Kitchen Garden Forum

You can see that some lawn weeds are flat to the ground and when you remove them by cutting the root you leave a bare patch about 3" dia. This is normally dressed, reseeded etc then you have towatch you dont suck up the seeds with the mower.

Tip,

Take a 3"pot carrying tray which GC's sometimes give away and fill it with compost to depth that hold the pots at the base. Sow grass seed which will quickly make 'plugs'. when you cut away these flat weeds in the lawn, replace with a grass plug, Good as new!!

Well done Vegman, i love these clever little tips.

Hi Vegman,
I use common salt to remove Thistles and Dandelions from my lawn. Half a teaspoon on the centre of these Thistles, that are flat in the lawn, and the salt travels straight down the tap root and the same for Dandelions and they are dead almost overnight. Once they are dead they come up when you mow if you use a rotary otherwise you may have to go round clearing them.
JB.

Hi Johnboy,

Does salt work on weeds that dont have a large tap root? I have the odd plantain and one or two I cant name that spring up which all have fibrous root systems and wide flat leaves. its these especially that leave quite a large area of non grass when removed.

I dont like using weedkiller especially on the lawn so Ill try the salt method thanks, very much.

Hi Vegman,
To be quite honest I do not know is the answer. I do not have plantains in this area or at least not in my lawn so have never tried it. I feel that a small experiment with half a teaspoon of salt will not do any harm so have a crack at it and please report back your findings.
Regards,
JB.

When I was a boy I had 4 tortoises and they used to love eating the plantain in my parents' lawn. I never tried adding a little salt for taste though.

Barney