Stop pesky plants from ruining your garden party with this guide to identifying and removing common weeds.
Andrea Beck was BHG’s horticultural editor and her work has appeared in Food & Wine, Martha Stewart, MyRecipes and other publications.
A weed can be any plant that grows where you don’t want it to grow. However, there are some particularly weedy species to watch out for. Not only will these invasive plants pollute your yard, they can also kill your hard-earned garden plants. Whether you’re looking to identify lawn or garden weeds, this handy guide will help you identify over 30 common weeds with photos and give you tips on how best to get rid of them.
Appearance: This common lawn weed has a long taproot and deeply grooved leaves. Yellow flowers turn into fluff balls. Dandelion seeds act like wind-blown parachutes, helping them penetrate new spaces in lawns and flower beds.
Weed Control Tip: Mulch to keep dandelions out of your garden. Hand-pull dandelion weeds or treat the lawn with a broadleaf herbicide that won’t kill the grass.
Appearance: This garden weed has light green leaves slightly reminiscent of clover and yellow cupped flowers in summer and fall.
Weed control tips: Mulch garden areas in the spring to keep weeds at bay. Pull sorrel by hand or spray weeds with a broadleaf herbicide in spring or fall.
Appearance: Crabgrass is exactly what the name suggests: a weed. This lawn weed takes root wherever the stem comes into contact with the soil. The seed head is spread out like four fingers.
Control: When growing in pavement cracks or other areas where no other vegetation grows, use a pre-emergence weed preventer to stop seed germination, pull weeds by hand, or apply a non-selective herbicide topically.
Appearance: Identify this garden weed by the arrow-shaped leaves on its climbing vines. Convolvulus also produces white to pale pink ipomoea-shaped flowers.
Control Measures: Mulch your garden to prevent bindweed. Repeated uprooting or cutting of growing bindweed plants and/or topical application with non-selective herbicides designed to kill roots, not just aboveground shoots.
Appearance: White clover leaves with three leaflets and round clusters of white flowers. The plants quickly spread outward, forming a dense carpet of leaves.
Control measures: Mulch beds to prevent white clover from growing in landscaped areas. Use an iron-based herbicide to remove clover growing in your lawn or dig up weeds in garden beds.
Gardening Tip: Clover adds nitrogen to the soil and its flowers serve as food for many pollinators, which is why some gardeners use this plant for lawn landscaping.
Appearance: Nutsedge has slender herbaceous stems, triangular stems and small nut-like tubers on the root system. When present in the lawn, these weeds usually grow faster than lawn grass, so they are easy to spot.
Control measures: Mulch garden areas in spring to prevent iron sedge. Plants are easy to uproot by hand, but repeated weeding is required to eliminate infestation. Various herbicides are designed to be used on lawn iron sedge, but it is important to use the correct herbicide for the type of lawn grass you have to use so as not to damage it.
Appearance: Identify this lawn weed and groundcover by its fan-shaped leaves, stolons, and clusters of purple flowers in late spring.
Control measures: Mulch garden areas in spring to prevent creeping Charlie. In spring or fall, uproot by hand or spray with a post-emergence herbicide.
Control: Mulch your garden to prevent goats. Pull weeds by hand or use a post-emergence herbicide.
Appearance: When you’re looking for weeds in your garden, if you notice broad, flat, oval leaves arranged in low rosettes, you’ve probably found psyllium.
Control measures: Mulch to prevent plantain growth in the garden. Pull these weeds out by hand or use a post-emergence herbicide on the lawn.
Appearance: Daytime flowers develop dark green leaves on stems and bright blue flowers throughout the summer.
Control measures: Mulch the garden to prevent weeds, or use a pre-emergence herbicide in the spring. Pull weeds by hand or apply a topical treatment with a non-selective herbicide.
Appearance: Identify this weedy groundcover by its fleshy dark green leaves and small yellow flowers at the ends of the stems.
Control measures: Mulch your garden to prevent purslane, or use a pre-emergence herbicide in the spring. Pull plants by hand or apply topically with a non-selective herbicide.
Appearance: Velvetleaf is named for its large, soft, heart-shaped leaves up to 10 inches across. This weed produces yellow flowers in summer.
Weed control: Mulch your garden to prevent leaf fluffiness, or use a pre-emergence herbicide in the spring. Pull up existing plants by hand or use a post-emergence herbicide.
Control measures: Mulch beds in spring to prevent wild violets. In spring or fall, pull weeds by hand or spray with a broadleaf herbicide.
Appearance: Identify garden weeds such as Japanese Sophora by their lanceolate leaves often marked with purple chevrons. It is an upright plant with pink or white flowers in summer and autumn.
Control measures: To prevent this weed, mulch the beds in the spring. Pull plants by hand or use herbicides.
Test garden tip: This weed is native to North America. Unlike many exotic weeds, it supports native wildlife.
Control Measures: In the spring, use mulch or a pre-emergence herbicide to keep weeds at bay. If the plants are growing, pull them by hand.
Appearance: Hogweed is a tall plant with a tap root. Identify weeds by their shaggy clusters of green flowers (although some varieties are annuals).
Control measures: Mulch garden areas in spring to prevent hogweed, or use a pre-emergence herbicide in spring. Pull weeds by hand or spray herbicides.
Control Measures: Mulch your garden to keep it out of landscaped areas. Use a broadleaf herbicide on your lawn in spring or fall, or dig up weeds by hand (wear thick gloves to avoid thorns).
Tip for a trial garden: Thistles have an extensive root system that can grow several feet from the main plant.
Appearance: Knotweed is an invasive groundcover with rare blue-green leaves on long stems.
Control: Avoid knotweed with a deep mulch or use a pre-emergence herbicide in the spring. After the plants have grown, pluck them by hand or treat them topically with a non-selective herbicide.
Appearance: Identify this garden weed by its light green leaves, white buds and dark purple berries.
Control: Prevent sprouting of treat seeds with a deep mulch. After the plants have grown, pluck them by hand or treat them topically with herbicides.
Appearance: Poison ivy can be a vine, shrub, or groundcover. The leaves of this weed are divided into three leaflets and form clusters of green berries.
Control Measures: Prevent poison ivy with a deep mulch. If weeds begin to grow in your area, treat it topically with a herbicide or wrap your hands in a plastic bag, uproot the plant, carefully wrap the plastic bag around the plant, seal and discard.
Trial Garden Tip: This plant contains an oil that causes severe allergic skin reactions in many people when in contact with it. These oils are even present on fallen leaves and can be released into the air and inhaled if the plant is burned.
Appearance: Nightshade can be a bushy or climbing plant with white or purple flowers and purple or red fruits.
Control measures: Mulch your garden to prevent black nightshade. Pull weeds by hand or treat with herbicides.
Appearance: This garden weed is recognizable by its clover-like leaves and small yellow flowers. Thanks to its creeping stems, it turns into dense mats.
Controls: Override to prevent black doctors from spawning in the garden. Pull weeds by hand or use herbicides. Stop this by watering the soil well and adding organic matter such as compost to the soil.
Appearance: This garden weed has wheat-like flower thorns that appear above thin tufts of grass.
Control measures: Mulch your garden well to prevent grass rustling. Dig up the plants by hand, removing each root. Topically treat with a non-selective herbicide.
Control measures: Mulch to prevent hemp bat infestations in the garden, or use a pre-emergence herbicide in the spring. Pull plants by hand or treat the lawn with a broadleaf herbicide.
Post time: Apr-16-2023