Common Winter Weeds

Winter weeds can be really painful and ruin all the hard work that went into getting your lawn looking great during the warmer seasons.

The best time to treat winter weeks is actually during winter. By doing so, you have a better chance at reaching them before germination, which will prevent them from dropping their seeds back into the soil and coming back again next winter.

Here are 3 of the most common winter weeds and what to do to remove them from your lawn.

 Wintergrass

Winter Grass (Poa Annua) is a low growing turf grass. It has soft, drooping green leaves grown in tufts with triangular shaped seed heads. When you allow Winter Grass to drop seeds, it will come back twice as badly the following winter.

To remove Winter Grass, you can simply remove by hand very easily, as it doesn’t have deep roots or runners.

Using a pre-emergent such as Oxa-fert and a selective Winter Grass control at the right time of the year should prevent Winter Grass from returning. Be sure to follow the label instructions and choose the right product for your lawn variety.

Bindii

Bindii is one of the worst weeds just because of how painful they are to stand on! It is a low growing weed with a flower in the centre. Once it reaches maturity, the flower creates a prickly seed pod which is a nuisance during the warmer months when we want to enjoy or lawns!

Bindii can be managed by hand or by applying a selective broadleaf herbicide like Bin-Die or and All Purpose Weed Control. This will help to remove the weeds in most lawns except for the ST varieties of buffalo. You may need to repeat the application. The best time to treat for Bindii is during winter to stop it producing the seed pod and spreading through your lawn.

Creeping oxalis

Creeping Oxalis has small light green heart shaped leaves, which looks very similar to clover. You can spot the difference as the Oxalis has heart shaped leaves while clover has oval shaped leaves. The flowers are small and bright yellow in colour with five petals. Creeping Oxalis, as its name suggests, spreads quickly along the surface of the soil and produces roots from the leaf as it goes. Once the seed pods mature, they dry out and explode, causing the seed to spread.

Once again, a selective herbicide such as an all-purpose weed control will help to eradicate these weeds in all lawn types including kikuyu and couch and are safe to use on most varieties of buffalo except the ST varieties.

Give us a call on (02) 4464 2033 with any enquiries you may have and remember to always follow the instructions on the product labels.