Differentiate The Types Of Weed
Having a clean and beautiful lawn and garden is the dream of every gardener. It requires a lot of dedication and hard work to keep your plants and grass healthy since you have to control the invasion of harmful pests and weeds.
If you are a gardener in Canada, there are common weeds that you will likely come across in your lawn and garden. If you don’t control weeds when they are young, they will compete with your plants for nutrients, and you will end up getting low yields.
That’s why we have come up with this weed identification guide to help you identify the most common weeds and also the rare weeds in Canada by appearance. We will also guide you on how to safely eliminate them from your lawn and garden so that you can have a beautiful and clean garden.
Most Common Weeds
1. Crabgrass
Crabgrass is an annual grassy weed that grows on your lawn and garden at the height of about 18 inches. It has fibrous roots, and as the name suggests, it’s a common weed from the grass family. It makes the soil more compact, therefore, interfering with proper drainage.
To control crabgrass, you can mulch, use pre-emergent herbicides or pull by hand the already grown crabgrass in your lawn and garden.
2. Canada thistle
Canada thistle thrive well in soil with low fertility. They have long roots and broad, rough leaves with needles. To control the Canada thistle, you need to improve your soil fertility by adding cover crops which helps in adding organic matter to the soil, and make your lawn more resistant to these opportunistic common weeds invasions.
3. Dandelions
Dandelions is a broad-leaf perennial weed that grows up to 12 inches tall. It has a very strong taproot. You can easily identify it on your lawn because it has yellow flowers which mature to puffballs and deeply notched leaves.
Another feature of these common weeds is that they have parachute-like seeds that are easily blown away by the wind. To control Dandelions, you can pull them by hands, use pre-emergent herbicides, do regular over-seeding and mulching.
4. Garlic Mustard
Garlic Mustard is a perennial broadleaf weed that grows fast, and they can spread to the whole garden if not controlled early enough. They have broad leaves, and they produce white flowers.
To control Garlic Mustard, you can pull them by hand or snip the bud. It’s advisable to pull and uproot everything thoroughly as they can emerge again if not well uprooted.
5. Dodder
The Dodder weed is commonly referred to as the strangle weed because of how it strangles other plants. The host plant grows into a variety of smooth branches which suppresses themselves on other plants, thus, lowering their growth rate.
To control dodder, cut the mother plant completely but carefully to ensure that you don’t allow the seeds to drop in the soil because it spreads by the seeds.
6. Bindweed
Bindweed is one of the common weeds that you will come across in Canada. It’s a broadleaf perennial weed that has arrowhead-shaped leaves and climbs 6 feet and more on other plants.
Bindweed has long deep roots, and it’s one of the hardest weeds to eliminate in your lawn and garden. To control it, cut the host plant to remove the root system and use post-emergence herbicide.
7. Ragweed and Black Medic Rare Weeds
Ragweed is a soft-stemmed and upright weed that spreads widely and produces a huge amount of pollen. This weed is very harmful to individuals with allergies. To control ragweed, you can pull it by hand or use any broadleaf weed killer.
Ragweed is common on lawns with low organic matters, and by adding compost to your garden soil, you can control the growth of this weed.
Black medic is an annual summer weed that grows at a low range and produces yellow flowers. You will likely come across these common weeds along the sidewalks, driveways, and roadsides. To control black medic, ensure that you aerate your lawn frequently and add compost to improve the soil structure.
8. Clover and Common Mallow Weeds
Clover is a perennial weed, and it’s one of the common weeds in Canada. To control clover, you need to ensure that you regularly feed your lawn. You should also over-seed to ensure there are no empty spaces on your lawn and garden where clover weeds can thrive.
You can also use post-emergence herbicide or allow your grass to grow taller to cover them and prevent these weeds from accessing the sunlight.
Common mallow weeds are common in lawns, gardens and newly cultivated fields. They are easy to control when identified at early stages of growth. You can pull them by hand when they are still young or use herbicides to manage them.
But are all weeds bad? That is a question that has continued to draw mixed opinions from different quarters. Many gardeners also don’t know the difference between various common weeds.
Weeds are the number one enemy of good gardening practice. To properly control both common and rare weeds, ensure that you have identified them at their early stages and use the appropriate method to eliminate them so that you can have a fresh and stunning lawn and garden free from weeds. Another important thing that you should know is to know what is the difference between weeds. Both the most common weeds and the rare weeds in your garden.