4 Things to Know Before Killing Weeds In Your Lawn

At some point, all of us learned that common weeds (looking at you, dandelions) are the enemy. It’s simple to view weeds as a nuisance and assume you have to get rid of them all to have a beautiful garden. Turns out, there’s more to the story.

Are all weeds created equal, and should we break our backs to rid our yards of all of them with equal fervor? The answer is maybe not.

You don’t want your lawn completely overrun by weeds, but not all weeds are that bad for your lawn, and oftentimes, removing them can do more harm than good. 

We break down a few things to know before removing weeds from your lawn and garden.

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Not All Weeds Are Created Equal

It’s important to assess what kind of weed is sneaking in and around your green grass. Some weeds can be detrimental to your lawn, like crabgrass and quackgrass, which fight your planted grass for water and other nutrients.

There are plenty of different kinds of plants out there that we call weeds. There are broadleaf weeds, like dandelion and clover, grassy weeds like crabgrass and foxtail, sedge weeds like nutsedge and kyllinga, woody weeds like poison ivy and blackberry, aquatic weeds like duckweed and water hyacinth, and so many more.

But, other weeds can actually enrich the soil, like clover, which gives soil more nitrogen and helps your grass grow stronger. Dandelions are also a pretty happy weed to have on your lawn—they have taproots that bring nutrients from deeper in the ground to the surface.

Biodiversity Is Better

Having multiple plants in your lawn can make it more resilient to pests, diseases, and other stressors like heat and drought. Weeds can also help feed and house insects and pollinators in ways typical grass might not be able to.

For instance, bees aren’t interested in pain old grass, but they love dandelions.

Make Friends With Certain Weeds

Companion planting is the practice of growing plants close to each other so they can protect each other from pests or support and enhance the other plant’s growth—and it really works.

Weeds can sometimes work as companion plants to your lawn, like yarrow, which is pretty pest-resilient and might make the plants around it more resistant to disease.

Weeds Could Send Signals of Healthy Soil 

Beyond deciding whether to put in the work to kill the weeds or not, weeds can give us a good look into what’s going on underneath your lawn. For instance, if you have dandelions thriving across your lawn, you might have compacted soil.

Clover, on the other hand, might indicate that your soil doesn’t have enough nitrogen in it. You can use this to help ensure your lawn is getting all the care it needs and taking some corrective steps.