Crowd out weeds
Healthy lawns are less susceptible to weed problems. Overseeding your lawn every fall keeps your grass thick and chokes out weeds.
If you have unknown weeds visit Weed Identification to help you learn more about what species you have.
A healthy lawn is a happy lawn
Healthy lawns are less likely to suffer from weed infestation and will recover quickly from damage. Vigorously growing lawns will fill in thinned areas caused by foot traffic, pets and other types of damage.
If bare patches do not fill in quickly, weeds may invade these open spaces.
Overseeding
Applying a light rate grass seed can ensure that your lawn will stay thick and healthy. Overseeding can also be done to introduce a new variety of grass to the lawn.
The best time to overseed is in the early fall, and ideally in combination with top dressing using compost or topsoil.
Grass 101
The most common grass species found in Edmonton lawns are Kentucky bluegrass and red fescue. Most of the varieties of grass seed available at your local garden centre is suited for our climate.
Please note that Kentucky bluegrass prefers high light and fertility levels, while red fescue will do better in low light and fertility conditions.
- Grass leaves, or blades, extend into a sheath in their lower parts and wrap around the plant stem.
- The stem and blades rise from a crown located near the soil surface, and is where the growth takes place. This growing from the base, and not from the ends of the shoots, lets grass recover from mowing.
Grass can recover from losing roots, leaves or stems, but not from the death of its crown. - A dense and deep root system is important to support top growth in grass. Grasses reproduce by seed and by using stolons (aboveground lateral stems), or rhizomes (underground lateral stems).
They also form new shoots, known as tillers, that are attached to the original plant and add fullness to the lawn.
Source: Lawn Ecology brochure, Lawn Maintenance brochure, Health Canada, 2002.