based on your description it sounds like you have no choice but to redo the lawn - even if your neighbor does have an untended and weedy lawn.

I always say, tackle things a little at a time. Let me give you several approaches.. Obviously you have discovered the roundup approach which really only works with lightly taprooted weeds. Unfortunately many dandelions are deep rooted and if any piece of root is left behind, they will return. But then a clover lawn isn't a terrible thing.

Second approach -- handpicking each weeds. A very tedious approach perhaps but effective. You take a pitchfork and sink it into the soil (wet) beside the weeds. This loosens up the weeds. Then pull out the weed carefully removing the entire plant. --- downside, this does not work on clovers but effective against dandelions.

Third approach - you can do a mass killing of your grass & weeds and this can be done by smothering the lawn with black plastic. It will take a long time to completely kill off the grass and weeds. Like do it now and wait till next year to reseed.

Fifth approach -- dig up the entire lawn, trash and reseed. -- This is probably the quickest yet most laborious approach. The downside though, it's probably late in the season to reseed. Grass seeds germinate at certain cool temperatures so you may need to wait till fall to reseed.

Last approach - resod but you didn't think this is a good approach.

Hope one of these methods works for you

Thanks a lot for your response. So you don't think I can just a fertilzer-and-seed combo instead of pulling up the whole thing?

Just popping in again.

Reseeding a very weeded lawn seems a waste of money for me. You would eventually come to the conclusion you would need to remove those weeds anyway. Pretty soon they'd take over. And fertilizing the lawn as it is will only create healthy weeds. I would tackle the weed issue first before reseeding. Hence provided you with ways to go about weed removal.

And by the way, to properly reseed a lawn (assuming you've tackled the weeds), you need first the dethatch the dead grass,aerate the compacted soil and add new and good triple mix top soil thinly on top of existing grass and cover those bald patches and then reseed (around fall). Do not fertilize during hot and sunny weather - in fact, avoid fertilizing in summer. The triple mix would be enough for the timebeing.

If you do get most of the weeds out of your lawn, you can certainly keep future weeds out by tackling them early when they are young. It would help if you can get your neighbor to at least mow his lawn to prevent his weeds from flowering and setting seeds.

Thanks a bunch...looks like I have a very long summer ahead of me! :)

Or you can use the approach which I used several years ago.

During our first summer here in 2002, the lawn turned brown in no time flat. It was also covered in Dandelions. Didn't have the $$ for fertilizers and such, so I discovered that used coffee grounds were a good source of organic matter. Made a deal with a place which sells a lot of coffee to pick-up their UCGs every day and supply them with clean buckets every day as well.

Took UCGs home, dumped them in the wheel barrow, took out the filters and threw them in the compost. Took handfulls of UCGs and 'flung' them on the lawn, preferably before a good rain.

Worms LOVE UCGs and will come up to eat them so they aerate your lawn. They also poop which is excellent - worm castings are use all the time for fertilizing by gardeners.

Within a year we saw a difference. By feeding the soil, you are providing nourishment to the plants. The grass became so thick that we rarely see Dandelions. The seeds can't get to the soil to germinate. We have nice clover in there too which is another source of fertilizer as the roots of clover provide some nitrogen which the grass will thrive on.

Last year I was forbidden to use UCGs on the lawn by DH as the lawn was getting so thick he was having to mow every week vs every two weeks...

The best thing you can do for your lawn is to buy a copy of 'Lawns for Canada Natural and Organic' by Don Williamson. Don Williamson is local to Calgary I believe and if my memory serves me correctly teaches at Olds College.

I had a similar problem in Montreal, except for the browning blades part.

The thing people seem to have trouble understanding is that a lawn that looks bad isn't necessarily dying or even sick. Another thing people fail to understand is that a quick clean-up is often already half the solution, and a lawn that people would be tempted to simply destroy and start again from scratch is very often easy to save and not worth scrapping.

I got into a few habits. The first was to help the grass grow deeper roots to make the nutrients more readily available to it. This means I started deep-watering, and I mean really deep. You know the fan-shaped water jet extension of your garden hose? I used that, shooting from a distance of about six inches. I wasn't watering the grass, I was drenching the soil beneath it. Visually, it looked as though I was combing the grass with a brush with water tines. I think I gave two to three inches of water to my grass every time. I did this about four times over a two-week period, so that amounts to about six inches of water per week (about five times the actual needs of the grass).

Also, for grass to grow long, healthy roots, it needs to be allowed to grow tall. That golf green look is just plain nonsense, it makes your grass so shallow you constantly have to baby it. Rolling mowers would be my favorite choice if it weren't for the short cut they produce, so I bought an electric mower that cuts up to 3.5 inches. I have decided that my grass should never be shorter than three inches, which is considered quite long by many. The thing is, grass roots are about the same length as grass blades. So, if you don't allow your grass to grow tall, the roots will not penetrate deep, either. Now, I only mow when the grass gets to four inches.

Within a few months, my lawn became greener and lusher. It looked sad and sickly when I started, and a few months later, it was already one of the nicest on the block. Now, all I really do besides normal watering (rainfall + watering = 1.5 inches per week) is reseed patches under trees and patches that fell victims to dogs. The only problem remaining is field bindweed, but I think I will just learn to live with it.

If your lawn has less than 50% weed, I don't think it is worth it to change it altogether. You should just give it a bit of therapy. If your neighbours don't tend to their lawns, the rewards of a brand new lawn will not last, anyways. I think you may just want to do a deep-watering therapy like I did, then aerate, add a half-inch layer of compost (rake it in) and reseed. You can do this in early September.

Oops, sorry, I didn't check this board for a while. Thanks a lot, tiffy, gailey and viktoria for your input. I'll try all the tips :)

well although I practise most of what was described by viktoria - I don't do deep watering. I originally had a poor looking weed filled yard on clay based soil. In my case, the clay was too wet and robbing the grass of oxygen. My first step was to remove the weeds by hand. I refused to pay resod the lawn. Second I aerated the area using my fork. Third was to top it off with great triple mix. I use the back of my rake to spread the material. Then I put in new seeds. I was especially careful about what kind of seeds. it must be grass seeds suitable for the light received in my backyard. Then I would top them up lightly with sand. Then I watered the lawn. I don't overwater since this is a claybased yard. Instead I lightly watered the area. The holes I punctured allowed new soil to fill it in and let the roots grow there and it allowed fresh oxygen to reach the roots. I normally just sprinkle the lawn with water. In a couple of weeks I repeat the reseeding in areas I've missed.

My husband is by the way an avid golfer and so he prefers his grass cut shorter - although not as short as turf grass. I haven't had browning episodes except when I had a problem with my lawn mower -- the blade got dull and was cutting the grass roughly.