Wild Geranium

Year-round

Dove's-foot cranesbill is a small, fuzzy weed that shows up on its own in lawns, garden beds, and gravel around Atlanta. It is not something people plant on purpose, so care mostly means deciding how much of it you want to let grow versus pull.

• Expect a low, spreading plant only a few inches to about a foot tall, with soft hairy leaves and tiny pink-purple flowers.
• It seeds itself heavily. One plant left to flower can drop over 100 seeds that pop out of the pods and land nearby.
• It grows in average, even poor, dry to medium soil and does not need feeding or amending to survive.
• If you want it gone, hand-pulling is easy since the roots are shallow and fibrous. Pull before seed pods form to cut down on next year's crop.
• If you are keeping it as informal ground cover in a bed, just keep it from crowding out plants you actually want there.

Fall

Fall is when a new generation typically germinates in the Atlanta area, sprouting from seed dropped earlier in the year and settling in as small rosettes before winter.

• Look for new seedlings appearing in lawns, beds, and disturbed soil once fall rains start, roughly September into November here.
• Pull young seedlings now if you do not want a repeat next spring. They come out easily while small.
• A light layer of mulch, about 2 to 3 inches, over bare soil in beds helps crowd out new seedlings without any other work.
• No fertilizing needed. Leave it be if you are fine with it filling in as informal winter ground cover.

Winter

Atlanta winters (USDA zone 8a to 8b, average last frost around March 21 and first frost around November 13) are mild enough that this plant usually rides out the season as a small green rosette rather than dying back completely.

• Expect low, ground-hugging rosettes of hairy leaves sitting through winter, ready to bolt and flower once spring warms up.
• No winter protection is needed. It handles average frost in this zone without help.
• If it is growing somewhere you do not want it, this is an easy season to hand-pull it while it is small and before it flowers.
• In a front-yard bed, a tidy edge and a fresh mulch layer keep a rosette-covered patch from reading as neglected over winter.

Fresh mulch and a clean bed edge keep a winter rosette patch looking like a deliberate ground cover choice instead of an unkempt weed patch.

Spring

Spring is when this plant is most visible in Atlanta yards, since it is finishing its life cycle right as everything else wakes up. Plants that overwintered as small rosettes bolt, flower, and start dropping seed through this season.

• Watch for the small pink-purple flowers opening from around March into May in the Atlanta area.
• Pull unwanted plants as soon as you see flower buds, before the seed pods form and eject seed nearby.
• No fertilizer or extra water is needed. It is already thriving on rainfall and average soil.
• If it is coming up thick in a lawn, mowing at a normal height before it sets seed will knock back that year's spread without needing herbicide.

A quick pull or mow before the flowers go to seed keeps front lawns and beds looking tidy and intentional rather than weedy.

Summer

By Atlanta's hot, humid summer, most dove's-foot cranesbill from the spring flush has already finished flowering and died back, since it is a short-lived annual or biennial rather than a plant that lasts all year.

• Expect the older plants to brown and disappear on their own by early to mid summer heat.
• Clear out dead plant material from beds so it does not look messy, and to remove any seed pods still clinging on.
• No watering or feeding is needed. This plant does not carry a summer growing phase the way many garden perennials do.
• Keep an eye out for a second, smaller flush after summer thunderstorms loosen the soil, and pull those seedlings early if you do not want more next spring.