How To Identify The Weeds In Your Seattle Yard
Your garden and lawn are probably a point of pride for you. You work hard to keep your lawn lush and green and your flower and vegetable gardens healthy and blooming. Weeds that make their way into the garden can be a real irritation. It seems like they come out of nowhere and in a way, some of them do. The wind blows the tiny seed heads and they plop right down into your fresh, fertile garden soil and make themselves at home. Sometimes, it helps to be able to identify what weeds are growing in your garden and lawn. The folks at Greenwood Hardware will help you take care of the rest once you know what you are dealing with.
Bittercress—This little lawn invader may look pretty at first sight, but it doesn’t take long before the weed spreads out and infiltrates a lawn. You will see little white flowers at the top of each of the hairy stalks. Your best bet to tackle this pesky weed is in the fall with an herbicide. During the spring, it has already set over winter and the standard herbicides are no match for it.
Bull Thistle—You are probably familiar with thistle weed. This is another variety that is extremely common and prolific in the Northwest. The Bull Thistle is obnoxious, but this particular variety isn’t classified as a noxious weed in King County, unlike its cousin Milk Thistle. Bull Thistle is about 2 to 3 feet tall, has pink flowers on the top and has little spindly hairs around the seed head. It can grow almost anywhere, as most weeds do. Your best bet is manual removal. You will need a shovel to remove full size plants.
Mouse Ear Chickweed – This is another invader of lawns. It is similar to standard chickweed and is a ground loving plant that will spread out across a lawn. It produces small white flowers that the bees just love. It is a tough one to get rid of and will just keep spreading each time the lawn is mowed. It thrives in cool, moist areas. Those bare spots in your lawn are an invitation for chickweed. An herbicide can be applied directly to the weed to get rid of it.
Pearlwort—The moist of the Pacific Northwest makes for a prime growing condition for Pearlwort. The weed looks like moss and tends to cover gravel areas that are in the shade. It is also an invader of potted plants and flowers. Some people use the weed to their advantage to help soften the look of a rocky area. If you would rather not have Pearlwort covering the rocks in your landscaping, it is easiest to manually pull the weed up. If you have a large section that is covered, you may want to use a rake or shovel to remove it.
If you need gloves, herbicide, shovels or rakes to help control the weed population in your landscaping, head to Greenwood Hardware to pick up everything you need to get ahead of the weeds. And if you have questions, we are here for you. Come on in, or contact us online.