What to Do About Weeds
Are weeds running rampant across your lawn? Have you tried everything you can think of to prevent unwanted plants from ruining your lovely grass? Weeds can be a headache, but we have the solutions you need to improve your garden and rid it of pesky unwanted plants.
If you're unsure what to do about your weed problem, our landscaping experts have all the answers you need in this blog.
Continue reading to learn how to spot weeds, prevent them, and the best manual solutions you can use to get rid of them without damaging your lawn.
How to Spot Weeds in Your Lawn
Sometimes, it can be challenging to identify weeds in your lawn before they grow big. However, you can use a few simple tricks to identify them.
Most weeds, at least compared to your grass, will be evident by their broad leaves. Because weeds compete with your grass for nutrients, they grow big leaves and long taproots to suck water into their system instead of the grass you're trying to nourish.
If you spot anything with a broader leaf than your uniform grass, it’s safe to assume you have weeds that need to be pulled.
How to Prevent Lawn Weeds
The best way to prevent weeds from gaining control over your lawn is to take the initiative with your lawn care. If you keep an eye on your grass throughout the season, water appropriately, and spot weeds early, the chances of weeds taking over are low.
Good Lawn Care is the Key
If you've had weed problems in the past and are sick and tired of seeing unwanted plants take control of your landscape, here are a few things you can do:
- Water your lawn often. Watering your lawn frequently encourages longer root growth which means stronger grass.
- Mow your lawn on a slightly higher setting than usual. Doing so allows your grass to grow stronger and defend itself against obstructive plants, so you don't have to use too much weed killer.
Aerating, Fertilization, and Overseeding
Another way to ensure you don't have weeds everywhere is to aerate your lawn once per year. This boosts your grass, enabling it to defend itself against weed growth. Fertilizing your lawn every six to eight weeks will also help improve your grass's strength and weed resistance throughout the year.
Overseeding is the method of planting new grass seeds into already existing lawns without tearing up the grass. This will densify your turf, fill in bare spots, improve existing grass, and enhance the overall appearance of your property.
How to Spot Weeds in Your Garden
Do you remember what you planted in your garden at the beginning of the season? If not, check the labels of the seeds you bought or look up the plants you planted online to see what they’re supposed to look like. If you notice something that isn't right, you might have weeds.
Garden weeds, like lawn weeds, will also often be broad-leafed. Many of the common lawn weeds are common in gardens, too, including:
- Crabgrass
- Purslane
- Lambsquarters
- Pigweed
- Chickweed
- Dandelions
- Shepherds purse
- Creeping Charlie
- Canada Thistle
All the above are very common lawn and garden weeds you can learn to recognize and eradicate. Hundreds of different weeds are out there, and some look like flowers, so remember to pay attention to what you planted and be wary of anything you didn’t.
If You See Weeds Sprout in Your Garden, Here's What to Do
Weeds are what are known as opportunistic plants. They only grow when the conditions are favorable for them. Temperature, moisture levels, thinning turf areas, or even cracks in concrete are all fair game for weeds.
If you’ve spotted weeds in your garden before they've gotten out of control, try removing the weed as thoroughly as possible. Once you've done that, putting a thin layer of mulch over your garden will prevent further weed growth around your precious flowers.
How to Kill Your Weeds
If you look online, you'll find hundreds of different methods to kill your weeds. Some methods we've discussed online are legitimate, while others are useless.
The best way to get rid of your weeds is to target the specific plant you’re trying to discourage. First, do some plant research to determine what kind of weeds you have. Once you've done that and have a good idea of what you’re facing, purchase a selective weed killer and apply it very carefully to the weeded area. Read the instructions and make sure not to over-apply.
Spring Weed Prevention
The best time to apply weed killer is in the springtime. Spring is the weeds' pre-growth season, so you can use weed killer on your lawn before they grow strong enough to defend against the chemicals. This will ensure that only green, healthy grass grows.
Kill Weeds Without Killing Everything
You'll read many things online about how to kill your weeds. We have seen people suggest anything from pouring gasoline on your weeds to using boiling water, salt water, horticultural vinegar, or Roundup. While it is certainly true that using these methods will kill your weeds, they’ll probably also kill everything else along with them.
Let us take this opportunity to say: definitely don’t put gasoline on your lawn. If you're going to use store-bought methods, read the instructions very carefully. Some products are used for spot treatments only. If you spray your lawn with these chemicals, say goodbye to your yard.
Hire a Professional: It's the Way to Go
Hiring a professional to assess and take care of your weeds is the best way to go. Hiring a team like J&S Lawn and Landscape LLC will allow you to rest assured that your lawn is being taken care of correctly and that your weeds are eradicated without damaging the plants around them. Moreover, when you have professionals taking care of your weeds, they can implement lawn care strategies to improve the grass around your weeds.
Further Weed Prevention and Maintenance
There are five standard methods of weed control that you might implement on your lawn depending on the situation:
- Preventative weed control
- Cultural weed control
- Mechanical weed control
- Biological weed control
- Chemical weed control
Take a closer look at your situation, or hire our professionals to assess your landscape to find out which is best for you.
In Conclusion:
The best way to take care of your weed problem is to take better care of your grass. All the methods of weed prevention we've mentioned above have more to do with paying closer attention to the health of your grass than they do about catch-all solutions for weed problems. If you have strong, healthy grass, it will take care of itself.