How to Identify 25 Common Weeds and Control Them

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By: Julie Martens Forney

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Photo By: Julie Martens Forney

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Photo By: Julie Martens Forney

Photo By: Image courtesy of Ohio State Weed Lab Archive, The Ohio State University

Photo By: Julie Martens Forney

Beating Common Weeds in Your Lawn and Garden

No one wants weeds, especially if you’re working on growing a gorgeous lawn and garden. One weed is all it takes to smudge the beauty you’re creating. The secret to beating common weeds depends on two things: being able to identify them and knowing how to get rid of them. Learn about 25 of the most common weeds in lawns and gardens, and get tips on removing them from your yard — for good.

When it comes to violets (above), opinions are divided. To some, it’s a weed of the vilest kind; to others, it’s a dainty wildflower. No matter which camp you support, it’s vital to know that while violets have a literary reputation of being shy, in the landscape they are anything but that. This perennial bloomer boasts a prolific personality, spreading easily by underground stems and seeds. In the lawn, it adapts quickly to lowered mower heights, growing shorter as needed to dodge the blade. Violets thrive in moist, shady sites, but mature plants are drought tolerant. The solution to eliminating violets? Vigilant hand-weeding (be sure to remove all the rhizome) and targeted herbicide use.

Also See: How to Get Rid of Weeds

Weeding Dandelions

The nightmare of dandelions is the deep taproot (up to 15 feet long) and puffball seedhead, which disperses seeds on every breeze. The best defense against dandelions in the lawn is growing thick, healthy turf, which means mowing at the right height and fertilizing correctly. In planting beds and paths, these familiar weeds tend to show up in the worst places, such as rooted in the center of a perennial clump or tucked right in the edge row of paving stones. The best ways to get rid of dandelions? Spray them or dig them. When spraying, kick dandelions a bit first to scuff and wound the leaves — it helps the spray penetrate better. With digging, make sure you get at least 2 inches of taproot, or they’ll return as two plants.

More Advice: Best Way to Get Rid of Dandelions Permanently

How to Get Rid of Wild Onions and Garlic

These perennial weeds smell like their namesakes, and there’s no mistaking their presence when you mow over them. Wild onion has flat leaves, while garlic is round. They both grow from bulbs and form clusters similar to chives. To remove them, avoid hand-pulling. That only serves to separate the main bulb from the tiny bulblets surrounding it, which remain in the soil and sprout.

To dig wild onion or garlic, excavate about 6 inches deep to get the whole bulb. Otherwise, spray with herbicide — the kind that kills nutsedge works on wild onion and garlic. In late spring, these weeds produce small bulbs atop long stems. Snip these and destroy them. They contain new bulbs — they’re this weed’s way of spreading and covering new ground.

Also See: Make Your Own Natural Weed Killer

How to Get Rid of Thistle

Canada thistle brings a thorny problem to any landscape where it appears. This prickly beast grows from seed that can blow into your yard, or it can sprout from root pieces, which sneak in with bulk topsoil or mulch loads. Size varies, with many mature plants reaching 5 to 8 feet tall. In a single season, one plant can produce a 20-foot-long root system, and it only takes one piece of root to produce a plant. Control thistle through weeding, but dig carefully and deeply to get the horizontal root. After digging, if another sprout appears, pull it, too. Or use an herbicide. The best time to spray is as soon as leaves break ground. Spray repeatedly through the growing season, and you will eventually kill it.

Also See: 25 Garden Tools and Essentials for Year-Round Care

Weeding Out Tree Saplings

Keep an eye peeled on lawns and planting beds for sapling trees. Often these trees, like this walnut sapling, sprout thanks to the diligent digging of squirrels. It’s especially easy to miss these beneath mature shrubs or roses until you spot the leaves poking through the plant. The other place that seedling trees pop up are along fencelines, courtesy of birds who have been gobbling fruit, such as mulberry, cherry or holly. Small trees are easy to hand-pull. Grab a spade if they seem firmly anchored in the soil. Keep an eye out for seedlings in spring when weeding or mulching. Remove any you see before they have a chance to develop a tap root.

How to Get Rid of Broadleaf Plantain

Native Americans called broadleaf plantain "white man's foot" because it seemed to appear everywhere white settlers went. Touted as a healthy backyard weed with various benefits, broadleaf plantain can create a small colony that resembles a ground cover if grass is thin and soil is dry and compacted. Hand pulling this weed is an effective solution, especially with small infestations. Plants have a fibrous root system and come up easily with a three-claw garden weeder. Or spray plants with an herbicide any time they are actively growing.

