lawn & garden tips > weed control

The best weed control is a good, healthy turf. When your lawn is thick and vigorous, weeds simply have no place to get started and you have fewer problems.

Taking an environmentally friendly approach to the use of herbicides and pesticides is very important to me as the operations manager of Hamilton Sod and as a homeowner. Let me share one approach I use to combat broadleaf weeds on my home lawn. I do not follow a regular spray program by spraying my entire lawn on a yearly or bi-yearly basis. Instead, I only spray when necessary. Here’s how I do it: after accessing my lawn (which is done while mowing) I decide if there are too many weeds in my lawn. To me a handful is acceptable and unnoticeable to most onlookers and only spray when they become more noticeable.

Killing the weeds is only half the operation — you must remember to replace bare areas (larger than 5-6 inch diameter) with grass seed or sod.

When I do spray, I will walk over my lawn with a broadleaf spray bottle that contains a premix herbicide (like Killex) that will kill all broad leaf plants. I spot spray the individual weeds using far less spray than if the entire area was covered.  You can take the same approach by pulling the weeds out, but often the weeds will come back through from left over root. Not so with spray, as it is taken to the root through the leaf, killing the entire plant. Each individual should be comfortable with the approach they take. I find this approach works very well for me on my home lawn.

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