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A spot herbicide for weed control is effective at killing crabgrass and not grass, but it depends on the type of herbicide. Always check the label to ensure that your herbicide is safe for grass but tough on crabgrass. Overall, spot treatment is ideal because it puts fewer herbicides into the soil, which can damage the soil. If you’re wanting a natural remedy to crabgrass that also won’t harm surrounding grass, you can also hand-remove crabgrass or even pour boiling water or 5% vinegar over crabgrass as a spot treatment.

Yellow patches, poor growth, or widespread weeds indicate a need for treatment. Soil testing can confirm nutritional deficiencies that require intervention.

Landscaping fabric can only help to prevent weed growth in the short term. It's not an ideal long-term solution because dirt will eventually make its way on top of it, causing weeds to sprout. These fabrics can also leave microplastics in the environment for many, many years, so pulling weeds using one of the methods in this guide as soon as you see them is a better long-term prevention strategy.

Mowing a lawn will, unfortunately, not get rid of clover, and it may even encourage it to flourish. Let your lawn grow to a healthy height of over 3 inches and then set your mower blades no lower than this level. Higher grass will cut out the light that clover loves and discourage it from spreading.