Tyler, Texas, made a huge impression on me, especially since I was enamored with its scenic beauty. I arrived in Tyler during the winter season 5 years ago. The roadside was beautiful. Green grass covered the city’s roadside. It was different from the barren and yellow roadside of Abilene, Texas.

When I decided to move to Tyler, I set up a plan to make my yard green even in winter. In my first year in Tyler, my front yard was usual. The winter cold made the grass yellowish. During the next winter season, I found that some areas had become green. I applied fertilizer to the area and mowed it lower. The green area expanded. Every winter morning, I was eager to monitor the green patch of the area. Even at the golf course, I found that a few areas were green. Especially under the trees, the grass was greener than in other areas. My conclusion was that East Texas had more green grass than Central Texas.

 When I took a picture of the green area, a golf course worker approached and told me that it was weeds. He said it is called, “Poa Annua (Poa P.annua).”  It is an annual bluegrass, a winter weed that forms tufts and produces seedheads in the spring.

One of my neighborhood’s yards was green, too. He told me that a gardener had oversewn Ryegrass (Lolium) seeds in his yard. Ryegrass is a cool-season grass that gives green color when warm-season lawns go dormant. To my untrained eyes, Poa Annua and the Ryegrass were the same.

I felt I needed to learn more about grasses and plants. I enrolled in the Smith County Master Gardeners program. When the class started, I brought some grass samples to class, that I gathered from my front yard. The class instructor, Dr. Greg Grant, told me the samples were weeds. He brought samples of winter grass and Poa Annua to the class. It took me a few more months to distinguish between weeds and winter grass. Half of my front yard was covered with weeds, not winter grass. I purchased a bottle of weed killer at the local Home Depot and applied it all over the yard. It did not work. I started removing the weeds one by one. However, I could not overcome the speed at which the weeds spread. My neighbor recommended that I buy an herbicide at a nearby famous garden shop, so I did.  The new weed killer worked for only two weeks. The Poa Annua sprang up again. Finally, my wife helped me hand-pull the weeds. We spent the entire winter eradicating the weeds.

When Spring came, Poa Annua appeared to struggle to survive here and there. I thought I had won the battle against these weeds. However, when the next winter arrived, Poa Annua appeared again. These grass-like weeds thrived in cold weather and it was frustrating watching the spreading Poa Annua.

I asked for advice from another lecturer in my Smith County Master Gardener class and he told me to go to Rozell Sprayer Manufacturing Company near the Tyler Airport.  And upon his advice I purchased the Glyphosate herbicide to fight the weeds.

Per the instructions, I mixed the herbicide with water and sprayed it just over the Poa Annua. In two weeks, it turned yellow. After one month of using the sprayer, I found that the weeds had turned black. In another month, the same spot was just red soil. When the new season came, Bermudagrass arrived at the spot instead of Poa Annua.  From this experience I learned that not everything that is green is grass. I learned that excessively close mowing also helped spread the weeds.

Gardening can be trial and error when it comes to weeds!

Smith County Master Gardeners are volunteer educators certified and coordinated by the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service.

Karl Han
Smith County Master Gardener