Creating a Healthy Lawn Starts with Weed Control
One of the key factors in maintaining a healthy and attractive lawn is weed control, but keeping lawn invaders at bay requires more than occasional digging and spraying. While any weed can become a nuisance, each has a specific growth habit and life cycle requiring a targeted control strategy. Read on to learn more about the appearance and growth habits of some of the most common Michigan lawn weeds.
Dandelion
The best known and toughest contender for lawn space on our list, this perennial member of the daisy family loves the sun, but will thrive under almost any conditions. The name “dandelion” comes from the French “dent de lion,” meaning “tooth of the lion,” which is likely a reference to the weed’s familiar jagged, tooth-like leaves.
Although we usually think of dandelions as being spread by seed when their white fluff (known technically as pappus) is carried on the wind (up to five miles from the original plant), they can also reproduce via pieces of their tap root, which can grow up to three feet long. Many people joke that for every dandelion you pull up, three more will appear to replace it. There’s some truth in this old saw, because a single broken or injured dandelion root can produce as many as five new shoots.
Clover
Our next flowering lawn foe comes in various shades of red or white, but no matter the bloom color, all share similar growth characteristics. All clovers produce clusters of three small, rounded leaflets on each stem, though different varieties may have varied leaf markings. A short-lived perennial, clover can spread quickly through both underground runners and seed. Like most lawn weeds, clover will happily grow almost anywhere, but is particularly fond of under watered and lawns that are regularly cut too short.
In addition to being unsightly, this weed can attract other unwelcome visitors to your yard. Clover is actually a legume related to peanuts, beans, and peas, making it a favorite snack of deer, rabbits, squirrels, and other wildlife.
Wild Violets
It’s rare to find a midwestern lawn that hasn’t had a clump of violets pop up at least once. Although generally thought of as flowering in shades of blue-purple, these sturdy perennials can also be found in white or yellow. Wild violets of every color have heart shaped leaves, a low, clumping growth habit, and spread quickly through both seed and networks of underground rhizomes. Violets also have a secret weapon that helps them spread: their seeds are irresistible to ants, who come from far and wide to collect them and carry them away. The ants eat only a small, sugary bump from the seed, known as an elaiosome, and discard the rest allowing it to germinate and produce a new generation of violets.
While violets do prefer shady, damp conditions, they don’t mind sunny areas and can hold up even in times of serious drought that would quickly kill off more desirable plants. Like so many other weeds, wild violets thrive in thinning lawns and poor turf, and are particularly well suited to overly acidic soils.
Creeping Charlie
Also known as ground ivy, creeping Charlie is a member of the mint family. Like its cousins, peppermint and spearmint, this weed spreads aggressively and can quickly overwhelm a lawn as it forms thick, dense mats of tangled foliage. Also in common with its tastier family members, ground ivy emits a powerful odor when cut or pulled up.
Ground ivy is yet another grow-anywhere weed that is especially happy in wet, shady areas, particularly along fence lines. Round leaves with scalloped edges arise on long stolons, or runners, which are specially adapted stems that help the plant cling to the ground. Each leaf node, the point where leaves emerge, can take root and produce a new plant anywhere it touches the soil. Additionally, Creeping Charlie can spread through the seeds that eventually emerge from the tiny purplish flowers that bloom in early spring.
Wild Violet and Creeping Charlie are harder to treat weeds that will require several treatments to get under control.
Professional Weed Control
There’s no need to figure it out on your own because keeping your lawn healthy and weed free is what we do at Custom Personalized Lawn Care. Call our Michigan lawn care pros at (800) 570-3313 or get a weed control quote here.
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