Are winter weeds threatening to ruin your chance of an unblemished lawn? Use this easy guide from the turf professionals at All Year Round Turf to prevent weeds from overtaking your backyard.
What is it With Weeds and Winter?
While cold winters promise a respite from lawn mowing every weekend, slow-growing, dormant grass provides an opportunity for winter weeds to sneak in and take over. Prevention is always better than the cure for weeds, so here are a few tips from our lawn growing experts to help you nip your weed problem in the bud.
Let Your Lawn Have a Bit of Extra Length
Leave it a little longer between mows. Longer grass is better able to resist weeds and crowd them out. Our winters are getting wetter, so your lawn is at greater risk of compacting. Use your aerator every month or so over winter to stop this from happening.
Killing and Controlling Lawn Weeds
You may still have the odd weed or two poking their heads up, so use these lawn care tips to control them before they get out of control.
You can control onion weed outbreaks by using a trowel or spade to dig out the entire clump. Throw it in the bin rather than the compost; otherwise, it could come back to haunt you. You can also get rid of onion weed by painting the leaves with a dishwashing liquid and glyphosate solution. The dishwashing liquid eliminates the waxy coating that would otherwise block the poison from getting into the plant.
Control broadleaf weeds and clover outbreaks with a dose of Bin-Die or Amgrow Chemspray, These are okay for most lawns but make sure it won’t affect your grass.
The droopy, clumped leaves of winter grass are easily recognisable against your lawn. Make sure you deal with it quickly, or it will come back twice as strong next year. Fortunately, it’s easy to remove winter grass manually, but pre-emergent treatment at the right time can help eliminate it from your lawn and save you a bit of labour.
We all dread the winter bindii outbreak that makes it impossible to enjoy a backyard without footwear. Fortunately, there are a few bindii weed control options available. An LSA all-purpose weed will do the trick or use the more specialised Bin-DIe. Don’t wait to start on bindiis because once the prickly seed pods appear, it doesn’t take long for the small, bright green leaves spreading across your lawn could indicate a creeping oxalis outbreak. LSA all-purpose weed killer can help here as well. It’s safe on most lawns except for ST varieties and Buffalo turf.
These five weeds cause many of the winter weed issues for Australian homes, but if you want to know more about protecting your lawn, don’t hesitate to reach out to All Year Round Turf for expert advice.
