Roundup Will Have You Tiptoeing Through Your Tulips in No Time
Written: Apr 14 '02 (Updated Apr 14 '02)
Product Rating:
Pros: works, works, works!
Cons: none
The Bottom Line: This product will allow you to rid your lawn of weeds and save you some time and money in the end. What more can you ask from a weed killer?
mind-full's Full Review: Roundup Concentrate Weed and Grass Killer: Roundup...
For 6 years we lived in a little house with 0.08 acres, the proverbial "postage stamp" -- completely devoid of elbow room, and if you wanted to toss a ball around with the kids you'd better be prepared to include the neighbors because they were standing right there beside you as they barbequed their hotdogs in their yards while you played in yours.
But I digress. And I haven't even mentioned the product.
The Awful Truth about Weeds
Let it be known that if you have grass, you will have weeds. Weeds happen in even the best of families, whether you've seeded or sodded. Weed seeds fly through the air on the wind and on the wings of birds and insects. Their roots bore through the soil from neighboring yards, and they grow where nothing else seems to grow. Some, like dandelions, have some aesthetic value . . . if they are in someone else's yard.
Some weeds resist being eliminated the old fashioned way (pulling). They have a built-in defense mechanism which allows them to break off just below the surface of the soil, and in a few days or weeks, they'll rear their ugly heads to taunt you. Go ahead. Pull them. They don't care because they can't be stopped that way. Picture them with faces . . . they'll be sneering. Canada thistles are my personal favorite for this. Forget that they will just break off if pulled, but you need really thick gloves to even touch them because of their thorn-covered leaves and stalks. They can grow to amazing heights and widths, and stepping on them barefoot is something I don't ever want to experience. Our little yard bore Canada thistles as if they were ornamental masterpieces.
What Product Do I Choose?
And, in our little lawn, it seemed that weed stems outnumbered grass stems. Having never taken care of a lawn previously, I asked around about effective weed treatments. The unanimous choice? RoundUp. I purchased the handy trigger bottle and covered all the weeds in our tiny plot with some RoundUp to spare. A few weeks later -- NO WEEDS. But, living in such close proximity to other earth-dwellers, I found that their weeds became our weeds. Evidently, neither neighbor believed in chemical treatment, and I found myself out there spraying along the sides of the yard several times each spring and summer. Too much for one little 32-oz. trigger bottle of RoundUp to handle. So, it was off to the garden center for the "big gun". I found Roundup Concentrate Weed & Grass Killer right next to the regular trigger bottle. A few ounces of concentrate to a quart of water and I could blast away at the weeds to my little heart's content and mix my own refills as needed. This worked great for the remaining years we spent in our little eight one-hundredths of an acre.
Super-Size It, Please
Now, in our new digs, we have 1.25 acres . . . more lawn space than we can sometimes believe, and lots of nooks and crannies where plants tuck in nicely, as well as lots of wide-open space dotted with trees of several varieties. And we have weeds. More weeds than we could have fit in our previous yard, even if they had grown on top of one another.
With so much area to cover, I knew I'd want to get an early start on the weeds as soon as they poked their tiny heads above-ground . . . and then I looked at my trusty trigger bottle of RoundUp. I could almost hear the weeds' derisive laughter.
I had thoughts of the large amounts of weed-killer I'd need: possibly an oil drum container with wheels, or maybe a tanker truck parked discreetly (!) on the side yard behind a telephone pole. I found the bottle of Roundup Concentrate Weed & Grass Killer in my assortment of gardening tools and figured I'd give it a shot.
But, because of the size of our yard, I would have to consider medical treatment for the carpal tunnel syndrome I'd most likely develop after thousands of pulls on the trigger of my little 32-oz. bottle. I invested in a one-gallon size sprayer and readied myself for the coming of Spring.
Green Acres Is the Place for Me
Armed and ready, I headed out into the greening lawn and began the hunt.
Weed-killing is not a tenth as much fun as an Easter-egg hunt and far more difficult (and, no prizes . . . ). Some weeds lurk among the tufting new grass, waiting for a sudden burst of growth before showing themselves.
As I scanned the lawn, slowly walking along holding the sprayer wand in a mode of high alert, I felt like a character in a war movie looking for landmines.
After about an hour, I had searched out and doused many, many little weed shoots. I waited several days, then took a reconnaissance walk around the place, finding mostly wilted specimens from my initial attack, as well as several new ones that obviously didn't know about RoundUp, or they would not have bothered to spring up in the first place. A little squirt with the sprayer and they were as good as gone.
Why Roundup Concentrate Weed & Grass Killer?
Roundup Concentrate Weed & Grass Killer allows you to make as much of the formula as you need without returning to the garden center during the year for more -- I've used my bottle of Roundup Concentrate Weed & Grass Killer for two years and still have enough for another year, I think. The $17.50 I paid more than made up for the number of bottles I'd have to purchase of the pre-mixed variety, even with the purchase of a larger sprayer ($10). I'd have needed 12 bottles of the pre-mixed weed-killer, and at about $4 a pop, well . . . there's no contest.
YOU DON'T HAVE TO HAVE A HUGE YARD to use the Roundup Concentrate Weed & Grass Killer, as it can store in a basement, shed, garage, etc., for a good long time and allow you to mix as little as you need (with a little bit of calculating) for your weed population.
Canada thistles don't stand a chance against Roundup Concentrate Weed & Grass Killer. They take a little longer to wither and die, but they will. I get a little too much enjoyment out of this, probably because they had thwarted my attempts at ridding my lawn of them previous to my use of Roundup Concentrate Weed & Grass Killer. They were truly the "enemy" in our small lawn, as well as in our large one. Roundup Concentrate Weed & Grass Killer makes sure that they don't make it past boot camp.
Special Notes about Using This Product
Roundup Concentrate Weed & Grass Killer is a chemical and should be used with care. The caution on the bottle notes "eye irritant" and "harmful if swallowed", and the cap is not child-proof (at least on my 3-year old bottle). I use gloves when mixing up the solution, just to be on the safe side. I've splashed myself with it and had no burning, itching or other side-effects, even when I have had to wait several minutes to get to a water source to rinse it off of my skin.
Having two small children, I don't use Roundup Concentrate Weed & Grass Killer in their presence or when they'll be playing in the yard within several hours' time. I usually apply it in the evening after their bedtime, or before we go on a lengthy outing.
The instructions offer that you may use Roundup Concentrate Weed & Grass Killer within 2 hours of a rain, but I don't apply it if rain is in the forecast because I have a sneaking suspicion that it won't work as well. I have no proof that it won't work if used before a rainfall, but I just don't want to take the chance and have to tromp all around the yard again for the same weeds. I am also the kind to rinse a bathroom cleaner off the tile even when the directions say it isn't necessary, so go figure.
The Root of the Matter
Roundup Concentrate Weed & Grass Killer is a great product for ridding your property of a large number of broad-leaf weeds, including that pesky Canada thistle that you may have thought you'd have to live with.
Roundup Concentrate Weed & Grass Killer WILL NOT kill poison ivy/oak or any woody vine or stalk, but other products are available for those types of weeds (Ortho "Brush-Be-Gone" is an effective one).
Give Roundup Concentrate Weed & Grass Killer a little time to work and you'll find that your weeds will turn from annoying infiltrators to "pushing up daisies".
Lawn and garden formulation. Broad-spectrum, nonselective, systemic weed and grass killer. Translocates through the plant to kill roots and all to con...More at eBay
Epinions.com periodically updates pricing and product information from third-party sources, so some information may be slightly out-of-date. You should confirm all information before relying on it.
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2010 Shopping.com, Inc.