Firstly it’s important to understand that a weed is just a plant growing in a place you don’t want it. Flowers can be considered weeds if they’re growing in the wrong place! Some people like daisies and other weeds – some are even edible!

Lawn weeds are most commonly daisies or dandelions. There are other plants that inhabit the lawn – clover, buttercups, thistles, ragwort, plantain and many more. If you want a smooth green lawn then you should worry less about identifying them and more about removing them. Many can be weed killed out -but some are best dug up and removed. Dandelions are probably the worst lawn weed as they have a long tap root which is hard to remove intact, it can grow from tiny segments of root, it can flower quickly and below the grass line, and it produces hundreds of seeds per flower. Worst it’s even made itself appealing to young children to get the seeds blown about! It’s also first to stick it’s head up above the grass and make the lawn look untidy.

Some people like having clover, buttercups and daisies in their lawn. It certainly gives it a bit of colour and gives the bees something to visit! If you’re happy living with a more wild lawn then it’s better for the environment and cheaper for you if you don’t use weed killers and just learn to live with the flowers! You could call it your wild flower lawn!

Decide how much time and effort you want to get rid of the weeds. Just regular mowing can really kill of a lot of them – and take out the dandelions by hand using a knife to remove as much tap root as you can. This will give you a better looking lawn. The more often bigger weeds are cut the more energy they waste and they will hopefully get too tired to grow. As a last resort use special lawn weed killers.

Many weed killers require you to water the lawn after application – so make sure you’ve read the instructions carefully.