Garlic Mustard Identification

A non-native, invasive plant, garlic mustard grows in sun or shade, dry soil or wet. Its roots produce a chemical that inhibits other plants from growing. Thanks to these adaptations, it quickly colonizes areas. In many regions it’s displacing native forest plants, and in backyard gardens, it can quickly take over planting beds. Garlic mustard is a biennial, producing a small rosette of toothed, kidney shape leaves in year one, followed by a tall stem topped with flowers in year two. Remove (pull up stems and roots) and destroy any garlic mustard that appears on your property, putting it out with the trash.

Controlling Broad-Leaved Dock

Broad-leaved dock appears harmless enough when the red-veined leaves pop through soil in early spring. What's important to know is that this non-native weed has the capacity to produce 60,000 seeds per plant, with each seed able to remain alive (ready to germinate) in soil for 80 years. This is one weed you do not want to set seed. Plants start out small, but grow up to 4 feet tall. Dock develops a tap-root that reaches up to 4 feet deep into the soil. Digging it out is mostly impossible. The best control is using herbicide or vinegar on the young leaves as soon as they appear. Scuff leaves a bit before spraying to ensure spray penetrates the leaf coating. Repeat spray as needed. The taproot can generate more leaves over time, but keep spraying. The root will eventually use all its stored energy and stop growing.

Killing Bindweed

Also known as wild morning glory, bindweed is bad news. Hedge bindweed spreads by seed and creeping underground stems; field bindweed spreads by weeds and roots, which grow up to 30 feet deep. These plants open flowers that look like morning glory, which is why many gardeners let them grow. They’ll grow along the ground like a ground cover, but if there’s a support nearby, like a rose, fence or tree, the vines twine and climb. Since these plants are tough to eradicate, it’s important not to let any get a foothold in your yard. Pull them as soon as you see them, and continue pulling each time they emerge. It will take possibly years for the roots to exhaust, but you can eventually beat them this way. For a quicker kill, apply an herbicide that kills the root. It may still take more than one treatment, but you will kill these persistent plants.

Killing Nutsedge

This weed grows in poor, wet, compacted soil (think heavy clay). When nutsedge arrives in your garden or lawn, if left to its own devices it can quickly take over, establishing a colony. It looks like a grassy weed, but it’s actually a sedge. The individual blades have a strong center rib and are triangular in shape — a shape you can feel and see. The worst thing about nutsedge is that it not only produces seed heads, but also forms small bulbs or nuts underground. You can pull a nutsedge plant and still leave a network of nuts in the soil, each one capable of generating a new plant. The best approach is to spray plants with an herbicide. For nutsedge that's growing in the lawn, be sure to choose a chemical that won't kill grass. A popular chemical is Sedgehammer, and it usually kills nutsedge with one to two sprays.

Chickweed Identification

This annual weed thrives in shady areas with moist, fertile soil, but it's adaptable and can also sprout in dry areas. Chickweed forms a low-growing crown of stems that spread and sprawl. In a planting bed, the stems crawl through perennials and annuals, showing up as far as 12 to 18 inches from the plant's crown. In lawns, it usually shows up in thin grass with heavy, moist soil. For small infestations, hand-pulling works fine. Try to get plants up before they set seed, which can number up to 800 per plant. For heavy infestations, look for herbicides that list chickweed among the plants affected. There is also a perennial chickweed that spreads by seed and stem or root pieces.

How to Get Rid of Yellow Wood Sorrel

Also known as oxalis, this is a versatile weed that grows in sun or shade, moist or dry soil. It's a clover look-alike, with heart shape leaves and yellow flowers. Blooms fade to form upright seed pods that explode when ripe, flinging seeds away from the mother plant. It also roots from stem pieces. It's happy to grow in lawns, planting beds, gravel drives or vegetable garden paths. Oxalis is a common weed in nursery pots, so be sure to check before adding plants to your landscape. The best way to beat it in the lawn is to mow high and fertilize to grow a healthy, thick lawn. In planting beds, carefully hand-pull or spray with herbicide.

Killing Henbit

Pretty purple flowers decorate this annual weed in winter (warm zones) and early spring (colder zones), providing early-season nectar for pollinators. Square stems reveal that this weed belongs to the mint family. Plants reproduce by seed but can also root from lower stem pieces. Hand-pull when soil is moist. Since stem pieces can root and produce new plants, be sure to get all pieces when weeding. Bake stems in the sun before adding to a compost pile. A 3-inch-thick mulch layer helps suppress henbit seed germination in planting beds. In lawns, hand-dig plants as needed and work to grow thick, healthy turf that crowds out weeds.

