Homeowners all across Melbourne and Victoria tend to want lush, green lawns, and who can blame them? Not only do they look great, but they make for wonderful areas to exercise with the dog, have a barbecue with the family, or simply to soak up some sun.
Weeds may be green too, but you really don’t want them anywhere on or near your lawn. Melbourne’s coastal climate brings in plenty of rain, which nourish and keep our gardens nice and green (along with other lawn care tasks), but weeds are a persistent problem. Which weeds are common and how can you knock ‘em dead?
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Winter Grass
As you could probably guess by its name, Winter Grass is quite common in many regions of Australia in the winter and spring months. Its main characteristic is its profuse seed growth which can quickly infest an entire garden if left unchecked.
Pale green in colour with a cotton-white central root system, Winter Grass can be manually plucked from the ground if you know where to find it.
The two ways to manage Winter Grass are through post-emergent treatment and pre-emergent herbicide treatment. Ensure that you use pre-emergent herbicides before winter sets in, and for post-emergent treatment in autumn and winter, give it time to set in.
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Oxalis Weed
Shaped like little clovers and often growing out little yellow flowers, Oxalis Weed is often used as ground cover by gardeners, but more often than not it’s a threat to your garden at home. What makes Oxalis a challenge to deal with is that it develops a robust underground network of taproots.
Dealing with this perennial weed can be a hassle manually, and will require consistent effort. Instead, we recommend pre-emergent herbicide treatment.
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Crabgrass
One of the nastiest buggers you’ll find here in Australia is the notorious Crabgrass. It looks like grass in colour, but its wide blades and tough stems are noticeable. Plucking them by hand is a real pain in the back (literally).
Year-round mowing and routine lawn care maintenance are the best prevention, but if you notice Crabgrass already then pre-emergent herbicides will do the trick.
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Summer Grass
You can probably guess when this little bugger will show up. Through autumn, keep a close eye on your garden for Summer Grass, a spiky grasslike weed that fans out in all directions from brown/red stems.
This particular weed is extraordinarily difficult to manually remove since it spreads like wildfire. Instead, consider using equal treatments of fertiliser and pre-emergent herbicide to kill it dead and to stop its spread.
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Crowsfoot Grass
A big ol’ nasty weed, Crowsfoot Grass is an annual weed that grows year-round except in winter. It is easily distinguished by its tufted, tall blades that connect to membrane-like roots. This weed can grow in just about any lawn, so it’s quite common in Melbourne.
A close mow won’t necessarily kill it, since it grows quite low (and can grow tall as well, with its roots well embedded into the soil). Therefore, the best way to deal with Crowsfoot is a combination of fertiliser and pre-emergent herbicide.
Gardening Angels
Pluck, whack, and kill weeds and stop their spread with the professional groundscare services of Gardening Angels today.
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