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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 in the 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 at the
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 from the beauty of the 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, the 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
combating the problem. Weeds can be a sign of underlying
problems in the environment beneath. So by just killing
them, you are simply putting on a band-aid, not solving
the problem.
For example, some weeds
grow in situations of compacted soil, such as knotweed.
You can also control the growth by taking better care of
the grass, rather than focus on the weeds. You can raise
or lower the mowing height, change the frequency of mowing
and changing the amount of time between irrigating. Also,
you can increase or decrease application of fertilizer and
aerify the soil. This will maintain better grass, thus
keeping the growth dense and vigorous, which as discussed
above, does not attract weeds.
In addition to culture
practices, sometimes the assistance of chemicals is needed
to control weed growth. In that case, there are several
types of herbicides that can be used. Preemergence
herbicides will affect seeds that are germinating. Since
they are best used two to three weeks before the seeds
start to grow, these work best to combat annual weeds.
Postmergence herbicides are used, as their prefix implies,
after the weeds have sprouted. Since they must be absorbed
through the leaves, this types of herbicide works best
with a spray.
These can be used at any
time, but are most effective when the weed is still young
and growing. Selective postmergence herbicides are usually
used to control annual, biennial and perennial broadleaf
weeds, as they will not damage grass. But, they can kill
trees, shrubs and flowers. These have to be used in proper
conditions as well, with no rain in the forecast for two
days to follow, air 60-80 degrees and no winds. Finally,
non-selective postmergence herbicides kill all types of
weeds, and are best used to spot treat grassy weeds that
are not affected by the selective herbicides.
So next time you see a
Dandelion plant growing, don't make a wish and blow the
seeds toward in the direction of a lawn fanatic- they may
not get the perfectly manicured lawn they wished for!
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