Deterring Ragweed

Ragweed is a plant that's super beneficial to wildlife — more than 220 insect species feed on its leaves. But the 1 billion pollen grains per plant, which can travel more than 400 miles by wind, cause tremendous allergy problems. It thrives in uncrowded soil with low fertility, which means you won’t usually see it in a healthy lawn or well-mulched planting beds. Hand pull seedlings while they’re young to keep them under control. In lawns, regular mowing is enough to deter this weed.

Identifying Multiflora Rose

A lovely, fragrant rose sounds great. But look out if it's this beast. Multiflora rose was introduced to this country to help create living fences and provide erosion control. That's code for "this rose spreads like crazy." Stems root where they touch soil, and flowers fade to form seed-filled hips that wildlife devour (and then spread the seed). The easiest way to beat multiflora rose is to dig small plants. For larger shrubs, the best time to spray leaves with herbicide is late spring to early summer, when new growth is unfolding. A better way to apply herbicide is with a basal stem application from December to early spring. Check with your local extension office for details.

Get Rid of Crabgrass

If you tend a lawn, you’ve probably encountered crabgrass. This annual grass tends to grow in ground-hugging clumps, but sometimes forms upright stems. Treat for crabgrass in lawns early in the growing season, using a pre-emergent weed killer that interrupts crabgrass seed germination. This is the most effective way to slow down and eventually remove a crabgrass infestation. Getting the timing right for pre-emergent herbicide application is crucial to success. Forsythia flowering can indicate the right time, but a more accurate method is to apply herbide when soil temperature is 50-55 degrees. You can measure the soil temperature yourself or find soil temperature in your area by searching online for soil temperature by zip code.

Controlling Bittersweet Nightshade

A cousin of tomatoes, bittersweet nightshade unfurls pretty purple flowers that fade to form red, berry-like fruits. This perennial weed thrives in moist soil and shady spots. In cold regions, plants die to the ground with frost and resprout from roots in spring. In warmer zones, plants linger year-round, forming thick woody stems. Pull plants as soon as you see them and keep pulling any new growth that reappears in order to use up food reserves in the roots. If plants set berries, remove the clusters to keep birds from eating and spreading seeds. All parts of the plant are poisonous if ingested, so it’s a good idea to expend the effort to remove this weed.

Getting Rid of Green Foxtail

Green foxtail is an annual grass that earns its name from its bristly seedhead. This weed appears in summer, growing in all types of soils in sunny to partly shady spots. This grass usually sprouts in lawns that are neglected and sparse. If you just have a small number of plants, hand-dig when soil is moist. Growing a healthy, thick lawn is the best defense against a green foxtail invasion. Don’t cut grass too short; remove only one-third of the grass blade length at each cutting. For a bad infestation, use a pre-emergent herbicide in spring.

Controlling Burdock

Those large, rhubarb-looking leaves are the first season’s growth of burdock, a biennial weed. That means it produces a tuft of leaves (green on top, felty white beneath) the first year of growth, followed by a flowering stem the second year. Flowers fade to form prickly seedheads that hook onto clothes and pet fur. Deal with it as soon as you spot it. It tends to sprout in untended areas with dappled to full sun, often in landscape beds or woodsy edges. Burdock has a fleshy taproot. Digging it in the first year is a good control option, as long as you remove any new leaves that appear following digging. If you keep leaves removed, you should eventually starve the root. Chemical herbicides work best on young plants but also work when applied before flowering in the second year.

Killing Ground Ivy

Also known as creeping Charlie, this perennial weed first appeared in landscapes as an ornamental ground cover. The plant’s fast growth soon shifted it to a weed category. Plants spread by above and underground stems, as well as by flowers that set seeds. Stems root as they creep along the ground, helping the plant to gain ground. Ground ivy can grow in sun, but is at its best in shade. Getting rid of it requires a combined effort of dedicated hand-pulling and weed killers. Do not till ground ivy — any bit of stem left in the ground will root and produce a new plant. Deep trench edging and raised beds can help keep this creeper out of planting beds.

