Hi, long time lurker first time poster. I recently moved to this house with a back garden and I’m a newbie when it comes to taking care of it. There’re a bunch of weeds, and I feel overwhelmed. I read over here that most people recommend going down on your knees and getting physical with them, but I had tried it and they seem to have multiplied. What should I do taking into consideration winter is approaching. Thanks!
by ironbasher
13 Comments
Weedkiller suitable for applying to grass.
Just leave them
My front garden looks like this. But I focused on the back this spring/summer due to grub infestation.
I used typical weed killers on the front garden to manage, and pulled dandelion heads whenever they appeared (got them whilst they were yellow to reduce spread). My plan in early spring next year is to dig out all of the affected areas, feed the soil, then seed a few weeks later. Feeding the soil helps balance nutrients so the seed can take and establish better and produce healthy grass.
If you want to wait till spring like I am, I would just mow it all down and keep it down until then. It looks about as dense as my weed patches and the soil isnt going to stay warm long enough now to encourage grass growth from seed now.
The simple answer is to decide what you want the outcome to be (I assume you want a lawn?) and accept that it’s going to take time.
Pull up/dig out all the weeds completely. Turn over the soil, make sure you get the roots of the weeds. Use weedkiller suitable for grassy areas if you want. In a couple of weeks you’ll have fewer weeds growing. Then you do it again. Then again, then again, until you’ve removed all the weeds.
If you think they’ve ‘grown more’ since you did it, then it’s likely you didn’t remove the roots. Just pulling off the tops of the weeds will clean up the area, but they will just regrow, and the roots will spread, so you will get more.
If you can’t/don’t want to keep digging through weeding, then you have to go with weedkiller, and do the similar thing. Spray them, wait for them to die, remove the dead matter, and wait for the regrowth. Then repeat.
If you want immediate results, then you need to dig up and till the top foot or more of soil, sift out all the roots, and put down turf on top. But that’s not really something you want to be doing this time of year.
Stick some bulbs in, scatter some wild flower seeds and leave it. Call it ‘set aside’ (:
Ooh black canvas exciting! Plants to the left (an old border?) look mostly like docks with some brambles.
I would dig them up with a fork after some rain and plant a load of cheap bulbs at the same time. Get as much of the root as possible.
If you want Wembley then look at weedkiller or replacing the sod and reseeding. If you want something that looks green to sit on or play on then mow regularly during the growing season; temps are warm enough still to get a small cut in now before winter.
You could scarify, scalp and overseed in spring; healthy grass will outcompete most weeds.
Get a lawn edging tool and set your edges too. It will help stop weed ingress from the borders and give you some smart lines to look at over winter.
My grass lawn in the back garden isn’t as weedy as this, but it does have a few problem areas. What I do is take a weeding tool and manually pull them up, making sure to twist and take the roots with it.
You should decide what you want and don’t want and avoid overdoing it. If you take up all of the weeds at once and only leave one type of grass, you’ll easily end up with the same weeds coming back when seeds blow into your garden. Better to find some weeds that you don’t mind so much and leave them be. For example, I’m ok with a bit of plantain and clover, but I get rid of the dandelions and ragwort.
Run a mower over them a couple of times a year and enjoy the colours and insects around them.
Nothing. Mow them if you wish, green is green, otherwise let the insects enjoy the diversity. You might even find yourself with some nice wildflowers
It looks to me like they are concentrated near to the fence where it looks like there is or used to be a flower bed. If it were me, I would reinstate the flower bed and make it a bit deeper so that some of the most dense clumps of weeds would be dug out with the grass. Cover the new bed with a good 2-3 inches of mulch or woodchip. While you decide what you want to plant in there.
For the remainder of the weeds, I personally have started to garden organically which is very beneficial to insects and the ecosystem in general. I have an awesome tool called a Fiskar’s weed cutter which you use standing up and it pulls out the weeds effortlessly and I find pretty fun (I don’t get out much lol). You can just do a few a day, add compost and grass seed to the holes or just compost if you prefer, the grass will soon fill in the gaps and if it doesn’t you can add seed later. Picture of the weed cutter is shown below. I think it used to be called a Weed Puller, possibly?
For your new flowerbed, research some suitable plants depending on whether it is a sunny or shady location. Your local garden centre can help you usually or the online plant shop Crocus has good filters to help you pick plants and they are great quality.
I’ve had similar issues. The best time to tackle this is between March and September. For now, just keep it mowed and short, but start making plans for what you want to do with it. You could add pavers or stones to make it low maintenance.
Keep the grass cut short. Literally mow every other day if you have to. Grass will grow strong and suffocate the weeds. It’s probably the easiest solution, and when weeds are cut short they’re less noticeable anyway.