Protecting Your Turf: How To Keep Your Neighbor's Weed Problem From Becoming Yours

You do everything in your power to care for your lawn and prevent weeds from infesting your grass - but what you do isn't always enough. Even if you are a good neighbor and take care of your home and your garden, not everyone in your area will do the same. If your neighbors don't care for their lawns, then their weed problems can quickly becomes yours too. Here are a few things you can do to protect your lawn from unwanted visits from neighborhood weeds.

The first thing you want to do is try talking to your neighbor. If you have a neighbor who is not caring for his or her lawn, then you should try communicating with them about the problem. Letting them know that their failure to care for their own lawn isn't only affecting the appearance of their home, but also the health of your lawn might make all the difference. Sometimes people are unaware of how inadequate garden care can affect those surrounding them. You may run into a few people who are less than neighborly about the situation, but most people will be very reasonable about these sorts of things when they are brought to their attention.

Proper lawn care will go a long way in preventing weeds from taking hold. If your grass is strong and healthy from proper mowing, fertilization, watering and irrigation then weeds are less likely to get a foothold in your lawn.

Once the weeds have started to spread, you'll want to deal with them as quickly as possible. Throughout the growing season, weeds are a problem you need to stay on top with whether they come from near or a bit further a field. Start by removing weeds that have come into your garden. You can dig, chop or hoe these invaders. Doing this right at the start will put you one step ahead of the weeds.

To prevent further weed development, you can lay down some mulch over the soil. Putting down this mulch will prevent weeds from germinating. You can use bark, leaves or even old newspaper - just about anything that will cover the surface of the soil and discourage weed growth.

You can also try to prevent weed growth by growing shrubs to their full size. The larger the shrubs are the more shade they will make on the surface of the soil. This shade will choke the weeds before they really get a chance to become established. You can also plant ground covers that will choke the weeds. If you have a great deal of ground covering plants, the weeds won't have any space left to grow in.

Even though you do your best to prevent weeds, they will occasionally crop up here and there. You need to make sure that you are pulling weeds as they appear so that they never go to seed in your garden. If you do not stay on top of this, you could end up with a very extensive and time-consuming weed problem.

You can use chemicals for weed control, but your best option is to start out with less toxic methods. If you find that you must resort to weed killers, always wear protective clothing, eyewear and gloves to reduce the risk to yourself. There are some pre-emergent chemicals on the market, which are preventive herbicides - meaning that they control weeds before they start to grow. You should only use these sorts of herbicides after clearing your lawn of weeds. Pre-emergent chemicals should not be used on weeds that have already begun to grow.

There are all sorts of ways that weeds can be spread - through vehicles, through animals and, of course, through your neighbor's lawn. The best thing you can do to prevent your neighbor's weed problem from becoming yours is put in place the preventive measures discussed above and pull weeds as they come.

Also remember that a neighborly chat won't go amiss if your next-door neighbor's lawn is cause for concern. Before it escalates into a source of stress for you or a neighborhood tiff, speak with your neighbor about the problem calmly and reasonably. Sometimes bringing it to their attention is all that needs to be done.