Monthly Garden Center Tips - August 2010
- Feed all your annuals & perennials with a liquid blossom booster to keep them healthy & blooming till fall.
- Put down a season long grub control this month. It will kill the grubs as the eggs hatch.
- Deadhead perennials to extend their blooming time.
- Wild birds set their feeding patterns in late summer. Fill your feeder a couple times a week to encourage them to come back in the winter.
- Fill in any bare spots with a late summer blooming perennial.
- Feed your lawn with Milorganite during the hot summer months.
- Spray now to elimate crab grass.
The Crabgrass “Explosion” and what the homeowner can do about it…
Crabgrass is an annual grassy weed that dies at the end of each season, after the first killing frost. It leaves behind many seeds which may germinate the following season, or may lie dormant for years.
Crabgrass is not a problem in the shade and is a weak competitor in a healthy thick turf. It rears its ugly head when a lawn has become thin.
Q. Why was there so much of it this summer?
A. A combination of factors. Temperatures in late winter were quite mild. Heavy snowfall in February and beyond provided an “insulating blanket” for the ground. As a result most soils were not frozen going into Spring 2010. This being the case, we experienced a lush spring growing season-for all types of plants including weeds.
The unusually hot weather that followed the lush spring was ideal for the early appearance of newly sprouted crabgrass seeds. At the same time, this stressed desirable cool season lawn grasses and their reaction is for their growth to slow down.
The lawns hit hardest are most likely older lawns containing common types of grasses. Also, many of these lawns have probably received a low level of maintenance over the years.
Q. How can I get rid of this crabgrass?
A. Since we are coming into fall, you cannot make it disappear this year. You do have a variety of options to protect your lawn from it’s seeds re-establishing next year.
Q. What are my options, and what steps should I take?
A. Next year you will have to apply a PRE-emergent herbicide, meant to kill crabgrass seeds left in your soil. Pick up a weed and feed product at your local garden center next spring. Be sure to ask for a product containing a herbicide specially intended to prevent crabgrass seed from sprouting. Ask questions as to the time of application, spreader setting rates, etc.
Q. RIGHT NOW IS THE IDEAL TIME TO START! WHY?
A. Tiny crabgrass plants get started in little bare spots in the lawn. The best defense against crabgrass is a thick lawn.
Fall is the ideal time to plant lawn seed!
Even though the crabgrass is still present, it will soon die. You can build for the future by planting lawn seed this Fall. Seed that is planted in the fall should be well enough established by next summer to help prevent another outbreak of crabgrass. Even so, if you had an outbreak this year, it is still recommended that you apply a weed and feed product containing a PRE-emergent crabgrass control (Gerlach’s has several to choose from).
If you do nothing now, and wait till next summer to apply the pre-emergent control, you will have to wait months before you can add new lawn seed. These pre-emergent chemicals are non-selective and will also kill newly planted lawn seeds. Always read the label and follow the instructions carefully!
Q. What kind of lawn seed should I plant?
A. Check with Gerlach’s and ask for their advice. Be sure to tell them everything about your conditions-sun or shade? Soil type? Irrigated? How often do you plan to fertilize? We will have an assortment of fresh bulk seed mixtures specially suited for this area. You will find top quality lawn seed products at Gerlach’s and our prices are quite reasonable and affordable.
Q. These patches of crabgrass are thick. How do I plant new lawn seed into them?
A. If you have isolated patches, these can be raked out with a steel tined garden rake-prior to planting lawn seed.
If the entire lawn is infested, you have several options. In all cases “scalp” the existing turf. Then you can do one of the following. These procedures are listed in order of effectiveness.
Option 1. Have Gerlach’s Property Maintenance apply your seed with a slit-seeder. This machine will cut small furrows into the soil and drop the seed into these slits. This creates the best seed/soil contact necessary for a good catch of your new seed.
Option 2. Have Gerlach’s Property Maintenance Department aerate your lawn. These machines pull out plugs of soil, and this is one of the healthiest things you can do for a lawn. The ground is receptive for seed and the holes allow moisture, sir and nutrients to reach the rootzone. The more cores the better!
Option 3. Mow closely and then simply broadcast over-seed the affected area with desirable lawn grasses. This may not be 100% effective since there is no seed/soil contact, but if done in the fall, results are often quite successful-and certainly better than doing nothing. Also, you can have Gerlach’s over-seed for you.
FOLLOW UP: When new seeds begin to show, add a started fertilizer. A repeat light fertilization is recommended in late Oct. or early November. Remember, the goal is to get the new, improved grasses thick and healthy before crabgrass time next year!
Q. Will I have to do this every year?
A. Crabgrass is seldom a problem in a healthy, properly maintained lawn.
