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Should you apply pre-emergent herbicide? Spot spray? Pull? Lawn weeds..tackled.

Almost inevitalby, all of us get a few lawn weeds every year. Some are very easy to control and some need more persistance to eradicate. Think of your lawn as a garden of grass. Just like a flower bed it has to be tended to. A weekly mowing is not enough; actually, jump over to our mowing page to see if you may be hurting your lawn.

Let’s identify the most common lawn weeds and discuss how to treat each of them.

CRABGRASS:

crabgrass

Pre-emergent herbicide applied when the temperatures steady at 55 degrees or so is effective. Coincide the application with the forsythia bloom.(Usually that is a good indicator of the right time)
If it is applied after that time does more harm than good.
Pull by hand.

DANDELION:

dandelion

A broadleaf spot treatment spray will kill the surrounding grass as well as the dandelion.
You can also use a gardening knife/trowel to get under the tap root and pull.
Remove the heads before they seed (if you can’t help yourself and you have to blow...at least wish for a dandelion free next year)

CREEPING JENNY/CHARLIE /BINDWEED:

bindweed

One weed that goes by any of these names.
This nasty thrives mostly in moist and shady spots.
It tends to choke out any vegetation it contacts, climbing and wrapping around it.
This can also be chemically controlled with a broadleaf killer but it will also kill surrounding plants and grass.

Since this is a creeping plant that puts roots out at the nodes, it would require a large surface area to spray.
You can try pulling it up although because of the root structure, it usually is not a permanent solution.

A Borax solution can be applied with good results but use caution. If it is concentrated in a smaller area, it may be easier to pull up all the grass there and start over.

CLOVER:

clover

It used to be used as part of a lawn seed mix because it put nitrogen into the soil.
You may even come across a 4 leafed one, but in case you don’t want it in your grass, a weed and feed fertilizer mix works well.
Using a lower phosphorus fertilizer also helps and good old weed pulling is also fairly effective for clover.

CARPETWEED:

carpetweed

This lawn weed prefers wet soil and responds to weed and feed fertilizer.

HORSENETTLE

horsenettle

A very spiny weed with a very long tap root.
It produces seeds that look like tomatoes.
Most effective way to remove is to dig up that tap root.Make sure you have thick gloves.

CANADA THISTLE:

canada thistle

Our flower beds were overrun with these very spiny weeds last year and they quickly moved into the lawn.
They also have very deep tap roots and digging them up and cutting the root rather than getting it completely up often stimulates faster growth.

They spread by underground creeping roots and the foliage pops up anywhere.
We finally used a broad leaf spray on them, getting the nozzle right up to the leaves and getting letting the chemical to trickle down the leaf and then down the central stem to the root system.
It works but since it travels to and through the root, it can also affect parts of the nearby lawn. Don’t do this on a windy day.

PLANTAIN:

plantain

A pre-emergent herbicide can prevent new growth but a broadleaf spot treatment is necessary for established weeds.
Like most,hand pulling is also effective if you can get the root.
However, like clover, plantain isn’t all that bad.

Make a paste of the leaves, by chewing them up and then using um...that; or if you are at home, put the leaves in a food processer and add a bit of water.
This you can then use to treat insect bites or stings.
It is said to take some of the sting out. NOTE: I have NOT tried this but heard about it from more than one reliable source!

Having said all that, adding all those chemicals to your backyard (and front yard) is not really ideal.
Having a healthy, thick groundcover of turf grass is the best way to keep out lawn weeds.

Most of the weeds above are opportunistic; that is, they move in when the soil is less than ideal.

Over fertilizing, drought, overly wet conditions, over mowing and the like affect the health of the grass thereby giving these lawn weeds a chance to invade.
Once you get that healthy lawn and know how to maintain it, chances are, you won’t see many of those weeds!

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