Weed control options for your lawn

SALT LAKE CITY – Weeds can be hard to maintain when they’re all over our lawns. But the KSL Greenhouse hosts, Taun Benes and Maria Shilaos have some options for weed control.

First, a healthy lawn needs an application of fertilizer at least once or twice a year. Additionally, you may need to use a weed killer occasionally.

“To avoid that as much as possible, you’re going to look at the lawn health and look at the mowing … You don’t want to mow more than about a half of an inch off of the lawn because that really stresses the grass,” Taun said.

It helps to create a to-do list.

“You’ve got this checklist of things that if you’ll do and your irrigation’s correct, you actually will need to fertilize less and use far fewer weed killers because your lawn is so healthy. That’s what we’re going for,” Taun said.

However, you will likely have to use herbicides to get there. For example, there are pre-emergent herbicides, such as Barricade, Dimension, and Preen. These will prevent things like crabgrass, foxtail, spurge, black medic, and more from growing in your lawn.

There are times when we forget to manage these weeds on our lawn, and depending on the weed, that’s okay.

For example, Taun isn’t too concerned about the dandelions all over his lawn. They offer a source for spring’s pollinating insects.

“I will go out and get rid of them, but I’ll let them flower first… When they’re done flowering I can spray,” Taun said.

Listen to the full segment on our podcast below!

The KSL Greenhouse is heard every Saturday from 8 a.m.-11 a.m. You can follow the show on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, and on our website.