How to remove weeds from artificial grass, and why they are there at all

A turf yard has three places a weed can start. The first and most common is the surface: seed lands in the organic layer, gets rain, and roots in the layer and the top of the infill. These pull out with a light tug and a wad of black fibrous stuff on the root. The second is the edge, where turf meets a bed, a fence line or the lawn next door. Mulch and soil creep over the edge, the turf holds moisture against it, and a weed roots in real dirt with the turf as a mulch. These are stronger. The third, and rare, is a weed that found a drainage hole in the backing from below; it happens at seams and where the base was not weed-barriered. The weeds problem page covers telling them apart.

1. Wait for rain, or rinse the area the evening before. Damp organic matter releases roots; dry, they snap and regrow.
2. Pull straight up, holding the weed at the base. Do not twist or lever against the turf.
3. Bag them rather than tossing them on the turf, so seed heads do not shed where they land.
4. Remove the layer. Blow the area, then brush hard against the grain with a stiff synthetic broom, then blow again. The black debris that comes out is what the weeds were rooted in. This is the step that stops the next crop, and the brushing page has the technique.
5. Rinse to carry the loosened layer down and out.

A spot-spray of a household weed killer on a surface weed does not usually harm the fibers, but it is not necessary if you pull, and it is one more thing at the border to keep off the plants. A pre-emergent is pointless once the layer is gone.

1. Pull the same way, damp, straight up. Edge weeds have real roots; get as much as comes.
2. Scrape back the mulch and soil that has crept over the turf edge with a plastic scraper or a gloved hand, so the turf edge sits proud of the bed again.
3. Look at the edge. If it has lifted, curled or pulled away from the border, soil is getting under it and it needs re-securing before the next weed finds it.
4. Keep a gap. An inch of clean gravel or a hard border between bed and turf stops the creep for good.

• Dig into the turf or cut the backing to get a root. Every cut is a permanent hole and a new path for the next weed.
• Salt. Kills the border plants, crusts in the infill, and does not stop seed landing on top.
• Boiling water. Deforms polyethylene fibers and stresses the backing.
• Horticultural vinegar at 20 percent on the edge. Pits aluminum edging and burns whatever it drifts onto.
• A pressure washer to blast the layer out. It blasts the infill out with it.
• Ignoring the moss in the same strip. It is the same wet-and-organic problem, covered on the moss page.

Weeds need a place to root, so the yard that gets blown off every couple of weeks in pollen and leaf season and brushed monthly does not grow them. Edges need a look twice a year for creeping mulch and lifting. And a yard that has never had the organic layer removed since installation has years of it, which is beyond a push broom and is what a power brush and a high-volume flush are for.

A handful of weeds after a wet spring is a morning with gloves. A yard where weeds have come up across the surface, or an edge that has lifted and is growing a hedge of them, is a service visit. Weed removal runs from $75 as an add-on, minor weed removal is included in a Premium Restoration from $299 for up to 500 square feet along with the edge and seam inspection, and re-securing a lifted edge is edge repair from $175. The full clean removes the layer they came from, which is the part that lasts. Full bands are on the pricing page.