LESLIE: Janna in Illinois is calling in with a lawn question. What can we do for you today?
JANNA: Hi. I want to get rid of zoysia grass. What’s the best way to get rid of it?
LESLIE: Why do you want to get rid of it? Because in all of my experience, zoysia is like a super-durable, drought-tolerant, excellent choice for a lawn.
JANNA: It is if you’re farther south but we’re up kind of north; up by Iowa and Missouri.
TOM: OK.
JANNA: And I only have a green lawn about two, three months out of the year.
LESLIE: Interesting. And you’re watering it adequately?
JANNA: Oh, we’ve been getting more rain in the last two years. We’ve only lived in our home for a year but we’ve gotten lots and lots of rain. That should not be an issue.
LESLIE: Hmm.
TOM: So is the entire lawn zoysia right now?
JANNA: No, it’s kind of working its way over and it’s actually made its way into our neighbor’s yard and I’m sure she’s delighted with that as well.
TOM: (overlapping voices) Alright. Mm-hmm. Well, I’ll tell you the best way. When it really starts to take over your lawn, the best way to get rid of it is do something called a Roundup restoration and this is something that you have to do in the fall. But essentially what it means is that you’re going to spray that whole area of lawn with Roundup and you’re going to let it die off and you’re going to wait about two weeks and then you’re going to seed it. And what you’re going to find is that the dead grass holds the seed quite nicely and it will start to germinate and come back up through the dead grass and next spring you’ll have a green, completely brand spanking new, beautiful lawn.
JANNA: And just one time with the Roundup ought to take care of all that zoysia?
TOM: Yep. Yep, one time, yeah.
LESLIE: It should.
TOM: You’re going to freak out your neighbors because they’re going to think what happened to your lawn because it’s all going to turn brown. (Leslie chuckles)
JANNA: (chuckles) They’re used to it being brown by now.
TOM: Yeah, but I mean if you do that, that’s the one-step way to get rid of everything that’s in your lawn that you don’t want, the weeds and so on, because it just completely kills it off but it doesn’t hurt the seed. And then you put good-quality, fresh seed in there and it starts to grow back up through the dead grass and really takes hold. And it takes about two seasons to really get into a real thick state but you’ll have a green lawn next year; it’ll just be very fine.
JANNA: Right. That’s wonderful. Thank you so much.
TOM: You’re welcome, Janna. Thanks so much for calling us at 1-888-MONEY-PIT.
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