Where did the weeds come from?

Lawn Is Filled With Weeds

You've recently spent a lot of money on that beautiful new roll-on lawn, you spent time laying out your gardens, spent time investigating the right lawn for yourself and your area, cared for it, loved it...... and now it's full of weeds !!!

And you're not happy.

The very first thought is to blame the turf grower, and really, when you think about it, who else could be blamed, its a brand new lawn, you looked after it perfectly, the weeds must have come in the lawn when it was supplied.

So you get on the phone to the grower, demanding answers. His response is to send out someone to investigate, and this article covers exactly the process of discovering where those weeds came from.

The Turf Farm

First up, lets look at the turf farm and the growers.

The turf farm is usually a very large open space that is easily farmed, with the purpose that the lawn is easily seeded or planted, cared for, and then removed for sale and transplantation in it's new home.

The grower makes his living from growing turf, the business was expensive to start, and has very high overheads, and with a lot of competition. He simply cannot risk his reputation, his livelihood and massive investment are at risk after all.

So in all areas of his business, he must work to a high standard, producing a good quality product, in good condition at all times. He would be crazy to do otherwise, and why would he?

Taking this into consideration, we can easily understand, that the turf grower will do everything possible to ensure the quality of his product, including that it is weed free.

So in almost every possible case, the turf grower, and the turf farm can be ruled out of the equation in finding answers.

Finding The Source

Nearby Weeds
Lets start by having a look around the property, after all, the weeds came from seeds, so we look for a source of those weed seeds.

Look around your own property, look at neighbouring properties, looking for weeds that are similar to your own. Is there a nearby property that often leaves its weeds to grow between cuts? If so, then they are likely producing seeds that are being carried onto your property by the wind, on the fur of animals, by birds, or the clothes of people.

Is this your source?

An Underlying Weed Problem
Next, we must consider what was at the property before you put down the nice new lawn.

Was there weeds in the area before the lawn went down? Was the previous lawn weedy, was the area neglected, or left as sand or bare soil for a long period?

If so, then the soil underneath your lawn is likely full of weed seeds.

You see, weed seeds can spend years in soil before they germinate, sometimes only germinating a certain percentage each year, this is a survival mechanism for the weed. By germinating only a percentage of it's seeds each year, the weed species carries its possible risk of dying from bad conditions over many years. Because even if there is a few bad years running when the weeds don't survive, there will generally be a good year when the species will thrive.

When we put down our beautiful new lawn, and cared for it with lots of water, and lots of fertiliser, we just made conditions PERFECT for the majority of weed seeds to switch on and THRIVE under optimum conditions.

Minor Infestations

These are just a combination of either of the two reasons discussed already. The fact is, if we have lawns and gardens, we will always have weeds, and they will always need to be controlled.

The best way to handle them is to take them out as soon as they are seen.