Friday, April 11, 2008

Organic Lawn Weed Control

Organic lawn weed control is always a challenge for the environmentally-friendly homeowner. Now there is a new product widely available at your favorite lawn and garden center that is going to make organic lawn weed control a lot easier. Concern All Natural Weed Prevention Plus is a pre-emergent herbicide plus organic fertilizer. Sounds too good to be true doesn't it? But this product is made from corn gluten meal, an animal feed by-product from the manufacture of corn starch. A scientist at Iowa State University discovered that corn gluten meal spread on your lawn will prevent the growth of dandelions, crabgrass, quackgrass, purslane, plantain and many other common lawn and garden weeds. I hope it works on ground ivy, a.k.a. creeping Charlie, too. Concern corn gluten is dry, granular and very yellow. Apply corn gluten with a drop spreader at about the same time as the daffodils or crocus are in bloom in mid-spring at the rate of 15 pounds per 1000 square feet of lawn. Apply just before a steady rain to get best results. Children and pets can play on the lawn after application, but don't inhale the light dust of the product because of potential allergic reaction. Do not use corn gluten on a newly-seeded lawn until after the first mowing. I have heard about this product for a couple years but this is the first time I am giving it a full test on my own lawn. I will keep you informed about how well it works for me. For more information about Concern Weed Prevention Plus visit www.concerngarden.com.