General Weeding
How to Prevent Common Landscape Weeds
We’ve got the 411 on these annoying landscape interlopers—and the key to keeping them out.
Nothing spoils a gorgeous, weed-free landscape like, well, weeds. Boldly growing exactly where you don’t want them to, they ruin an otherwise beautifully planted flower bed.
Even though common landscape weeds make up just a teeny-tiny fraction of the thousands and thousands of plant varieties, they can quickly become a big nuisance. See, common weeds are survivors and thrivers. They grow anywhere and everywhere—left on their own, they can dominate the landscape, leaving it looking sloppy and unkempt, and crowding out plants you may actually want to grow!
Check out this guide to some common landscape weeds you may spy in your yard:
Clover
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:
Green, low-growing plant with 3-part leaves and round white or pink flowers
FAVORITE HIDEOUT:
Moist and undernourished places
LIKES:
Coming back year after year
SUPERPOWER:
Feeding itself by producing its own nitrogen
ENEMIES:
- Healthy soil
- Barrier cloth, landscape fabric, mulch
- Roundup® Landscape Weed Preventer
Foxtail
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:
Grassy with tapered blades and bristly, spike-like tails
FAVORITE HIDEOUT:
Sunny spots
LIKES:
Growing fast and throwing (literal) shade on small landscape plants
SUPERPOWER:
Producing chemicals at the root in order to harm nearby plants
ENEMIES:
- Shade
- Proper growing conditions
- Roundup® Landscape Weed Preventer
Goosegrass
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:
Smooth, flattened leaves with silver- or white-centered rosettes
FAVORITE HIDEOUT:
Any area with compacted soil
LIKES:
Full sun and poor drainage
SUPERPOWER:
Ability to grow up to 2’ high and spread up to 2’ wide
ENEMIES:
- Hard frost
- A thick layer of mulch
- Roundup® Landscape Weed Preventer
Henbit
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:
Square stems with rounded, scalloped-edge leaves, blue-purple spring flowers, and seeds that germinate in the fall
FAVORITE HIDEOUT:
Under trees and shrubs where other plants can’t take hold
LIKES:
Moist soil and shade
SUPERPOWER:
Self-pollinates
ENEMIES:
- Hot summer temps
- A generous mulch layer
- Roundup® Landscape Weed Preventer
Lambsquarter
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:
Young plants have alternate, oval-triangular leaves that are bluish-green on top and purplish-red underneath; older plants have green leaf tops and grayish-white under-leaves
FAVORITE HIDEOUT:
Thrives almost everywhere, with seeds surviving in the soil 20, 30, even 40 years if left alone
LIKES:
Producing up to 100,000 seeds from a single plant
SUPERPOWER:
Edible when young
ENEMIES:
- Tilling and uprooting
- Extreme heat
- Roundup® Landscape Weed Preventer
Purslane
WHAT IT LOOKS LIKE:
Fast-growing, edible annual with thick, light green- to maroon-colored, succulent stems and 5-petal green leaves
FAVORITE HIDEOUT:
Anywhere there’s full sun
LIKES:
Heat and humidity
SUPERPOWER:
Stores water in its leaves and re-roots from stem pieces
ENEMIES:
- Frost
- Pests like sawfly and leafminer weevil
- Roundup® Landscape Weed Preventer
Did you catch the common enemy for all of these interlopers? That’s right: Roundup® Landscape Weed Preventer—with emphasis on the “prevent.” That’s because common landscape weeds can take root in even the most inhospitable conditions and once they do, they hang on with all they’ve got. So the very best way to deal with them is to prevent them from emerging in the first place—and the best way to do THAT is to enlist the help of a trusted brand like Roundup.
By applying Roundup® Landscape Weed Preventer as directed around landscape weeds before they germinate (and prior to mulching), you can stop all 6 of these pesky weeds —plus many, many more—before they have a chance to grow. It creates a powerful, lasting weed barrier right at the surface of the soil, so instead of sprouting, the underground roots and shoots of weeds die before you even see them.
Take that, common landscape weeds!
