In the garden with Brownie
With winter well and truly here, it’s time to get on top of the winter weeds which have been stealthily multiplying in your lawns.
And with the day length now increasing, the winter weeds will grow faster and stronger than your turf grasses will. So there’s no time to lose.
The main offenders are bindii, cats ear (or flatweed), tropical chickweed, green and silverleaf desmodiums, white clover and red caustic weeds.
Those with couch grass lawns will have noticed them thinning out a bit. This is normal for couch in winter, but it does leave space for the winter weeds to expand.
To give your grass a fighting chance there’s a few simple things you can do now before the winter weeds really start to take over.
Firstly, lighten your soil. It’s probably a little compacted from being walked or driven on over the summer months.
Compacted soil has less air pockets and air in your soil is vital for good healthy grass roots.
You can use a specialised soil aeration gadget which can be pretty cheaply hired from a hire shop, or you can use a bit of elbow grease and get to work with your garden fork – jab it in, lever it a little, then repeat across your whole lawn.
At this point you might like to pick up a trailer load of sand and spread this thinly across your lawn and then lightly rake it in. The sand will make it into the gaps you’ve created which will really help to improve the structure of your soil.
Fertilise with a slow release lawn fertiliser and water it in well. This will encourage grass roof growth as the days lengthen.
Do some hand weeding to remove the winter weeds allowing the grass to once again gain the upper hand.
If the weeds are too far gone to hand weed, you may need to resort to a lawn weed herbicide. If you’re not sure which is best for your grass type, best to ask for the advice from someone at the local hardware or produce store.
If you’re mowing regularly, raise the mower height to let the grass grow a little longer. This will give them more leaf area to photosynthesise and make their own energy that they need to grow.
The exception to the rule is bindii, which you won’t see a lot of yet as it’s just at the start of its growth season. But the little prickle seeds have germinated and are just sitting there waiting to take off.
You’ve got about another month before they change into painful prickly land mines.
Tackling them when they are partly grown is easiest if you want to go with hand removal. But if the problem is too big, you will need to resort to a bindii herbicide. If you leave it too late and they start to form their prickles, then it’s too late to use a herbicide as the bindii will put all its remaining energy into maturing the prickles.
In this case, you’re best off going back to hand removing them. Treat it as a form of horticultural meditation on a Saturday afternoon.
