Lawn Treatment Tips to Prevent Crabgrass & Dandelions

Nothing ruins a lawn’s uniform, well-manicured appearance like dandelions and crabgrass. These invasive weeds make a lawn look shabby and poorly maintained — and when they set up shop, they can be a nightmare to remove. Thankfully, these lawn treatment tips will help you prevent crabgrass, dandelions and other unsightly weeds from taking residence in your yard.

Keep Your Grass Long

Crabgrass seeds in particular germinate with exposure to sunshine. One of the most useful lawn treatment tips you can follow is to set your lawnmower’s blades so they’re as far off the ground as possible. You’ll have to mow your lawn more often to keep it looking good, but the resulting tall, thick grass growth will shade the ground better, and keep crabgrass seeds from germinating.

Fertilize Your Yard

Make sure you fertilize your lawn at least once a year. This is one of many lawn treatment tips that you should be following, even if you don’t have a weed problem! It’ll help your lawn grow in thicker and stronger, which will allow your grass to compete better with any dandelions or crabgrass that tries to take root.

Reseed Your Lawn

Weeds typically grow in patchy areas of your lawn, where they have little competition from your grass. If you’re seeing worn spots in your yard, most lawn treatment tips advise you to reseed your lawn in fall. Make sure you tear out all existing weeds, or use herbicide on them, so that your grass can take root and thrive. Once the new grass is established, it’ll be able to deny any invading weeds the chance to take root.

Water Your Lawn Deeply

Most weeds thrive on infrequent, shallow watering. One of the most useful lawn treatment tips you can follow is to water your lawn seldom — on the order of once a week — but deeply. Your grass appreciates this better than your weeds do. It’ll give your lawn the chance to soak up all that delicious moisture, and build a strong root network that can resist invaders. As a bonus, that healthy root network will be more resistant to high temperatures!

Use a Pre-Emergent Herbicide

Many people may balk at applying herbicides to their lawn, so this is one of the lawn treatment tips that’s most useful if your lawn continues to suffer from weeds, after you’ve taken other options. Pre-emergent herbicides are highly specialized weed killers, so they won’t kill existing weeds effectively. Rather, they keep seeds from germinating, so they work best when applied in early spring or late autumn, and only when you’ve successfully followed other lawn treatment tips to remove crabgrass and dandelions from your yard. When you’re choosing a herbicide, always be sure to follow all instructions on the package carefully.

Removing noxious weeds like crabgrass and dandelions, when they’re established, can be a real pain. An ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure, so follow these lawn treatment tips and put bothersome weeds out of your mind!

Tagged: landscaping, lawn care, watering