With its stubborn runners, speedwell can be a nuisance in the lawn. In the fight for water and nutrients, the noble grasses lose out. Simple methods remove lawn weeds without poison. Read the best tips on how to fight Speedwell naturally here.
How to fight Speedwell?
As a lawn weed, you can control speedwell manually or mechanically. Isolated weed nests in the lawnweedingby hand. A lawn area overgrown with speedwell is mowed deeply and thenscarified You can prevent speedwell by regularly fertilizing, scarifying annually and mowing the lawn weekly.
What does Ehrenpreis look like?
Veronica species thrive asherbaceous, flower-rich perennials with growth heights of 10 cm to 200 cm. The creeping or upright stems bear a variety of foliage. Depending on the species and variety, Veronica leaves are rounded to pointed, entire to toothed, hairy to smooth and leathery to delicate.
During the flowering period, speedwell perennials delight with sky blue, white or purple flowers. Prostrate speedwell species bloom between May and August. Their tall-growing counterparts bloom between June and September. Most Veronicas are hardy
Is speedwell a weed?
Among the 450 speedwell species worldwide, only 3 Veronicas withcreeping runnersare unpopular aslawn weeds. These include field speedwell (Veronica agrestis), thread speedwell (Veronica filiformis) and Persian speedwell (Veronica persica). These three Veronica species are widespread as wild perennials in Central Europe in sunny to partially shaded, nutrient-rich and freshly moist locations.
The reason for speedwell's status as a weed is its growth with shoots up to 50 cm long, lying close to the ground, which spread invasively through sowing or rooting stem pieces in a lawn.
What helps against speedwell in the lawn?
A combination ofmanual and mechanical methods works best against honor in the lawn. How to properly combat creeping weeds:
- In the early stages, weed individual speedwell nests by hand or with a weeder.
- Mow a large lawn area covered with speedwell and then scarify it.
- Important: Sweep up combed lawn weeds and dispose of them in household waste (not in the compost).
Don't fight speedwell with weed killer
Toxic herbicides are frowned upon in natural gardens. The chemical agents destroy all life in a lawn and are suspected of being carcinogenic.
How can you prevent speedwell in the lawn?
The best preventive measures against speedwell in the lawn are regularfertilization, annualscarificationand weeklymowing the lawn.
Nutrient deficiency weakens the lawn and promotes lawn weeds. By fertilizing a lawn twice a year, you provide the noble grasses with nutrients for vigorous growth and speedwell is left behind. Scarifying in April and September prevents the spread of moss and weeds of all kinds. If you mow your lawn once a week, you will effectively prevent speedwell flowering and subsequent self-seeding.
Tip
Veronica species enrich the natural garden
Magnificently blooming speedwell perennials are very welcome in the natural garden. The blue and white sea of flowers is a swarming bee pasture for beds and balconies. Persian speedwell, maligned as a lawn weed, is becoming useful as a medicinal plant. Flowers of native speedwell species are edible and serve as an appetizing decoration for salads. Runner-forming Veronica perennials decorate the bed as flowering ground cover and protect the soil from erosion with their leaf mass.
