They are the bane of your gardening and lawn maintaining existence. They creep and crawl their way into your flower beds, inching ever-closer to your prized blooms, threating to choke the life and light out of your gorgeous, thriving, painstakingly-cared for plants. They’re weeds, and they’re coming for your lawn no matter what. It feels hopeless – you put all this work into your gorgeous landscape, keeping it healthy, and perfecting the look, and for what? It feels like there’s nothing you can do to fight the never-ending weeds, especially in Florida with our endless summer and warm weeds growing habitat.
We hear you, we really do, and we know it can be frustrating, but listen closely — there’s plenty you can do!
You won’t have to spend every Saturday off from work on your knees and picking weeds, we’ve got the precautionary methods you’re looking for. We’ve been running a successful landscaping and lawn crafting business for many a moon, so we’ve battled these brutal enemies before. That being said, we’re here to share our experience and knowledge with you so that you can have the best lawn possible!
Check out a few of our awesome tips below to keep weeds at bay, your lawn happy, and your landscape looking as pristine as ever!
Start Early and Hit ‘Em Hard
Easy maintenance starts from the beginning – that means preventing weeds from growing in the first place. A weed, as you know, is nothing more than an out-of-place plant, but it’s a serious threat to your already-developed flowers and your potential plants. Additionally, they can harbor insects, steal nutrients, and be an overall nuisance. The easiest way to kick them out is to not let them happen to begin with. Here are a few precautionary measures we suggest:
Pre-Emergence Herbicides
This chemical mixture is applied to areas where weeds would typically grow before they get to growing. They’re typically used on lawns, but they can be applied to landscape beds, too. This sort of mixture is applied in either liquid or granular form and is often specific to whichever kind of weeds will likely plague your area, however, a few general weed herbicides are available, too.
Mulch Prevention
We can’t not sing praise when it comes to mulch. Mulch is convenient, stylish, and not terribly expensive, but most of all, it’s a weed preventative like no other. Laying down two-three inches of mulch in landscape beds or parts of lawn can keep weeds out! When it comes to mulch, there’s a ton of variety, so not only will you be taking care of weeds pre-emptively, you’ll be adding a little flair to your landscape.
Keep an Eye on the Season
If we know anything about weeds, it’s that they need prime temperatures to grow, but that being said, every type of weed is different. While crabgrass will germinate when soil gest to 55 or 60 degrees, other weeds can bloom up a lot earlier than that, and in Florida, they’re pretty much destined to germinate constantly as our temperatures don’t drop that significantly.
It’s likely you’ll see fewer weeds in the winter, even though, let’s be honest, our winters aren’t all that harsh. Keep an eye on weeds year-round in Florida but ease up on your vigilance in the winter months if we have an unseasonably cold winter.
Get Them Gone Manually
Sometimes, when it comes to weds, it takes a little extra effort, which can mean that you’ll have to get down to the manual labor portion of our weeds removal guide. Here are a few strategies to consider:
Hand Pulling
This is the practice you’ve been dreading, but sometimes it’s the only solution. It’s time to get down and dirty and pull those weeds right out. Make sure when you’re doing this, you’re pulling out the entire weed system. Consider utilizing a small, bladed knife to help your efforts along. While this is a time-consuming practice, it’s one of the most cost efficient, and environmentally-safe ways to handle weeds.
Shallow Cultivation
If you want to get really medieval on those weeds, we suggest this practice. Using a hoe or a scuffle hoe, you basically “decapitate” weeds in their tracks, cutting off their growth and pulling out their roots.
Don’t Forget Your Flower Beds
It can be easy to focus too hard on your lawn and overall landscape, but don’t forget about protecting your flower beds from weeds! Pesky weeds love to grow in flower beds, and when weeds season begins, you can bet that will be their first stop. Take precautionary measures to protect your flower beds, too!
Post-Emergent Herbicide Never Hurt Anybody – Well, Unless You’re a Weed
Listen, we know you’ve gone through every effort to rid your lawn of weeds, and we applaud for that. But the sad truth is, weeds are ruthless, and weeds are tricky. These sneaky little things sometimes just figure out ways to spread all over our lawn, and despite our trials, they best us.
Sometimes, pre-emergent herbicides won’t catch everything, although, they’re certainly guaranteed to help reduce the number of weeds you see during the peak season (in Florida, it’s practically always peak weeds season). That’s why it’s important to add in a post-emergent weed killer after you’ve used your pre-emergent killer. This will help to target weeds that can blow around, land, and start their growing process, like chickweed, and dandelion bits, and other broadleaf weeds.
Rinse, Re-Weed, Repeat
Don’t hate us when we say this, but sometimes tricky landscapes will require you to repeat the process a few times. That being said, this should guarantee that you’re not glued to the lawn every weekend. Give these few methods a shot, and if all else fails, try a few more times – you’re destined to get those weeds out of your beautiful lawn.
Was our weed-killin’ advice helpful for you? If you loved our article and want more valuable information, check out our https://landcraftersfl.com blog for answers to all your landscaping questions. Have more things to discuss with us? Give us a call at (727)-201-3947. We can’t wait to hear from you!
Michael Tomaino
