Upcoming Lawn Care Treatments

Here are the treatments going on this month:

Liquid Fertilizer and Broadleaf weed control– Premium Program. All of the broadleaf weeds that run rampant in the springtime have already germinated and are lying low in the grass. If you look closely, you will see chickweed, henbit, and other cool season broadleaf weeds at their beginning stage. This treatment will knock out these weeds before they start to really grow, bloom, and produce seeds as the weather warms up over the next few months. Those in the Premium Program will also have an excellent fertilizer product mixed in to maintain some color now help your lawn green up quickly as the growing season begins. 

Liquid Broadleaf Weed Control– Basic program will get the liquid weed control described above without the extra fertilizer. We will also follow up during the spring with spot weed control spraying for any areas where weeds pop up for both Basic and Premium Programs.

Pre-emergent crabgrass control– Premium and Basic Program. I will be using a combination of pre-emergent products this year. We will start out in late Feb/early March (timing depends on soil temps) with a premium pre-emergent called Barricade that provides 6 months of crabgrass control. This will be followed up with an application of Dimension pre-emergent that also provides post-emergent control in case there is any weed break-through.

If you are on the Basic Lawn Care Program and want to receive any of the extra treatments, please contact me to discuss.

Crepe Myrtle Pruning

Crepe myrtles are common in our landscapes because they bloom all summer long, peeling bark creates interest, and they are as tough as they are beautiful. This time of year you will see many neighbors and contractors pruning crepe myrtles, unfortunately many of them are doing it the WRONG way.

Many believe chopping down the Crepe is required to produce summer blooms– this is not true at all! Your tree will be just fine and bloom through the summer if you never prune it; however, your Crepe will bloom more profusely with larger blooms if it is lightly pruned from the canopy.

Others severely cut back their Crepes to control size. If the tree is too big for the space, you probably have the wrong plant in that space and should think about replacing it with something more appropriate. There are many varieties of Crepe Myrtles, some even maturing at a size of 5’-15’ so if the right variety is chosen, little maintenance will be required.

The best practice to take when pruning Crepe Myrtles is to selectively prune to promote its natural tree form and maximize blooming. This is done by pruning off shoots that grow out of the canopy, pruning out “suckers”, pruning rubbing or crossing interior branches, and keeping the trunks limbed up. Ideally, the tree should have 3-5 trunks and the trunks should be half the trees height.

Remember, blooms come from new growth so your pruning needs to be done before Spring. Please call me to schedule your Crepe Myrtle pruning– done the right way.

Cool Season Weeds

So far its been a very mild start to the Winter. That means all the broadleaf weeds that have germinated and usually start to flower in Spring have already started to grow out and flower. We will be starting a liquid broadleaf application a little earlier than usual to nip these broadleaf weeds before they mature.

Poa Annua Control- DO IT NOW!

Its been a pretty good Fall and Winter for lawn care. Once we got through the brutal Summer and nutsedge infestations, the conditions were much better for lawn renovations and getting new grass established. So far your lawn has received the first winter feeding and we’ll do one more for our Premium Lawn Care Programs to get through the winter.

I’ll also be taking soil samples and getting a soil analysis for all new Premium Program customers.

This Fall I am trying a new product ProGrass that controls the dreaded Poa Annua weed, only on lawns that we’ve had a problem with the weed. We’ve seen this insidious weed take over problem turf areas during the Spring and up to this year there has been no effective or economical solution. The first treatment goes down late November/early December and then a follow up treatment 3 weeks later. I’m hoping for good results with ProGrass, I’m looking forward to finding out next Spring...

Although weeds are much more noticeable in the Spring, this is the time for winter broadleaf weeds to germinate such as chickweed, henbit, etc. I will be spraying a selective herbicide this month to eliminate these weeds, I like to wait until the new grass from renovations has had time to take root and become strong enough to take the stress from herbicide application. 

Next month I’ll be going over the complete turf and shrub application schedule for our programs. 

Irrigation Winterization

Seems like the winters have gotten harsher the last couple of years and every January I get a couple of calls from customers whose backflow has frozen and burst because the system was not winterized.  We will be scheduling irrigation winterization shut downs starting in late November and going through December with my irrigation sub Ron Pepper. Or I also recommend Rainmaker Irrigation (704-596-6200) if you prefer to set it up yourself.

Here is the process:

The water is shut off at the meter or shut off valve. The backflow is drained and taken apart so no water can freeze and expand. An air compressor is hooked to the backflow and each zone is blown out so no water remains in the pipes. Access to the irrigation timer is needed to do the winterization.

This service usually costs $75-$95 depending on the number of zones in your system.

Please call or email to confirm that you want me to coordinate your irrigation winterization with Ron.