Weeds popping up early? Heed this advice to mitigate their spread

Weeds. No one likes them, but they’re here.

“We did have a little earlier start to weeds this year,” said Sandy MacDonald, horticultural professor at St. Clair College.

Without realizing it, you may have gotten off to a slow start controlling some of them.

“Super important to get that corn gluten on your lawn before the crab grass started to sprout,” MacDonald warned. “We're passed that window.”

MacDonald said if you see corn gluten on sale right now, grab some for next year.

“It's not only preventing the crab grass from sprouting, but also that's a source of nutrition for the lawn too so you could actually skip your spring fertilizing if you apply corn gluten.”

Some gardeners import pesticides like Round-Up from the U.S. that are banned here and are toxic to humans.

“Read the label, read the label, read the label,” MacDonald said. “That's one of the most important things because the safety is going to be on there. The way you apply it. All that information is there.”

MacDonald added that the banned chemicals could attract grubs, “If you have a lawn that has a mixture of weeds in it, that is less attractive to the beetles when they're laying eggs that will produce the grubs in your lawn.”

The City of Windsor doesn't spray parks with any chemicals, instead relying on more natural practices.

“Mowing to a certain height, fertilizing where possible, and just trying to keep the grass as healthy as it can [be] so that it can help crowd out the weeds,” said James Chacko, executive director of Parks and Facilities.

So how do you keep your lawn looking healthy? For starters, cut high.

“The lower you cut it, the more likely you'll have weed issues and also the more likely you'll have grub issues,” MacDonald said.

Cleaning your blades before mowing a different lawn could help cuts down the number of weeds.

“It's best to clean your deck after. Try to get as much debris out of the bottom. Sharpen the blades,” explained Kyle Couvillon of Couvillon Property Maintenance. “Then when you go to a fresh lawn, you're not cross contaminating the weeds into the new property.”