I am mostly, if not totally, against spraying chemicals in any area of garden or lawn. I really am of the view that good garden practices, along with patience, should always be done, with chemicals only being used as a last resort if nothing else is working. This applies to high profile schools as much as it does to a domestic garden.

In the picture below, you can clearly see weeds in the lawn.

While I agree that they faint particularly pretty, you need to ask two questions:

• Why are there weeds in my lawn?
• What are the weeds in my lawn?

These questions help to determine what to do about the situation, both of which I’ll answer separately.

Why are the weeds in my lawn?

Here in Sydney, it’s winter as I write this. The grass in the picture is warm season grass that stops growing over winter. This reduces the competition that weeds have for things like water and nutrients in the soil, meaning there is more opportunity for weeds to take hold.

What is the weed growing in my lawn?

This particular ‘weed’ is a species of clover. while it isn’t the most spectacular plant, it is rather useful in that, being in the legume, family, has the ability to add nitrogen to the soil (with the aid of bacteria in its roots).

What can you do about it?

The easiest option is to leave it alone, but many don’t like the idea due to the lawn being ‘imperfect’. The idea that anything humans do is more ‘perfect’ in nature is an odd notion when nature has been doing its thing for millennia with no help from us!

The best option to me is to carry out good lawn maintenance. This involves fertilising, scarification and aeration, along with mowing when the grass is growing. You can also over sow this grass with a cool season grass to ensure you have a green lawn over winter, which again reduces the chance of weeds growing.

You can also spray the weeds in the lawn with a suitable herbicide, which depends on knowing what weeds you actually have in your lawn so you can use a registered chemical for that problem.