Get matched with top weed maintenance pros in Scituate, MA

Vinegar cannot tell the difference between weeds and desired grass types; it kills everything it touches. Only use a vinegar or vinegar-based solution if you are relatively confident that you can navigate around the plants and grasses you want to keep. Also, don’t spray vinegar on a windy day, or it will blow onto other plants.

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.

The safest method to avoid killing your turf grass is hand pulling Johnsongrass. You can also apply vinegar for a safer herbicide, but it will still burn your lawn if it gets on it.