Stop the Creeping Weeds

Post-holiday season lawn care

Summer holidays can be brutal on lawns. Lots of happy active feet and paws, backyard parties and temperature extremes can all add to a lawns stress levels, to leave it looking patchy and weary. Most of the cool-season grass types popular in NZ aren't at their best in the heat of summer; they prefer the growing conditions in autumn and spring.

Weeds are opportunistic and will invade a lawn when it’s down! Weeds often creep into lawns during summer if the lawn has been under heat or drought stress, or even if it's had too much rainfall.

Broadleaf weeds like dandelions, capeweed, plantain and thistles will start to pop up, particularly in bare spots - they're an open invitation to weeds. Yates Weed'n'Feed is a quick and easy hose-on solution for broadleaf weeds. Yates Weed’n’Feed has added surfactant to aid spray coverage and weed penetration and contains nutrients to give the lawn a quick green up. Just what the lawn needs at the end of a long hot summer!

Make sure you get the weeds under control before they have a chance to flower and set seed, as this will create multiple future generations of weeds. In the case of Onehunga Weed, you need to kill it before it flowers to stop the prickles from forming. If you have prickles in your lawn this February, an application of our Yates Prickle Weedkiller in early spring will prevent them for next summer.

There are a few tricky and invasive weeds that you'll need to call in the big guns for - native hydrocotyle (Hydrocotyle moschata is pictured below) and creeping oxalis are examples. To get on top of persistent weeds, choose Yates Hydrocotyle Killer for the job.

Hot weather means 'apply with caution'

There is a big 'watch-out' with all lawn weedkilling products: highly stressed lawns are vulnerable to damage from selective weedkillers. This is why weedkiller labels include warnings not to apply in high temperatures, or in the full heat of the afternoon. If lawns are already struggling from moisture stress or drought, they can show a dramatic response to even the most benign lawn products. If you plan to control lawn weeds in the hottest parts of the year, we recommend watering deeply and regularly for two weeks before applying a selective weedkiller. This greatly reduces the environmental stress on the lawn and sidesteps the risk of damage. Applying a stress-buster like Yates Thrive Natural Seaweed Tonic is also a great idea; if you apply it with a watering can 2 weeks before you apply your weedkiller, it helps reduce the stress on the grass and makes the lawn more resilient.

Along with the weeds, if your lawn has been dying off in patches it might indicate a grass grub infestation. If you've seen birds pecking at the lawn, it's fairly certain grubs will be present. Because grass grubs cause more damage as they get bigger (and their appetites increase) early season symptoms may not be obvious during spring and early summer. However, when the lawn transitions into autumn the damage will turn into very obvious bare patches of dead grass. Check out Yates Lawn Grub & Porina Kill + Protect for an easy solution to this destructive pest.