Nothing takes away the enjoyment you get from your centipede lawn like an infestation of weeds. Ideally, you will have used a winter preemergent herbicide like Drexel Pin Dee 3.3 EC Herbicide or Pendulum 2G during the cold months before the spring green-up. However, if you have not done so, this article is your cheatsheet to the best centipede friendly treatments for common summer weeds.
Spurge
You’ve likely seen this fast growing weed growing between the cracking in the sidewalk or parts of your lawn where there isn’t much grass. Spurge has a reddish brown stem and dark green leaves that are arranged opposite of each other on the stem. The most identifiable characteristic of this plant is the potentially irritating milky white sap that seeps out of broken leaves. If you let this one hang in your lawn long enough, a small white flower will show up on the end of the stems.
Virginia Buttonweed
If not treated and killed at the root, this perennial weed will plague lawns year after year. If not paying close attention, you may mistake this weed as a grass. The leaves are a darker green on the top and connected directly to a slightly hairy stem. Virginia buttonweed flowers have white, star-shaped flowers with reddish-pink stripes. This weed is extremely hearty and cannot be mowed out of your lawn.
Old World Diamond Flower
Old World Diamond Flower is a summer weed with smooth, oblong-pointed leaves that are arranged opposite of each other on the stem. The dainty, white flowers have a long stalk that connects multiple flowers to the weed stem.
Common Lespedeza
This extremely common summer weed has three, oblong leaflets with smooth edges. These leaflets also have distinctive, parallel veins that connect into a midvein. If you let this weed hang around in your yard too long, the stem will actually become woody. Common lespedeza will have a pink to purplish flowers. Since this weed is a legume, its seeds are produced in a bean pod.