Weeding by Hand
Weeding by hand is the most direct way to control the weed population festering on your lawn. Some weeds are merely a temporary or seasonal problem while more invasive weeds, or perennials, will come back year after year plaguing your gardens. If you know how to handle them you can take back your lawn with ease.
A good footnote to remember is that a lawn is like nature’s carpet. Indoors we have to clean on a regular basis or dust and debris will build up, crowding our living space. Weeds act in much the same way. After thoroughly de-weeding your lawn make sure to check for new growth on a weekly basis. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure.
Now, let’s get into technique.
Hand-weeding is pretty straight forward with a few helpful rules to aid in the removal process. First off hand-weeding is best suited for sparse weed populations or for detailed control of an area close to ornamental plants that can’t withstand herbicide.
It’s best to pull weeds early in spring to prevent the plants from spreading over your entire lawn. Killing the plant before it flowers and produces seeds keeps that eventual spread from starting.
Weeding is also the easiest in damp or moist soil. The roots will give way much more easily in loose lubricated earth. Simple pulling doesn’t work for all weeds however. Plants like the dandelions have taproots which will grow an entirely new plant from the ground if even a portion of the root structure is left over. Simply dig down and collect the whole root system, removing it in its entirety from your lawn.
If the plant persists regular pulling will eventually starve and kill the weed permanently.
Weed Prevention
The best way to prevent weeds is to not give them any room. A full lawn, similar to a golf course, simply has no space left between grass blades to allow a weed to take purchase.
Weed prevention should also be considered at the moment of seeding. Some seed mixes can contain large amounts of weed seeds due to lack of inspection. Buying from registered and accredited dealers means a higher count of actual grass seed. The same process should be applied to manures, lawn fertilizer, and tools coming from outside sources. All can carry unwanted weed strains into your growth area.
Competing with weeds can be an effective means of control. Often in ditches and along the sides of roads weeds run wild. Taking a little time to plant local items in weed filled spaces will reduce the number of weeds and over time can push them to small numbers. The less there are, the less seeds there are to blow on your yard in the wind.
In addition, simple fence and string lines can discourage animals from moving across your space, depositing organic material, including seeds, wherever they go.
Weed Care
Now that you’ve taken the time to clean your lawn the last thing you want is the weeds to come back. Stopping them completely is next to impossible but with a little diligence you can keep the invaders to a minimum.
As mentioned before, weeding and re-weeding is effective at killing a persistent plant and prevents the spread of seeds.
Most of what we have suggested above is done by hand but there are mechanical solutions that provide the same weed free lawns. Walker zero turn mowers have a great line of equipment that, from year to year, keep the weed population at a minimum. Read our next story in the spring care series on Walker Mowers as a natural weed management system.
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