How to Get Rid of Creeping Charlie

Killing Hairy Bittercress Weed

Bittercress usually makes an early spring appearance, often sprouting before all danger of frost has passed. It's also known as shotweed due to exploding seed capsules, which fling seeds up to 3 feet. Each seed pod contains about 20 seeds, which means one plant produces, on average, 600 seeds. A large plant may pump out thousands of seeds. If you spot this weed, you can’t afford to ignore it. It thrives in shady, moist areas and often sprouts in lawns mowed too short. Mild winters and wet springs provide ideal growing conditions. Hand-pull if just a few, but do so before seedpods are ripe, or you risk spreading them. Applying pre-emergent herbicide in fall helps foil spring seed sprouting. In grass, keep bittercress mowed to prevent seeds from forming and shooting all over the yard.

How to Get Rid of White Clover

Some gardeners welcome clover for its nitrogen-fixing properties (the ability to add nitrogen to soil). Others consider it a nuisance and want it gone. This is a perennial weed that spreads rapidly by stems that creep both above and underground. Hand-pull if you just have a few, digging when soil is moist. If your goal is a grass-only lawn, try spot spraying with an herbicide labeled to kill clover, not grass. Clover thrives in compacted soil with low fertility. Growing a healthy, thick, well-fed lawn can help create conditions clover dislikes.

Killing Orange Hawkweed

Orange hawkweed is one of those weeds that sprouts, unfurls orange or yellow flowers and makes a gardener think, "Well, isn’t that pretty?" Do not be misled by this terrible weed. It quickly forms mats of hairy stems. One shallow-rooted plant can grow to cover as much as three feet of turf in one year and aggressively elbows out desirable plants as it gobbles soil nutrition, space and sunlight. Hand-pulling plants by the roots is recommended. If hawkweed appears in your lawn, mow regularly to reduce flowering and keep seeds from forming. Don’t mow your lawn too short, though. You need thick, healthy turf to out-compete this fast spreading weed.

Killing Purslane

A low-growing plant, purslane craves sunshine and grows in any soil, from mucky to dry. Succulent, fleshy leaves and stems indicate that this weed thrives with little water. It tends to grow in cracks and crevices — anywhere it can gain a root hold. Dig carefully to remove all root pieces when pulling because any roots left behind can sprout new plants. Purslane stems root where they touch soil, so it's best to pull plants when young. Yellow flowers appear when there’s enough water. Seedpods that form continue to ripen even after picking and release seeds, which means you shouldn't add pulled purslane to your compost pile. Leaves are edible and taste best from young stems receiving adequate water.

Getting Rid of Poison Ivy

Poison ivy causes rashes and blisters of varying intensity depending on your sensitivity to the irritating oil urushiol, which is found in the plant's leaves, stems and roots. This weed usually grows in shady or partly sunny areas. While the "leaflets three, let it be" mantra holds true when identifying poison ivy, those leaflets might have toothed, smooth or jagged edges. Hand pull young poison ivy seedlings wearing gloves or a plastic bag you can turn inside out (with the plant inside) after pulling. For older plants, chemical weed killers provide the best long-term result. Look for products containing glyphosate or triclopyr. After killing plants, rake the area to gather any leaves, stems or berries. Add a 4- to 6-inch-thick layer of mulch to cover any urushiol that might remain on the soil. Dispose of poison ivy in the trash. Do not burn it or compost it.

Poison Plants: Identifying Poison Ivy, Poison Oak and Poison Sumac

How to Identify 25 Common Weeds and Control Them

Related To:

Shop This Look

Beating Common Weeds in Your Lawn and Garden

Weeding Dandelions

How to Get Rid of Wild Onions and Garlic

How to Get Rid of Thistle

Weeding Out Tree Saplings

How to Get Rid of Broadleaf Plantain

Garlic Mustard Identification

Controlling Broad-Leaved Dock

Killing Bindweed

Killing Nutsedge

Chickweed Identification

How to Get Rid of Yellow Wood Sorrel

Killing Henbit

Deterring Ragweed

Identifying Multiflora Rose

Get Rid of Crabgrass

Controlling Bittersweet Nightshade

Getting Rid of Green Foxtail

Controlling Burdock

Killing Ground Ivy

Killing Hairy Bittercress Weed

How to Get Rid of White Clover

Killing Orange Hawkweed

Killing Purslane

Getting Rid of Poison Ivy

Q&A: Killing Dollar Weed

How to Control Nutgrass and Johnsongrass

How to Get Rid of Creeping Charlie

How to Get Rid of Weeds

How to Reclaim a Weedy Yard

Planting and Growing Joe Pye Weed

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