Every summer seems like a whack-a-mole battle for your lawn as you stamp out a seemingly endless array of weeds sprouting up in your yard. Summer grass is a pest many Sydney siders must deal with when the warmer months roll around. The war against weeds becomes easier when you arm yourself with the correct information, so keep reading to learn how to stop summer grass in its tracks.
How to Identify Summer Grass
The term summer grass refers to a variety of fast-growing weeds that thrive during the warmer months. They can quickly spread through your lawn by sending out shoots in all directions and putting down roots via their stolons (horizontal plant stems that form new plants at points along their length).
The stems of summer grass are usually red or brown with thin grey-green to brownish leaves and fine, spiky, upward-pointing seed heads.
How to Control Summer Grass
Keep a watch on your lawn as the days start to warm, as summer grass thrives in warm, humid weather. As with most weeds, early manual intervention is the best way to control this fast-growing pest.
At the first sign of summer grass, remove the offending weed as soon as possible. If it establishes itself without intervention, the weed will quickly outcompete your regular grass for growing space and nutrients.
Summer grass typically goes to seed during Autumn, so timing is critical to ensuring the plant cannot reestablish itself the following year.
Manual Maintenance Methods
Proper lawn maintenance is essential to controlling summer grass, as the weed does best on thin, patchy and unhealthy lawns where competition for nutrients is at its lowest. Regularly mowing using the correct height for your lawn type will help establish your chosen grass and discourage summer grass from taking hold.
Always remove grass clippings, debris, and anything else that could harbour summer grass seeds, where they will lay dormant waiting for warmer weather. Aerating your lawn will improve drainage and benefit your regular lawn by giving it the best chance of resisting a summer grass outbreak.
Frequent, deep watering will promote deep roots with your established grass and make it harder for shallow-rooted weeds like summer grass to take hold. Fertilising your lawn with the recommended products and procedures for your grass species will also encourage strong, healthy grass that can shrug off a weed invasion.
Chemical Control of Summer Grass
Summer grass can be challenging to eradicate once it takes hold and spreads, so diligence with the above steps is critical to having a lush, vibrant lawn.
If the outbreak is severe, All Year Round Turf recommends pre-emergent herbicides containing the active ingredient Oxadiazon. OxaFert is an all-in-one fertiliser and pre-emergent herbicide that will feed your lawn while killing off any lurking summer grass seeds before they become a problem.
