Weed control in your lawn

Weeds in your lawn again? These unwelcome plant visitors never go away – or do they? Weed control in your lawn with herbicides and organic weed control methods

Systemic and contact herbicides control weeds in lawns throughout summer.

There are several ‘weed killers’ on the market. Systemic herbicide weed killers are designed to kill certain species of weed from within. Contact herbicides kill the unwanted plants from the outside in. Together, the two types of weed killer herbicides make it easy to control weeds in your lawn throughout the growing season.

Lawn weed control products include:

• ‘Pre-emergent’ herbicides: These start of season weed killers are usually combined with a lawn fertilizer in one product. They help to prevent the emergence of weeds.
• ‘Post emergent’ herbicides: These include large lawn weed control sprays and herbicides that target so-called ‘broadleaf weeds’ and highly invasive crab grasses (digit aria weed) but do not harm turf grasses.

Herbicides are essential for weed control in landscaped gardens with large lawn areas. They are also the only way to fully eradicate weeds. However, many people would prefer to not use herbicide products for weed control – or use the bare minimum.

Luckily, there are other ‘organic’ methods you can use to effectively control weeds.

Organic Weed Control Methods

1. Mulch: Mulching will help your grass grow lush, green and healthy. However, it also helps prevent the emergence of weeds in newly laid lawns and at the start of of the growing season.
2. Fertilizers: Healthy lawns do their own weed control. Robust and fast growth in turf grasses will crowd out emergent weeds – preventing them from coming up in the first place. You can also use a fertilizer with an in-built pre-emergent herbicide.
3. Higher grass: Don’t mow all the way down. Lawns that are mowed at a higher level are more resistant to weed invasions. Higher grass levels deplete light and nutrient levels – effectively starving emergent weeds of what they need to grow and spread successfully.
4. Pull out weeds immediately when they emerge: Do not wait for the weeds to become established as they will grow faster than you can pull them out. They are also harder to pull out once established and it’s easy to leave part of the root behind.

These methods of controlling weeds in your lawn will lessen the need for weed killers. However, if want a beautiful, manicured lawn, you will likely need to use a herbicide as well.