Weed is growing like nobody’s business!
QI have a plant whose common name, I think, is ‘mind-your-own-business’, which has spread from my neighbour’s lawn via postmen and so on walking over the lawn. How can I eradicate it from the lawn?
Doreen Sheridan, via email
AMind-your-own-business is a nuisance in the lawn and in borders. I have it in both at home and have learnt to tolerate it in the lawn, as I haven’t the time to tackle it. Hopefully, the following will help you.
This plant thrives in moist and shady conditions and roots from every node that touches the soil. Anything that you can do to improve the light and moisture levels on your lawn will help discourage its growth but won’t eradicate it.
For this, I’m afraid you will have to resort to chemical control, as even if you try to weed it out by hand it will be very difficult to achieve 100% success.
However, this is a good time of year to try to deal with while it is actively growing.
Use a specialised lawn weed killer as these will only act on broad-leaved weeds and leave the grass untouched. Don’t expect it all to disappear overnight as it is quite a tenacious little plant and may require several applications to kill it off altogether.
If it has not reached too far across the lawn it might be simpler to dig up affected turf and replace with fresh, or use a non-selective weed killer such as Roundup that will take out the grass as well, but should leave you with a nice clear patch for overseeding in autumn.