Identify the common lawn weeds

Weeds are unwanted plants which grow to share space with your plants or grass, spoiling the look of the turf as well as competing for nutrition.

There are few weeds which are rampant in most lawns. Find below a listing of these common weeds, with their ../images.

Most common lawn weeds

Chickweed :This weeds grows in cool and wet conditions. Cannot survive the summers. Has small white flowers during spring.

Barnyard grass :An annual grass which is light green in color. Can be easily abolished through regular mowing.

Carpet weed : Starts sprouting around spring and florishes by summer. Tends to spread rapidly. Prefers shaded area. Would need to be hand pulled for elimination.

Ground ivy :Has kidney shaped leaves and grows in moist areas. Takes roots at each joint and thus spreads through the lawn. Difficult to uproot it due to its style of propagation. Best to uproot it when it is sprouting. Use of herbicide may be employed but usually has less effect.

Sorrel : Has yellow flowers around spring. Most farmers use it as cattle food. Hand pluck them to eliminate their growth in your lawn.

Spurge : This weed is deep rooted and persistent in its proliferation. Has small yellow blossoms towards spring. Should be pulled off before it takes seed to prevent propagation.

Annual bluegrass : Grows under cool and moist conditions. Mostly a bane of any lawn owner's life because it is difficult to mow it off, it grows less than the mowing height.

Dandelion :These weeds attack your lawn by spring and they are fast growers. These weeds are greedy for water and nutrition. Hand pluck them on sight.

Weed prevention tips

Given below are some useful tips on weed prevention in your garden.

• If you want to play it safe you can consider mulching the length of your would be lawn with plastic or organic mulch for a period of a month. The mulch should be laid out at least 6 inches thick.
• The objective of this process is to kill any would be weeds by preventing access to sunlight and air. You can use cheap organic mulch like peat moss and straw for this purpose.
• This step requires a lot of patience since you need to wait for a month, facing a yard which is covered with mulch. If you are willing to go through this, it would be well worth the effort since you will have a weed free lawn.
• Most people are not so patient and it's fine to just dig into the next step. You can content with weed pulling when they do arise later.

Working on weed prevention would help you maintain an even and attractive lawn. Usually a few hours of effort put into the lawn works towards creating the right image for your garden.