Weeding your lawn

A beautiful, luscious green lawn without any bare patches, that is many people’s dream! To achieve beautiful grass without moss or other weeds there are several tricks...

Weeding your lawn
A lawn that has been invaded by moss and clover: In this case, it is best to sow the lawn again rather than treat it to get a good result !

Get rid of the moss

This spongy blanket that gets in between the blades of grass and slowly suffocates them is perhaps the number one enemy of the lawn. In reality, moss usually installs itself where the grass growth is weak. Where there is a lack of light or the soil is poor, bare patches appear and it is here that the moss quickly establishes itself. If the lawn is badly looked after, it will not be long before the moss gets the upper hand. Iron sulphate is perhaps the most commonly used anti-moss treatment that you can buy. It quickly kills the moss, which turns black and then must be removed. However, it is not a good idea to use it as it acidifies the soil and leads to the appearance of more moss! Using a scarifier helps remove the moss by raking it out from in between the blades of grass. It is a good way of removing moss but it does not address the underlying cause of the moss.

Using lime against moss

Effectively the best solution against moss is to spread agricultural lime over the area at the rate of 100 g per m²; it is best done in the spring. The lime will make the soil more alkaline, which the moss does not like but it will at the same time reinvigorate the grass. Under trees, it may even be better to replant the lawn by digging over the soil and sowing a grass seed that contains plenty of tougher grasses that can withstand a lack of light. You might even consider keeping the moss as it has certain qualities: after all, it is quite pleasant to walk on it in your bare feet and of course, you do not need to mow it often !

Weeding your lawn
Of all the available methods, hand weeding is the best one to ensure the removal of large leaved weeds.

Remove the big round weeds

The big leaves of weeds that cover the ground are not very pretty. Once they are established there are two ways of getting rid of them: use a weeding knife or use a weed killer. If you chose the first approach, then simply put the knife’s blade under the weed and remove it and its roots. Weed killer for the lawn uses granules that are spread over the area. It does not remove the weed but simply kills it; however be careful not to use the grass cuttings in the compost bin or as mulch, as the weed killer that they contain remains active for a long time.

Treating the other undesirables that one finds in the lawn, such as clover, violets or ivy can only be done using a chemical solution. If you do not want to use chemicals then use methods to maintain the lawn that favour the grass rather than the large leaved weeds.

Three tips for a beautiful lawn

Roll the lawn after each rainfall: rolling the lawn encourages the grass to make new roots and new shoots at ground level. It is the best way to crowd out the competition.

Cut the lawn as regularly as possible: by cutting the lawn regularly the large leaved weeds suffer and the grass benefits.

Change the mix of your grass seed: chose the grass seed in function of the lawn’s usage and the conditions it experiences. An unsuitable grass mix will mean the health of the grass suffers and will encourage better-adapted plants (weeds) to take over.

M. Jean-Michel GROULT
 
Pépinières PLANFOR
1950 Route de Cère
40090 UCHACQ - FRANCE
Tel : (020).7660.0178