Tips to Help You Control Lawn Weeds More Effectively

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guide to controlling weeds in garden

In your quest to grow decent grass in your lawn, weed control is one of the inevitable challenges you will have to face from time to time. Different weed control methods may be used to prevent weeds from sprouting in the lawn or kill the weeds that are already established. The choice of the best weed control method for your lawn will depend on several factors, such as the type of weed and the size of your lawn. For instance, you may decide to uproot the weeds manually, if your lawn is comparatively small. However, this is going to be tiresome and time consuming when weeding larger lawns. In such a case, you should consider spraying the appropriate herbicides to suppress weed growth. In such a case, an ATV sprayer will come in handy; it will make the process easier, faster and more efficient. The fight against lawn weeds requires more than just uprooting or spraying the weeds with herbicides.

Preventing the Weeds from Sprouting

Some of the factors that make lawns susceptible to weed attacks include the grass cover on the lawn and the soil on which the grass is growing. You should think of weeds as opportunists that will quickly sprout on the bare spots on your lawn without the help of a good Landscaping Service Jacksonville FL. If you have a thin grass cover on your lawn, you will be worrying about weed control every now and then. In this regard, you need to develop a dense cover by planting quality grass seeds on the bare patches. Quality seed varieties are the grass seeds that are pests, drought and disease resistant. Additionally, you should opt for a grass variety that suits your lawn environment. Establishing a thick grass cover smothers such weeds as turfgrass and prevents them from sprouting in the first place.

If you are looking forward to seeding your lawn, the best time to do that is late summer to early fall. While seeding, you should rake the seeds lightly into the soil surface and keep them consistently moist until they sprout. This should be done progressively years after year until a thick cover is achieved.  With regards to soil conditions, optimal acidity is required. As such, the acidity of the soil in your lawn should be close to the neutral pH of 7.0. By so doing, you will discourage the growth of some of the commonest lawn weeds, including:

  • Achillea millefolium (Yarrow)
  • Dandelion
  • Crabgrass
  • Dutch/White Clover
  • Ground Ivy
  • Annual Bluegrass
  • Chickweed
  • Broadleaf Plantain

While proper lawn maintenance can prevent the growth of weeds in your lawn, weeds will still sprout in your lawn from time to time. When this happens, you need to get rid of them as soon as possible.

Control Lawn Weeds yellow dandelions

Controlling Lawn Weeds Using Herbicides

Choosing the right herbicide for lawns and gardens can be challenging for new gardeners. This may be attributed to the many types and varieties of herbicides available in the market today. Not all herbicides will work for all lawn weeds; applying the wrong herbicide or spaying the chemicals at the wrong time can end up killing your lawn grass. As such, you need to be very careful when selecting the appropriate herbicide to use in your lawn. If you do not know how to go about the selection process, here is a basic classification of herbicides:

Control Lawn Weeds spraying dandelions

  1. Grassy Weed Herbicides

This type of herbicides targets the grass family. Such herbicides should not be used on lawns because they kill the lawn grass as well. However, they may be used in gardens and flower beds to kill grassy weeds. If the weed you are controlling in your lawn is of the grass family, you should consider applying a pre-emergent weed killers and using another method to remove the existing weeds.

  1. Broad-leaf Weed Herbicides

If you are killing the broad-leaf weeds in your lawn, you can apply such herbicides as SpeedZone directly on the lawn without affecting lawn grass. In most cases, herbicides in this category have two to four active ingredients, targeting different weed species. Again, the various products in this category use different modes of action. As such, you should first verify whether the product is safe for you and your lawn before spraying it on your lawn using an ATV sprayer.

  1. Non-Selective Herbicides

A good example of the no-selective herbicides is the well renowned Round-up. Such products come in handy when you want to kill everything growing on your garden or law prior to replanting. Most of the herbicides in this category are generic; featuring similar active ingredients. However, the various non-selective herbicides do not use the same surfactant.

Regardless of the type of herbicide you intent to apply in your garden or lawn, you will need to use the right sprayer for the best results. Also, check out the definitive guide to controlling weeds for the latest in weed control tips and updates!

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