Understanding Weeds – How to Kill them?

Written by Chris Coffman


When I was a child, I loved to pick Dandelions. The pretty yellow flowers were small, colorful, and looked nice tucked behind my ear! However, if one had popped up inrepparttar front yard, my hair accessory would have been considered an atrocity!

I often feel sorry for weeds. They are plants too. In fact, if you flipped through a botany field guide, you may be surprised atrepparttar 113300 plants you find classified as weeds! But simply put, a weed is really defined as a plant out of place. Clover in one persons flowing lawn may be considered fashionable, whereas on another, not. Golf greens are often covered with bentgrass, but if it crept up in some yards, it would be considered a weed. While perhaps pretty on their own, weeds stick out like a sore thumb in yards because they may be of a different color, size or texture. This is distracting fromrepparttar 113301 beauty ofrepparttar 113302 otherwise sprawling green turf. Aside from aesthetic values, weeds can also drain nutrients from grass and other plants, and this competition of resources can thin what should be lush. And what’s worse is that weeds are fighters. They can withstand conditions that your wanted greens cannot, so they are almost inevitable!

Treating weeds begins with correct identification. There are two classifications of weeds: Grassy and Broadleaf. These are further broken down into groups like perennial, biennial, and winter and summer annuals. These, as you may gave guessed, depict their growing patterns. Grassy weeds are, as they sound, like grass. However, they are unwanted grass, or grass that is growing in a different type of lawn. Some examples are annual bluegrass, barnyard grass, crabgrass, creeping bentgrass and foxtail. Broadleaf weeds may appear more to be what most people picture weed-like growth to be. Since they are broad, they are more easily distinguished. Some examples are yarrow, knotweed, chickweed, clover, ground ivy, thistle and my favorite,repparttar 113303 dandelion.

Once you understand what is growing in your lawn and decide that it is unwanted, you can treat it and/or control it. Weeds can actually be controlled by your lawn care maintenance. If you maintain a dense and vigorously growing lawn, you are already combatingrepparttar 113304 problem. Weeds can be a sign of underlying problems inrepparttar 113305 environment beneath. So by just killing them, you are simply putting on a band-aid, not solvingrepparttar 113306 problem. For example, some weeds grow in situations of compacted soil, such as knotweed. You can also controlrepparttar 113307 growth by taking better care ofrepparttar 113308 grass, rather than focus onrepparttar 113309 weeds. You can raise or lowerrepparttar 113310 mowing height, changerepparttar 113311 frequency of mowing and changingrepparttar 113312 amount of time between irrigating. Also, you can increase or decrease application of fertilizer and aerifyrepparttar 113313 soil. This will maintain better grass, thus keepingrepparttar 113314 growth dense and vigorous, which as discussed above, does not attract weeds.

Fertilizing Your Lawn

Written by Chris Coffman


Your lawn takes nutrients out ofrepparttar soil that it is bedded in and uses these nutrients to aid its growth. If your soil lacks these nutrients your lawn will ultimately suffer. So while fertilizing makes your lawn greener it also provides a top of any nutrients that your soil is lacking helping grass to grow. Whenrepparttar 113299 nutrients are available,repparttar 113300 lawn develops healthier roots which invariably grow deeper allowingrepparttar 113301 lawn to draw upon water and nutrients inrepparttar 113302 soil. Furthermore, deep roots reduce thatch and browning. Finally, fertilizer contains nutrients that grass needs to resist disease and drought.

Fertilizers also offerrepparttar 113303 additional benefit of including chemicals to inhibit or kill weeds. The three primary nutrients in a fertilizer are Nitrogen, Phosphorous and Potassium. Each element has its own affect upon grass. Nitrogen stimulates grass growth and greening. Phosphorous stimulatesrepparttar 113304 development of roots and seedlings. Potassium promotes disease and drought resistance.

Asrepparttar 113305 weather changes, so too does your lawn have changing needs. Inrepparttar 113306 heat ofrepparttar 113307 summer, your lawn needs water and little else. In order to surviverepparttar 113308 cold weather, your lawn needs to have healthy roots and so a fertilizer to promote root growth should be applied beforerepparttar 113309 cold weather sets in. At other times of year your lawn needs nutrients to enable growth and greening. Weeds also have their own growing seasons so you should fertilize atrepparttar 113310 beginning ofrepparttar 113311 various weed growth seasons.

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