HOW TO CONTROL WEEDS IN THE LAWN

Given the right conditions, weeds will grow anywhere. They are by nature opportunistic and will quickly invade where suitable conditions arise. Unfortunately, this also includes any thin or weak areas in your lawn.

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When it comes down to providing the ideal weed conditions in your lawn, it will normally come about through simple neglect or incorrect lawn management.

However, there may also be some underlying reasons that favor certain weeds such as a wet lawn, dry lawn, favorable pH, or lack of nutrition.

Irrespective of the reason why there are weeds in your lawn, there are only two effective methods of controlling them, either culturally or by the use of selective herbicides (weed killers), and fertilizers.

Cultural weed control

If you decide not to confront the possible underlying factors that can cause weeds to grow in your lawn, then your other choice is to pay out - year on year - for moss killers, chemical fertilizers and weed killers. While this chemical combination will only produce a short term effect, when applied correctly it will actually work.

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So before reaching for the wallet, you may want to consider removing the weeds by hand - especially if there are only a few weeds that have made it through. Use a daisy grubber or slim width trowel to remove perennial weeds along with their tap roots - this method is ideal for the more pernicious weeds such as plantains, daisies, dandelions and thistles.

Furthermore, sticking to a good lawn maintenance program will also help to keep your lawn in optimum condition making it more difficult for weeds to get a foothold.

In severe case of weed infestation – and where the quality of the lawn is such that is unlikely to be restored to any sort of quality – you may need to consider removing the existing lawn altogether and starting again from seed or turf (just make sure the weed problem is properly solved before you start)!

Chemical control

In some cases the weed problems you can get in lawns will be too severe and widespread to make hand weeding a practical option. If this is the case then a selective weed killer may be your only viable option to control the weeds.

The most important question to ask is when should lawn weed killers be applied? Why, because in order to work effectively the active ingredient in the weed killer needs to be able to work its way down to the root of the plant so that it can be killed outright. This will only happen if the plants metabolism is actively functioning! Apply when the weeds are not growing and you could well have wasted your time and money!

Generally speaking, the ideal time for weed control is usually between April and September when both the grass and the weeds are growing vigorously. However, avoid applying weed killer during the height of summer as your lawn will effectively be dormant while it copes with the stresses of heat and probable lack of water. In addition, applying any horticultural chemicals during this period can result in a chemical scorch to your lawn.

TIP. For optimum results consider applying a nitrogen feed to the lawn about a week or so before you intend using a chemical weed killer. This will encourage a burst of strong growth which can dramatically help in the uptake of the weed killer chemical.. In fact many off-the-shelf weed killers can be purchased with a chemical fertilize already as part of the mix – these are generally known as lawn ‘Weed and Feeds’

Whatever you do, DO NOT USE A GENERAL PURPOSE WEED KILLER ON YOUR LAWN. While it will effectively kill off your weeds, it will effectively kill off the grass in your lawn too. You must use a specific broad leaved plant weed killer so that your grass remains unaffected and the best way to be sure is to buy a lawn weed killer that is specially formulated to do the job.

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