As soon as the weather starts warming up in the spring, you may have noticed bright yellow flowers scattered in your yard indicating that the dandelions have started to flourish. If you dread the thought of seeing these unsightly weeds taking over your lawn, use the following tips for keeping them from spreading.
1. Keep Your Yard Mowed
One effective way of preventing the spread of dandelions in your yard is to keep them from ever going to seed. If they are unable to for their seed ball after flowering, their numbers will be unable to multiply.
To keep the weeds from making seeds, be diligent about keeping your yard mowed. Keeping the plants cut down can help keep them from flowering and producing the seeds necessary to spread.
2. Carefully Remove Any Seed Balls
Even if you mow your lawn once or twice a week, the dandelion plants may still grow fast enough to produce their signature seed ball. You may even see them spring up overnight, especially when the weather is cool and moist.
When you see these seed balls, you can still keep them from flying in the wind by removing them. However, this will have to be done carefully, as the slightest touch or breath can shake them loose.
To minimize the risk of the having the seeds fly off, douse them with a glass of water. The water will saturate the seeds and add weight to them, making it difficult for them to float in the air. Once you have poured water on them, remove the seed balls by the base of their stems.
3. Dig up the Plants
If you are having problems keeping up with mowing your lawn and cutting down the seed balls, you can remove the plant entirely by digging up the plants. However, if you decide to dig them up, make sure you go deep enough into the soil to remove the entire taproot since even a small portion left behind can produce a new plant.
When you go to dig up a plant, push a long garden knife into the soil next to the base of the foliage. Then, cut the soil around the plant before pulling weed straight up.
After you have removed most of the plant, check to make sure the tap root is intact. If not, dig deeper into the soil to retrieve the rest of it.
While the above tips can help you control the spread of dandelion plants throughout your yard, you may find it difficult to keep up with the workload by yourself. Contact a residential landscaping company that provides lawn care services to discuss your options for getting their help with keeping your yard manicured and free from dandelions.
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