No matter where you go in the United States, weeds are often cited as homeowners’ number one gripe. Lawn weeds are a major frustration that can really detract from the overall appearance of a healthy lawn.
While weeds are common everywhere, they are especially problematic here in North Mississippi. The Mississippi climate provides the ideal conditions for weed pressure: Heat, humidity, and a long growing season.
For that reason, there is rarely a time when weeds aren’t causing trouble.
To address this problem head-on, weed control in North Mississippi is imperative. You want to make sure you’re taking a smart approach to dealing with stubborn offenders.
In this comprehensive guide, we will cover everything that you need to know about professional weed control so that you can get a strong handle on your weedy woes. With the right tactics, you can get back to enjoying your lawn to the fullest.
When it comes to hiring a lawn care company, there are going to be names that you know simply because they’re big, national companies. These companies have major marketing dollars behind them and have become “household names.”
But just because you know a company by name does not mean that it’s going to be optimally suited to caring for your lawn or taking care of your weed problems.
Let’s talk a bit about the differences between locally-owned and operated lawn care companies vs. national chains.
Many national companies are part of a franchise system, meaning that even though they have a local branch, they also have locations throughout the country. Some of these companies have a prescribed way of doing things. They are following systems and processes over and over again, as dictated by the national brand.
While that can work, there are often many lawns and situations that require a customized approach. It’s important to ensure the company remains adaptable to the local region and specific circumstances.
One of the big benefits of hiring a lawn care company local to North Mississippi is that you are truly getting a localized approach, including expertise in the region-specific climate.
It’s also nice to know that when you call the company, you’re getting someone local. Sometimes, national lawn care companies might have one of their locations here, but when you call, you might be working through a national call center. That can be a big difference when it comes to receiving personalized service.
Any time that you’re considering paying for a service, you are likely compelled to consider whether it’s “worth it.” While it’s true that you could try to tackle weeds on your own, it’s often a lot more complicated than people realize.
Homemade concoctions and approaches (like boiling water or vinegar) simply aren’t highly effective. The weed might shrivel up on top, but that won’t get the root. DIY weed-control methods like vinegar and torching can also kill the surrounding grass. That can cause a lot more trouble for you.
Even store-bought products aren’t all that they’re cracked up to be. While it’s true that they sell broadleaf herbicide and other types of weed killers at the hardware store, you want access to not only commercial-grade products but also the expertise that comes with hiring a pro.
To get the best results, your best bet is professional weed control services.
Plus, don’t forget that your time is valuable. Hiring a lawn care company means taking these tasks off your plate. That frees up precious time on your weekends to spend time with family and friends.
If you have weeds, your immediate focus will be on getting rid of them. That’s going to involve the use of effective weed-killing products.
Going forward, the focus should be on prevention whenever possible. For that approach, proper weed control schedules will be key. You’ll need to shift your focus to attacking weeds BEFORE they germinate.
Preventing weeds in the first place is a lot more powerful than trying to play catch-up after they’ve already sprouted.
When it comes to preventing weeds, pre-emergent controls are a powerful tool in your arsenal. Whereas post-emergent controls attack weeds that are already growing, pre-emergents help prevent them from germinating.
Both are important. While we would love to use pre-emergent on everything (after all, prevention is always the best course of action), no pre-emergent works on all weed varieties. Many weed types must be addressed post-emergently, and there are even some that require specialized controls.
Plus, even when you apply pre-emergents at the right time, there are often weed breakthroughs that can’t be avoided. Physical disturbances like mowing, foot traffic, and even weather can cause breaks in the pre-emergent barrier. Post-emergent controls can help knock down any breakthrough weeds.
We know that weed control schedules can get confusing. But using the wrong weed-control approach is a common reason weeds keep coming back. This is a key reason why deferring to an expert will deliver the best results.
It’s not that pre-emergent weed control is better, as all different types of weed killers are both necessary and have a vital role in an effective weed control plan. However, when possible, it’s always optimal to be proactive and prevent weeds with pre-emergent controls.
Certain grassy weeds, such as crabgrass, can get out of hand quickly if preventive measures are not taken.
No matter what, you can’t go all-in on just one type of weed control product. To achieve the most success, your weed control program needs to be varied. After all, we have many different types of weeds here in North Mississippi. Our climate makes weed problems highly prevalent.
The idea is to apply pre-emergent products before these weeds germinate. This is based on soil temperatures warming up. Since we tend to have early warm spells here in North Mississippi, we take a two-layer approach to be highly proactive.
At Lawn & Pest Solutions, we apply pre-emergent in the January/February time frame and again in late March/early April.
While crabgrass prevention is the optimal strategy, every year, people call us and weeds like crabgrass have already germinated and are growing. We know you might be wondering if it’s too late…but we can still help.
