My neighbour’s lawn is growing into mine – what do I do?
You extensively care for your lawn and get it just right. The last thing you want is for it to be invaded by your neighbour’s not so friendly lawn. Especially one that is a different grass type. These tips and tricks aren’t strictly limited to pesky neighbouring lawns.
Lawn invasion can occur from a number of ways.
- prior lawn, where the original lawn may not have been entirely killed-off, and is beginning to grow from its left-behind-seed bank or remnant rhizomes; or
- from grass seeds that have blown-in or come from bird droppings, attached to pet-animal’s fur or even visitor’s shoes and clothing.
I remember when I was young how my father would carefully check our thongs and other shoes for those horrible bindii or cats-ear burrs after we had been at the park before we let these nasties loose in our own backyard. The same thing goes for foreign grasses. They can spread quite easily.
What to do
If the lawn invasion is minor, the most effective form of removal may be removing the unwelcome grass by hand. Be careful when using sprays when it comes to lawns. Most are warm season grasses which are susceptible to non-selective herbicides such as glyphosate/roundup. When it comes to your neighbour’s lawn a long-term solution is to create a physical barrier, such as a brick or timber edge. There are other strip edges available such as aluminium or heavy plastic which offers a clean-cut-look, and deep enough to prevent the runners and rhizomes from creeping underneath into your lawn. Another type of lawn edge is the spade edge. As the title suggests, it is the use of a spade to cut the edge – but it leaves a bare dirt trough. This may not be appropriate for the verge or front yard.
Last resorts can include using a non-selective herbicide. This would need to be used with care as this would kill your lawn as well as your neighbours. Often just letting the two lawns grow into each other for a small distance can be the best option. This softens the look of the transition from one grass-type to the other. There is still some attention required every now and then to keep it neat – best approached by possibly lifting and removing runners as they grow too far into each other’s lawns. You could also slightly lift the runners and hand-paint with glyphosate.
For information on caring for your lawn visit our Lawn Care Page.
