Preventing And Removing Crabgrass In Your Lawn

Crabgrass. Some people like it, most despise it, especially when it invades their well-looked-after lawns. Did you know that one of the major factors in any crabgrass attack is a lawn that is too well cared for? Yes, your own actions could be responsible for the next invasion by this weed.

It doesn’t have to be and little less ‘care’ and little more attention to the type of care given will help to prevent weeds like crabgrass from gaining a foothold. Of course, weeds will often find their way in. There is no 100% guarantee of prevention, but you can at least reduce the incidence.

Your first step is to make the environment less inviting. There are two things you can do to achieve this. The first is very simple. Leave your lawn longer – in other words, don’t cut it so short. For summer, leave it at around 2 inches in height. The second step also relates to mowing. When you mow, only take the top 1/3 at most. If you mow regularly, you can reduce this to the top 1/4. Since you are cutting such a small amount, you can leave the clippings in place.

By leaving your grass a little longer you are providing a shade coverage. By leaving the clippings in place, you are putting in a barrier that helps to stop airborne seeds from finding the soil. As I said earlier, you will never eradicate weed problems entirely. However, this method does reduce the number of weeds in a lawn.

Should weeds get in, try to pull them out, roots and all, as soon as they appear. A well maintained lawn should have a reasonably soft underbelly. This means weeds should pull free fairly easily. If the weeds have covered a patch of turf, remove the weeds and oversow with a good summer blend of grass seed. Use a lawn repair tool to get best results as this helps to get the seeds into the soil.

You don’t have to put up with weeds like crabgrass. Just make a small change in the way you cut your lawn. Leaving the clippings in place means you will be spending less time on the mowing and more time enjoying it.