Read the Seed Label Before You Purchase Lawn Seed

Q: I have a terrible weed in my fescue. The leaves are shiny and bluish, with a purple base. I’ve tried Nutsedge Killer and Weed B Gone to no effect, and it’s taken over my back yard! There is no longer any visible fescue in the back, and now it’s taking over my front yard, too.

A: Your weed is orchardgrass. Unfortunately, there is not a chemical that will selectively kill orchardgrass in fescue. They are both cool season perennial grasses. The only thing that is effective selectively is a pair of eyeballs: yours!

If you can tell the two apart, you can control scattered clumps of orchardgrass with a directed spray of glyphosate. To that end, make a shield for your sprayer by trimming the neck of a plastic funnel to fit your sprayer nozzle. You can put the funnel over a clump of orchard grass and give it a squirt. If you have solid orchardgrass, you can spray the whole lawn with glyphosate in August and reseed with fescue in September.

The orchardgrass likely came in as a contaminant of the fescue seed you purchased. That’s why it is important to read the seed label before you purchase lawn seed. The label will list the names and percentage of weeds. Obviously, grass seed with a lower percentage of weeds is a better buy.