Even if weeds like crabgrass are already growing, we’ll help you attack them right away. While we may not get it as clean as we’d like in the first year (since we only treated it post-emergently), we still don't want you to wait a full season to tackle these menaces.
The more you let weeds get out of control, the harder they are to address later (and the more frustrated you’ll be in the meantime).
We know that keeping up with what needs to be done (and when it needs to be done) can feel like a chore. But when you choose professional lawn care, you’re able to let go of that burden.
Knowing what’s growing in your lawn is going to be important when it comes to tackling your weed problem. Identification is always a big first step. As we’ve mentioned, different weeds need to be controlled in different ways. Some even require specialized control.
A common weed control mistake is failing to use the correct product for the weeds present. If you aren’t taking a varied approach (tailored to what’s growing), you simply won't see maximum success.
Unfortunately, there are many common lawn weeds in North Mississippi. These include weeds that look like grass (crabgrass, dallisgrass, and nutgrass), as well as other weeds.
While there are dozens that can pop up, here are the five that we hear the most gripes about, largely because they spread like crazy and are difficult to kill.
Often mistaken for crabgrass, dallisgrass grows in clumps and has thick, coarse leaves with seed heads that look like they’ve been dusted with pepper. It begins to grow in the late spring and can persist through the fall.
One reason it is hard to control is that dallisgrass spreads via rhizomes and seeds, returning year after year. It loves moist, compacted soil and lawns that are cut too short. Dallisgrass also resists many standard pre-emergents, so post-emergent treatments will be necessary.
Nutgrass, aka “nutsedge,” is another weed commonly found in our region.
Though it looks like a grassy weed (and is commonly misidentified sometimes as crabgrass), nutgrass is a perennial weed that is actually part of the sedge family. Sedge weeds tend to be aggressive weeds, and it’s no different with nutsedge.
Nutgrass is resistant to most weed-control products and requires specialized control measures.
We can use these specialty controls to specifically target nutgrass without harming the rest of your lawn. It’s not uncommon for this to require repeated applications and for nutsedge to return in future years. It’s one of those tough-to-control weeds that can be frustrating, so it will take patience and diligence.
Overwatering can also make this weed spread like crazy, so be cautious if you have already identified this weed.
Buttonweed is another rapidly spreading weed. This one can grow flat and form dense mats. It is commonly identified by its thick, lance-shaped leaves and star-shaped white flowers.
This weed spreads through rhizomes and fragments left after mowing. It tolerates low mowing and quickly overtakes thin areas. There is no effective preventive treatment, and overwatering can cause it to spread rapidly.
Buttonweed is considered highly frustrating because it is so difficult to control. It often requires repeated, targeted applications. Since it thrives in wet, compacted soils, improving turf conditions can help improve control.
Annual bluegrass, aka poa annua, is a light green, soft grass with fine blades and boat-shaped tips. It grows in tufts and has small white seed heads.
Annual bluegrass competes well in thin or overwatered lawns, especially in shaded areas.
You might be surprised to see Bermudagrass on this list of common lawn weeds in North Mississippi, as it’s a great turfgrass…as long as that's what you want it for.
The downside is that it outcompetes many grasses and will start to grow in areas where you don’t want it at all (like flower beds, cracks in the concrete, and more). Since a weed is any undesired plant that you aren’t intentionally growing, Bermudagrass can be a weed!
It is heat-loving, drought-tolerant, and an aggressive spreader. And once it reaches a non-Bermuda lawn, it competes heavily with the desired grass. That means if your neighbor has Bermuda, and you don’t, you could have some problems.
When it comes to getting rid of weeds, it’s tempting to get out there and start pulling them. But sometimes this can actually cause more trouble for you.
We’ll explain why professional weed control involves trusting the process, not just pulling the weeds you see pop up.
Hand-pulling weeds can sometimes be a quick and effective way to get rid of weeds. The problem is that some weeds respond to hand-pulling by stimulating new growth.
Certain weeds, like nutgrass, will spread when pulled. That’s because nutgrass (aka nutsedge) grows via underground tubers and nutlets. When a weed can stimulate dormant underground tubers to sprout and spread!
That means pulling weeds can actually lead to even more weeds!
In addition to stimulating growth, pulling weeds can also spread their seeds, creating even more weeds than before. Some might compare weed pulling to sweeping up glitter. It never goes away.
Jostling and disturbing weeds when you pull them can spray seeds into the air.
In fact, the slightest disturbance of a weed can cause thousands of seeds to fly all over your lawn. Whether that disturbance comes from you mowing, the wind blowing, or even a bird walking, the seeds are being spread. Sometimes you can even wake up dormant weed seeds by digging in the ground to remove or plant new material.
Dormant weed seeds lurking in your soil are among the biggest challenges to long-term weed control.
