I have often been overheard saying that if my flowers grew as prolific as my weeds, I would have a garden worthy of a magazine cover.  Sadly, my weeds have a tendency to get a little bit out of hand and over the years I have just decided in some cases that the weed with the beautiful purple flower doesn't look that bad in the garden!  On occasion though, I have had enough and I have waged war on the weeds, I thought I would share some of the battle scars and hard won knowledge.

One year, as I was sitting at the edge of a flower bed with my fork digging up Florida betony tubers, my elderly neighbor walked over and wondered why I was digging up all of my pretty flowers!  Well, I will have to tell you I was never successful at getting all of those tubers, but it sure did make me feel better to see the large pile of weeds that would go into the garbage and never grow again!  As with other winter weeds, this one will die off and go dormant once we get some warmer temperatures, only to return with the cooler weather.  If you don't get excited about digging weeds you can always use a non-selective herbicide in your established beds to rid your gardens of the undesirables.  Glyphosate also known as Round-Up is a very good non-selective herbicide to use in small controlled areas.  Be careful, it is called non-selective for a reason, killing what ever it is applied to.  Check weather forecasts for rain, this could cause run off and death to surrounding grass.  Apply only on calm days as the wind will create drift to other plants, and if you have a large bed you are working in, work backwards.  Do not spray the chemical and then walk in it!  Don't ask how I know to give you this bit of advice, but I would consider the brown footprints in the lawn for several weeks leading from one flower bed to another a battle scar!

Poa Annua

Weeds are the greatest of opportunists. Give them a nice patch of soil and they will happily do their best!  With that information in mind the best way to keep the weeds out of your lawn is to have a nice, thick healthy lawn.  Don't give the weed seeds a single millimeter of soil to germinate or set root.  Yes, I know that I am once again describing the garden that is worthy of a magazine cover, so let's talk about some ways to deal with those pesky weeds that have found their way into our lawn.  Some of the weeds you may find in your lawn now are Poa Annua, also known as bluegrass, Carolina geranium, hairy bittercress, lawn burweed and chickweed - all found in a small area in my yard with very patchy grass.

A pre-emergent herbicide like 0-0-7 with surge or dimension can be used in the fall to discourage the germination of weed seeds.  Unfortunately at this point, a pre-emergent is not going to help

Carolina Geranium

with the weeds that you have in the lawn now!  Keep this in mind for next year, also keep in mind that it is a very tricky

process to rid the lawn of all weeds with a pre-emergent.  Seeds germinate at different soil temperatures and the pre-emergent has an effective time limit once applied so with our unpredictable weather it is hard to hit the optimal application time, but a good guideline for applying the pre-emergent is

the second week of October.

A post emergent is going to be the best way to rid your lawn of weeds now.  There are almost as many chemicals to treat for weeds as there are weeds, so be forewarned, you will need to do some homework before you suit up to apply chemicals.  A post emergent will kill the weeds that are present now, but will not prevent future seed germination.  A favorite of mine is a product with the active ingredient 2-4-D and Dicamba. It is sold under many names with other active ingredients sometimes thrown into the mix.  There are many variables for chemical application, some are temperate sensitive and will only work in certain temperatures and in some cases will cause turf die off if applied at the wrong temperature.  Some chemicals will harm certain types of turf grass and then, the most

Hairy Bittercress

upsetting of all, is some chemicals are specific to the weed.  This is the part about homework, remember?  You must first be able to identify your weed and then find the chemical that will work for the temperature, your turf and weeds.  If this all seems to be too much, remember the fork from earlier, or you can always stand back, squint and believe that beautiful patch of green is not weeds, but spring coming early to your yard!

Lawn Burweed

I would like to touch on one more option.  As mentioned above, the best way to prevent weed growth is to have a beautiful lush lawn.  Our sister company Lawn Rangers has been using an organic product called Byo-Soil along with core aeration and a top dressing of organic compost to promote a healthy soil to create a lush lawn.  This method is not for those striving for the magazine cover this season, this is somewhat like letting your hair grow back to it's natural color - it's a long, ugly and painful process - but well worth the end result.  The idea is to make the soil as healthy as possible and encourage the growth of thick healthy sod.  The sod will cover the available soil and use up all the available nutrients, putting the weeds behind in the competition.