Tips For A Weed-Free Lawn

A Little Care Goes A Long Way

From Your Home & Garden Showplace

Nothing ruins a good lawn like weeds. Your first line of defence should be a healthy lawn with vigorously growing grass, making it difficult for the weeds to establish and compete. Water the lawn regularly, especially during periods of limited rainfall, mow it frequently, and keep it well fed with a regular dose of a balanced lawn fertilizer.

You can proactively control weeds by pulling them out by the roots as they appear. Special hand tools are available to make the job a little easier. Sometimes laying down a stifling layer of mulch is enough to kill them. Bare soil is a particularly favourable location for weeds to sprout, so bare areas should be reseeded or covered with a mulch such as straw until the surrounding grass fills in the patch.

When these control measures aren't enough, you may need to resort to chemical warfare - weed killers. In that case, consider the following in your plan of attack:

1. Don't spread weed killer on a newly seeded lawn - it may do more harm than good.

2. If you spray on a weed killer with a garden-hose attachment, wait for a calm day with little or no wind to prevent it from spreading to adjoining flower patches and harming them.

3. If you mow weekly, spray weed killer in the middle of that cycle so that the killer can sink into the weeds and do its work undisturbed.

If you're looking for an organic solution, you can kill weeds and grass growing in sidewalk cracks or gravel roadways by either dousing them with undiluted bleach or by mixing 1/4 cup of salt, 1 litre of vinegar and 2 teaspoons of dish soap. Spray the mixture on the weeds when they are actively growing.