Weeds are the enemy of a beautiful healthy lawn. They can quickly take over and turn a lush green carpet into an eyesore. There are ways to deal successfully with a weed problem and there are factors you may not be aware of that promote the spread of weeds. Here are 10 effective tips for getting rid of weeds in your lawn.
- Don't mow your grass too short.
By mowing too low this can cause weeds to seed easier and spread much faster throughout your yard. Also avoid mowing right after applying a weed killer product to your lawn, as this can cause the product to be picked up out of the ground and blown around instead of moving into the weeds where it belongs.
- Fertilize your yard.
Without proper nutrients in the soil, your grass simply won't be able to grow like it should. That means the nutrients that are available will most likely go to the deeply rooted weeds instead and help them take over the yard.
- Don't fertilize at the wrong time of year.
If you don't follow the instructions that come with most fertilizers carefully and lay down your fertilizer at the wrong time, the weeds may be the only thing in the yard that gets the fertilization, leaving very little nutrients for the grass instead.
- Avoid over watering your yard.
If you're putting so much water on your yard, the soil simply can't soak it up in time, leaving a perfect opportunity for the weeds to use that extra water for their own growth. So try to make sure the water you put down is all going into the soil and being used for your grass.
- Try to avoid having too much shade on your yard.
Excessive shade can contribute toward the growth of many weeds. There are many different types of weeds who actually began in the shade first and then spread throughout other parts of the yard. By cutting back some of your tree branches and bushes, you can often stop this process before it starts.
- Avoid applying herbicides with low soil moisture.
Herbicides can be effective in preventing some weeds, but applying them when the soil moisture is low will only do further damage to your grass and may not even affect the weeds very much at all.
- Avoid applying herbicides to new sod or newly seeded lawns.
If you apply a herbicide or weed remover before grass has a chance to take root and really start to grow, it will often have the opposite effect of what you intended.
- Make sure you use the right kind of weed killer.
There are different kinds of weeds and correspondingly different kinds of weed killers. Make sure that whatever product you are using to kill weeds it is the right product for the weeds that are in your lawn. Otherwise it may have no result at all, and may even damage your grass. Some weedkillers will work not only on weeds but also kill or 'burn' your lawn. Be sure that you know what weed killer product you are using before you apply it.
- Only use weed killer in the right season.
Follow the directions on the bottle and apply weed killer at the right time of year or it may be totally ineffective.
- Timing is Everything
Get the weeds while they're small, before they have a chance to deeply root themselves or spread seeds. Very shallow cultivation of "white thread" weeds can minimize bringing up more weed seeds. Keep an eye on the weather and try not to get beat by the rain; if you do, be ready with the heavy artillery - more aggressive tools for bigger weeds when you can get in.
|
