Common Fall Weeds That Can Invade Your Lawns And Flower Beds

Just when you thought you wouldn’t have to put in any more lawn or garden work for the year, you notice patches of weeds cropping up in clumps all across your lawn and encroaching into your flower beds. Despite the cooler temperatures and the end of summer watering in Louisiana and Mississippi, weeds can still sprout and grow in the fall and even throughout the winter months. Additionally, even if you don’t see any weeds, there might still be weed seeds or sprouts lurking underneath your grass, dormant for now but ready to make their unwelcome appearance as soon as temperatures get warmer in the spring. How can you make sure weeds won’t affect your lawn or flower bed this fall and get a head start on spring weeding? Talk to the experts at TruGreen MidSouth about how our flower and bed maintenance program and weed control applications can help. 

Common Fall Weeds In Louisiana and Mississippi To Watch Out For

Common chickweed
This weed usually spreads out horizontally as it grows, making it appear like a mat or a patch on your lawn or flower bed. Chickweed has long, thin stems, smooth, shiny leaves, and produces small white five-petaled flowers. Even one chickweed sprout on your property can be disastrous, as a single sprout can create up to 30,000 seeds. This weed can also harbor insect pests and disease, making it especially important to remove from your lawn or flower bed. 

Dandelion
We are all familiar with bright yellow dandelions, but did you know that almost 15,000 dandelion seeds are produced by each plant? This weed can pose a big problem if you have some in your lawn or flower bed, but thankfully herbicides are effective for keeping dandelions in check. 

Henbit
Henbit weeds germinate in the fall and sprout over the winter. You can recognize henbit by its characteristic green and purple square-shaped stem and circular toothed leaves. In the springtime, henbit produces tiny red-purple flowers on its topmost leaves. This weed takes advantage of any warm weather during the winter to produce new growth, especially in thin, moist soils. 

Curly dock
Like henbit, curly dock weeds also germinate in the cool, moist fall soil, and then make their appearance in the springtime. Young curly dock leaves are green with red spots and egg-shaped, and gradually become longer, turn reddish-purple in color, and develop wavy edges as the weed grows and gets older. 

Carolina Geranium
This weed has long, branching stems that are usually red and green in color. Its leaves are highly sectioned, hairy, and have blunt edges. In the spring, a Carolina geranium weed will produce small white or pink flowers. If you have dry soil, your lawn or flower bed may be particularly susceptible to this weed.  

Keeping Fall Weeds In Check And Preventing Weeds In Future Seasons

While maintaining a neat flower bed and lawn that is free of weeds usually involves a lot of hard work and stress on your back and knees from weeding, it doesn’t have to. One of the easiest ways to make sure that your lawn and garden aren’t overrun with weeds in the fall season or throughout the year is to use a pre-emergent herbicide treatment. Pre-emergent herbicides work proactively on dormant weeds by keeping them from germinating and stopping a weed problem in the spring and summer before it even starts. 

Call TruGreen MidSouthTo Keep Weeds Out Of Your Lawn and Flower Beds This Fall

If you live in Louisiana or Mississippi and want to keep your lawn and flower beds looking neat and weed-free this fall, call your local weed experts at TruGreen MidSouth. Our flower and bed maintenance program will help to keep weeds from overtaking your garden and stressing your plants, allowing you to simply enjoy your lawn and garden throughout the year without all the hard work usually required for weeding. We offer pre-emergent treatments in the fall and spring to stop dormant weeds from spreading and sprouting, and post-emergent treatments in the summer to kill any visible weeds threatening your garden without doing damage to the plants you love. If you have a commercial property, we also offer a commercial weeding program and other services to help ensure your business looks its best. 

You can visit our website to view all the specifics of our flower and bed maintenance program, as well as our other services for lawn and garden care. Feel free to reach out via our contact form for more information or to get a free quote and project consultation.  For our Louisiana residents, you can give us a call at 225-465-0665. For those customers living in Mississippi, give us a call at 662-330-1330. Connect with us on our Louisiana Facebook page or our Mississippi Facebook page, and be sure to read our monthly blog for more educational articles on lawn and garden care!