gobbling up anything that's going to harm him.

Removing them individually with a small hand trowel is probably the only 100% safe method.

Get them out with their roots and set up a weed patch for him!

Personally I would live with the weeds and if Horatio goes on the lawn he will probably enjoy them! I wouldn't trust any weedkiller.

I agree with Mary, I have never used any chemicals in my back garden. To dangerous for the torts. Mine eat most and leave others, and I dig them up:0)

Leave well alone he will know what's good and what's not.:)

I dig up any ragwort or groundsel but leave the rest.
Like Clare suggests, I have a dedicated weed patch so when an edible weed pops up somewhere like in a hanging basket I just transfer to the weed patch. :-)

Like others have already said, my tortoises eat the weeds. But in some areas where I don't want vegetation to grow I use this recipe:

1 gallon white vinegar
1 cup salt
1 tablespoon liquid dish soap
Combine ingredients in a spray bottle and treat weeds at the sunniest time of day for best results.

It may have to be repeated a couple times to really get rid of persistent weeds, but it does work (eventually).

That’s interesting Yvonne. Sounds like it works well for you. I tried salt on some nettles I was fed up of stinging myself on but they kept returning. I think I’ll try your recipe. :-)

A kettle of hot water directly onto the weeds would be safe to try. I wouldn't be leaving the weeds on my lawn, before long you will have no lawn and an area of weeds where your lawn used to be :mrgreen:

Tried that and had a lovely brown patch all summer where the hot water burnt the grass! :lol:
I stick to digging them out now.
Hubby usually does a feed and weed type thing in the winter that’s dog-friendly and then in the spring up come the Cat’s Ear and Dandies without fail. The main issue we have is with too much moss.

My lawn is a disaster, I just live with it, and the torts enjoy it.

In my eyes lawns are not supposed to be perfect, as nothing else is:0)

We've always left the weeds in our lawn as that's all that keeps it green when the grass dies during the dry summer months. The tortoises that go on it from time to time enjoy the weeds as do the wild rabbits and the moles love to tunnel in it as well. It also means that it doesn't matter when the kids wear out patches playing cricket and football it always come back as it was before.

Emma that sounds exactly like ours, moss, daisies and Cat's Ear. My wife did the feed and weed thing and it left bare patches but has grown back again but so have the weeds. I was going to try a weed burner but the bloke next door told me that before we moved here, he used a weed burner on his and it set fire to his garden AND the hedge between him and his neighbour on the other side of him and he had to get the fire brigade. His neighbour was on holiday abroad and came home to a charcoal hedge

Oh no! You definitely can’t try the weed burner then! :shock:
Bet your neighbour’s neighbour was not amused when he came back from his holiday. I don’t know why I find that funny as I’d go mental if it happened to me, but it’s just the thought of a weed burner getting so out of control the fire brigade had to come. :-D

Our torts have their enclosures rather than roam the lawn so I often get the trowel out to transplant any good weeds into the weed patch before hubby mows, but it’s amazing how quickly they grow back after he does! I don’t mind the moss too much as I often use it for crafting and I like to lift it and put it around the pots as they look quite pretty and whimsical with moss, but hubby likes to keep the lawn looking nice. Hilarious really as he doesn’t do the gardening and hasn’t a clue what anything is. That’s definitely my role. :lol:

I still remove anything toxic regardless, because of the dogs.

Weeds are only plants where you don't want them !!!!!! yaaaaah.

I actually pick as many dandelion heads and then they go to seed and I plant them all over the lawn. My neighbours love me....CB

:lol: :lol: :lol:
Bringing the tone of the neighbourhood down in one blow!

Thanks for the advice. I'm not overly precious about weeds but the garden looks a mess and it's just getting worse. I will definitely leave some for Horacio.

Monty will tell you to mow some of it and strategically place some long grass areas ( ie don't mow) and let the weeds grow up / wild flowers and mow around into shapes - it then looks like a cottage garden if this suits. It also allows more time, less mowing, whilst impressing your friends over tea and chat you are an expert landscaper, especially if you mow into a heart shape (I kid you know this is very impressive looking at a garden up the road. clip the edges though and leave any long grass or mossy areas around trees or shrubs , produces a lot of wildlife and bugs, CB

Not convinced by the heart shape or the maintenance it would take to keep it that way.
Our lawn was a perfect circle when we bought the house... and then ripped out half the garden for the tort enclosures and a weed patch! :lol:

I’ve done that :-D

but do your neighbours love you ! I have to try get rid of the buttercups - my margies just mow the lawn and I think they have gone bansai because of the wild flower seeds I grew afew years ago - clearly only buttercup seeds...CB