So you didn’t hand-pull weeds initially; you had them sprayed. But now you’re wondering why they’re still there. Do you need to remove them after spraying?
It’s important to understand that spraying weeds isn’t an instant solution. The translocation process can take a few days to even several weeks, depending on the type of weed and the product that was used. You want to make sure the product has translocated throughout the entire weed before you do anything.
If you pull weeds after spraying, you risk tearing them too soon, before the product has had a chance to kill the entire plant.
It’s really best to leave weeds alone after they’ve been treated. They’ll get mowed down and will eventually shrivel up.
Weed control in North Mississippi is a year-round endeavor. Because of our climate and our mild winters, we never truly get a break from weeds. Different seasons even bring different invaders. But with the right weed control schedules, you can get a handle on weeds year-round.
The key is taking the right steps throughout the year to maintain a weed-free lawn.
It’s not just spraying weeds that counts here. It’s also the steps you take to promote a thick, healthy lawn that naturally chokes out invaders. Lawn fertilization and weed control go hand in hand, as a thick, well-fertilized lawn is tough for weeds to grow in.
One time of the year that tends to get overlooked for weed control in North Mississippi is the winter. But winter weed control is just as important!
Yes, many weeds survive winter in the South, including winter annual weeds such as henbit, chickweed, and oxalis. Our mild winter temperatures (with warmer days mixed in) and winter rains make winter weeds not only possible but common.
There are also some weed types that survive year-round, including perennials such as dandelions, nutsedge, and clover.
Many of these weed types have deep roots that help them to store energy and survive tough conditions. That’s why you can mow down these weeds, and they’ll just keep coming back.
Yes, weeds can be treated in the winter. Here at Lawn & Pest Solutions, we basically treat weeds 12 months out of the year.
A big difference in our lawn care program is that we will always treat weeds as soon as we see them, rather than making the customer wait for a pre-scheduled post-emergent application.
If it can be treated today, it will be treated today!
That’s our approach, and it’s one of the ways that we aim to stay ahead in the battle against weeds.
Good cultural practices, such as mowing at an appropriate height and watering well, are important steps in controlling weeds. Anything you do to promote thick, healthy turf will also naturally choke out weeds. That’s why we view our relationship with homeowners as a partnership. You also play a vital role in effective weed control.
You might think Mother Nature provides enough moisture for your lawn, but that’s not always the case. Water is essential to your lawn’s overall performance and vigor. Your lawn needs water for optimal thickness and health, making this an essential lawn-care practice.
A lawn that is improperly watered will face more weed pressure. As grass thins or dies due to insufficient water, weeds will creep in.
To water correctly, add about 2 inches of water weekly. When the weather doesn’t deliver what your lawn needs, you need to add water with an irrigation system or some other supplemental watering.
Of course, you do not want to overwater the lawn, either. Providing too much water can cause the soil to become waterlogged, drowning the roots. Make sure that you’re putting down the proper amount.
Mowing is one of those lawn care tasks that seems like a no-brainer, but there are various ways that things can go wrong.
The mowing mistakes you can make can add up. You can mow to the wrong height, mow at the wrong frequency, and use unmaintained mowing equipment with unsharpened mower blades. Each of these can be taxing on the grass, causing it to thin out. Couple that with heat stress, and your lawn can really suffer.
Weeds will gladly take this opportunity to creep in.
Weeds like those discussed in this guide can be a major source of frustration. If you’ve already been dealing with weeds for a while now, you might be feeling as though nothing you’ve tried has worked. Weed control can sometimes feel like an endless cycle.
But instead of taking on the hassles and headaches of weed control on your own, let a pro handle it for you.
When you have a professional eye on your property who can immediately recognize common lawn weeds in North Mississippi and know how to address them, you can keep weeds in check before they get out of hand.
Hiring a pro will also allow you to reclaim your weekend and get back to enjoying your lawn. As you begin to see weeds fade, your lawn will no longer be a source of stress but a place to enjoy family memories.
If you’ve already searched for lawn care in Tupelo, Oxford or New Albany, MS, you know you have options. But it’s important that you choose wisely if you’re serious about getting the best control.
At Lawn & Pest Solutions, we’re here to help. We know homeowners can become frustrated with lawn care companies if they’ve had past struggles. But we’ve built our company to be different.
We bring years of lawn care experience and can help you solve your lawn care issues quickly and smoothly, so you can enjoy your lawn instead of constantly thinking about how to fight weeds.
Want to improve your lawn’s health and create a thicker, greener lawn that is more resistant to weeds? Lawn & Pest Solutions can help you with lawn care in North Mississippi. Get started today with a free quote. Together, we’ll customize a plan that gives you the most attractive lawn on the block.
Image Sources | Dallisgrass, Buttonweed, Annual Bluegrass, Bermudagrass