Help needed with lawn weeds

[alochans]

Can anyone help please !
Our front and rear lawn, along with our neighbours lawns on either side of us has become infested with this weed. Everything appeared to be fine, even when the winter snow cleared from the ground, but once the grass came to life and started to grow, these things appeared all over the place.

The questions are : what are they, how did we get them and how do we go about getting rid of them !

[Johnny81]

This is Self heal Prunella vulgaris.

[aeshna5]

Personally I always find Self-heal very attractive in lawns + is attractive to bees too as a bonus.

If you are determined to get rid of this pretty wild flower there's a whole range of lawn herbicides for broad-leaved plants in lawns.

[Dorts]

I have just finished mowing a lawn this-evening and the Self Heal looked so attractive I mowed round it. When it has finished flowering I'll cut the old seed-heads off.
Dorts.

[Cotham Marble]

Originally Posted by alochans

Can anyone help please !
Our front and rear lawn, along with our neighbours lawns on either side of us has become infested with this weed. Everything appeared to be fine, even when the winter snow cleared from the ground, but once the grass came to life and started to grow, these things appeared all over the place.

The questions are : what are they, how did we get them and how do we go about getting rid of them !

Why do you want to get rid of this plant (selfheal as already identified) ? Is the aesthetic of 'bowling green' lawns more important than wildlife or environmental concerns ?

Without low growing non grass species, lawns, other than providing some feeding opportunities for ground feeding birds, are effectively dead ground. Using lawn treatments reduces the amount of invertebrates present, reducing further the value to ground feeding birds, thus the lawn becomes only marginally less 'dead' than the now near ubiquitous 'decking'. At least consider retaining an area of toleration where you leave the self heal untreated and make mower cuts only every two to three weeks during the spring and summer.

CM

[alochans]

I can understand where you are coming from and I can honestly say that my wife does more for the wildlife than anyone else in our area. The rear garden takes up about 30% of the space, the rest of the area is taken up with plants, flowers and two lovely apple trees. If she isn’t feeding dried mealworms to sparrows & dunnocks, then she’s whistling to her favourite blackbird & robin to come and get some cheese, and there fussy buggers, they like red cheese, not white !

But, to get back on track with this problem, Dorts said in the above thread that he mowed round them ! Without a word of a lie, there isn’t enough free space on our lawns to put the lawnmower on ! Both front and rear lawns are covered in them. We have been in this house for the past 17 years and we have never encountered them before, the burning question now, has got to be – how did we get them and in such a large quantity.

[Meta menardi]

I suspect that there has always been a small population of this for some time, usually kept down by vigorous grass growth. The lack of rainfall has kept grass growth down, so the Self Heal is now taking over. Like Dorts, I mow round this, but also Cowslip, and Ribwort Plantain.

Why not start boasting to others that you are "growing a Self Heal lawn, it is hard but very rewarding, I have made quite a bit of progress this year, all grown from the wild you know"?