I'm not good with specific names of weeds, but I do recognize number 3 as a dandelion. The last one I have in my yard. Those yellow flowers will turn into puff balls of seed that fly everywhere. You don't have time to spray those away. Get a shovel and cut them off at the base before the flowers become puff balls.

The first two I'm going to classify as wildflowers. It's great that you seeded your lawn in the fall. We talk for what seems like hours about the problems with spring seeding, one of those being that in the spring you also germinate the summer weed seeds. Well when you seed in the fall you are also germinating the spring wildflower seeds. Those plants take root but only barely. They remain dormant until spring when they bolt and become a flowering plant. They send up flower spikes quickly, flower, and then die away. The seed remains on the surface waiting for perfect circumstances in the fall when they will germinate again. The good news is that you can almost always control the circumstances so that they will not germinate.

One way you could have changed this outcome would have been to RoundUp once last fall, then water daily as if you were sprouting grass seed. This frequent watering would have sprouted these spring wildflower plants. Then a week later you would spray a second time with RoundUp to kill all the newly sprouted weeds. Then you could clear the surface, sow the seed, roll it down, and begin watering your new seed.

But here we are in the spring and you have weeds before you have grass. This happens to everyone every year, so don't get panicky. Weed-B-Gone spray should take care of these weeds and leave the grass alone.

Don't listen to the TV when deciding when to fertilize in the spring. Your grass will awaken from dormancy and shoot out of the ground like crazy grass. What you need to do then is hold your horses until the grass growth slows back down to normal. There is no need to fertilize early but there is a need to fertilize later, after the growth slows. Usually Memorial Day is a good time to do your spring fertilizer. By then everyone's grass should have slowed down. If you fertilize early you force the plant to use resources which were supposed to last it much longer. Then the grass falls into poor health until next spring.

If you want to do something for your grass and soil now (or any time) you could apply an organic fertilizer. Organic fertilizers act differently from synthetic fertilizers. They are a biological product which feeds the soil microbes. Once those microbes are well fed, they improve the overall health of your soil. Feeding the plants is more like a byproduct of improving your soil's health. Since the two types of fertilizer work differently, you can apply both on the same day without any fear of interaction.

Wait!!!!

Those first two pics are of Bittercress - super invasive. If this is the first year you've had them and they have matured that far, you're in for a real big mess. You're going to find that when you touch those plants, the seeds will shoot out for a good number of feet. Next years crop only bigger. Super invasive.

If the seeds are already forming, RU won't kill the seeds - they still mature and "pop". The only good ways to deal with this is pre-emergents and simultaneously hand pulling those that survive the pre-em. This will wear the seed bank down. Good news is that it pulls super easy and no tap root. Pull VERY gently so as not to "pop" seeds on the surrounding weeds - you'll see what I mean when you pull.

Regarding the lawn, for the most part, you can mow it and it won't spread in your lawn. However, I have seen it adapt, just like Poa Annua to grow low and produce seeds at the 2 1/2" level too. Don't trust it - it's the PA of the PNW weeds for flower beds.

I imagine from the number of plants in that pic, you have other patches of this too. It will take you several years of this routine, and if you let any patch go, expect a prolonged infestation in that and nearby areas. You have to keep at it or every bed will be covered in it.

This is speaking from experience. Year 8 in this battle and winning. Keep at this thing Ken, serious.

wow. So much awesome information from you guys here, I greatly appreciate it. They could easily charge for the information I've gained from this forum over the past several months. It is great to have this resource available to guys like myself that have a true interest in learning how to grow and maintain a fantastic looking lawn.

So, I called a pretty knowledgable guy at Lesco and he recommended Speedzone for the Bittercress. Its a pretty solid broad leaf weed killer, and he gave me the answer fast and without hesitation so I felt like he is guiding me from experience. He recommended (2)applications. One now, and one in (3) weeks (as the bittercress is starting to die but making it's last ditch effort to survive).

He told me that Speedzone is designed to not harm my TTTF and should will (hopefully) get the job done.

I'm heading over there tomorrow to pick some up.

Dchall- I've read quite a few of your posts over the past several months, and it seems like you've had good success with alfalfa pellets as a natural fert. I'm probably going this route, but for this spring I will supplement with this on/around Memorial Day:

Kinder Blend Turf Maximizer

I've already got this in my garage from when I purchased my seed online last year.

Any additional thoughts folks? Thanks again

-Ken

Hey Ken, good to here you're getting what you need.

These little Bittercress effers (also called 'Hairy Bittercress') tend to germinate in Winter. While I haven't used it, Speedzone appears to be a post emergent pesticide, which won't really do much good here.

Those plant in the pics have already formed their seeds - spraying will dry the plant faster and the seeds faster and they're still viable. Spraying a chemical on a dying plant will give any one of us a false impression we got the desired result until we see next year is worse. Instead, I'd suggest looking at pre-emergents, particularly fall applications. Tenacity works well when sprayed prior to germination and after germintion. Here, I blanket spray in late October then again in late February as things are warming up (Z8). In October it acts as a pre emergent, and in February it's a post and pre-emergent.

In the meantime, try to get it under control manually if it's not too bad yet, because it will spread into your flower beds etc and spread prolifically where you can't mow it.

Be sure to pull those by hand if you can, and as soon as you can, or use a bagger as a last resort (some will shoot before the mower gets near. Do this BEFORE doing anything else.

Each of those pods has several seeds, maybe around 10? Each plant can have dozens of pods, and they literally "shoot" their seeds if they're so much as blown on when ripe. They shoot far too. Pull easy. Have a plastic shopping bag wrapping your hand to make a net to catch them as you pick them if you prefer (it works, got that bit of advice on the gardening forum section of this site). Pull as many as you can and throw it in the garbage, not compost.

Preventive care aside, the next thing to consider is that it tends to grow in bare areas and poor soils. Is there anything special about the areas you see this growing in (i.e. lots of shade, boggy soil, poor soil quality such as clay?). Addressing those things will help too in the long run.

Oh, Tenacity -

dont waste your time trying to identify weeds, really! just kill them, its that simple! lol