Thank Goodness It's Fall!!

TGIF! Well, maybe we're jumping the gun a little, but as August hits, it's the perfect time to prepare your lawn for fall.  Fall is a great time to control any active, stubborn weeds as well as aerate your lawn.  The soils from Huntington Valley to Skippack have very dense, clay soil.  This constricts the flow of air, water, and nutrients from reaching the root zone.  Core aeration helps alleviate soil compaction while exposing the thatch layer to air and water allowing it to decompose to a healthier level, typically 2/10".

Reduce thatch, alleviate soil compaction, and strengthen you root system by aerating this fall

  

Grubs...Coming to A Yard Near You

While it's yearly exercise to battle white grubs in your lawn in Southeastern Pa in July, in 2015, we're seeing a rise beetle activity which will relate to a banner year for grubs come the fall.  The excessive moisture we've received has been helpful for the lawns, but it will also help grub eggs survive the summer at a better pace and hatch come late August.  In addition, the moisture will also mask any stress the grubs' feeding can cause.  This will make the damage, come September, to suddenly appear, when, in fact, it's been happening over a number of weeks.  Learn more about controlling white grubs on our website.

All species of grubs will be active this fall in Southeastern PA

Battling the Brown

As we visit lawns from Trappe to Huntingdon Valley, we've gone from the driest May in years to some well-needed rain.  As a result, the conditions are prime for dollar spot disease.

This disease appears as white or tan spots of dead turf about the size of a silver dollar, hence the name dollar spot. On home lawns cut at 1 to 3 inches, dead areas may reach 2 to 4 inches in diameter. These spots may run together, producing large areas of dead turf. Affected leaves initially show yellow-green blotches, which progress to a light straw color with a reddish-brown margin. Occasionally, white mycelium can be seen covering affected leaves in early morning on dew-covered grass.  This mycelium can look like a web on top of the grass plants.

Mycelium covering indicating dollar spot disease

It's best managed culturally, typically, properly applied fertilizer will help grow the disease out.  It's also important to avoid late afternoon or nighttime watering, as this can aggravate the condition.  For the clay based soils of Southeastern PA, it is best to water deeply, typically 30-45 minutes per section, this time of year, 3-4 times per week.

If caught early, some simple cultural changes can avoid turf injury and the turf will recover.

How to Control Clover Effectively

If you see a little white flower with four leaves in your lawn, it doesn’t necessarily mean you have found a lucky charm – it means you have clover.   In fact, customers often call in and refer to “clover with yellow flowers”.  Actually, they are referring to an entirely different weed, known as oxalis or yellow woodsorell.

Both are perennial weeds which grow easily in lawns from Elkins Park to Phoenixville and are common throughout Pennsylvania. It became so widely found because grass mixes in the 1940s and 1950s commonly included a dose of clover and it stuck around.

Clover attracts bees because of the nectar in the flower and anyone who has experienced a bee sting on the bottom of their foot knows it isn’t a pleasant experience. Clover also reduces the uniformity of the grass because its texture, color, and growth rate are different from that of grasses.

The most commonly encountered form of clover is white clover. It is a shallow-rooted weed that grows easily in overly moist areas of your lawn as well as areas that are nitrogen depleted.  It is also a weed that actually competes with the existing turf and works to smother your desirable grass if left untreated. 

In some cases, Weed Man rotates in a specific product that specially targets clover and oxalis as well as other tough weeds, such as wild violets and ground ivy.

Clover Management Tips

·         A healthy lawn is a clover-free lawn – consistent fertilization and basic maintenance practices are musts.

·         Don’t let areas with excess moisture persist.

·         Keep phosphorous levels low.

Consistent application of a nitrogen based fertilizer to your lawn will help create a healthy, thick lawn and is one of the best deterrents of clover. Keeping the pH and nutrient levels consistent are important steps for keeping unwanted weeds out. Clover is especially fond of phosphorus in lawns so keep that in mind as you fertilize.

Here Come the Weeds Again...

Spring has finally sprung from Hatboro to Phoenixville, which means broadleaf weeds are back as well.  Here's some tips to help ensure the weeds, like wild onion, clover, and dandelion and nowhere to be seen on your lawn:

• Promoting a healthy lawn is the best defense against having severe weed problems.
•  Proper mowing and watering, regular fertilization and core cultivation when necessary are key ingredients in building a healthy lawn. 
• Most broadleaf weeds that invade lawns can be effectively controlled with the use of selective weed control materials that are currently available. 

Special attention and care is often needed to control certain types of persistent weeds.  In some cases, it may be necessary to rotate in different types of weed control to ensure the most effective, season-long control.

Prepare Your Lawn for Spring

From Springfield Township to King of Prussia, although we look outside and see mounds of snow, spring right around the corner. It is important to get an early start on your lawn care, here are some helpful hints to get you started. 

• ·         Disperse snow from shaded areas to sunny areas of your lawn to help the snow melt. This is will prevent from snow mold from forming. 

• ·         Avoid walking on your frozen lawn as it can damage it and cause problems in the future.

• ·         Once the lawn becomes visible break up and debris left over from the fall and let that lawn breath.

• ·         Let the lawn that and absorb the water before doing any work.

Once you start to see the grass give Weed Man a call at (610) 940-6900 we have licensed professionals who can answer any more questions you may have. For a free analysis of your lawn click here for a quote.

Planning for Spring

It's never too early to plan to get your lawn off on the right foot this spring.  If the weather predictions hold true for Montgomery and Chester Counties, we'll be fertilizing properties in early March, just six weeks away!  While it's still technically winter, here are a couple tips to care for your lawn now.

For starters, avoid excessive traffic on your lawn, especially when it's way below freezing.  Walking on the turf can damage the crowns of the grass plants, in some cases, this can cause damage to the turf when they come out of dormancy.  Secondly, if you didn't get all of those leaves up, try to find a mild day and do so, excessive leaf covers can smother the turf, which can cause discoloration or injury to the turf.

In the meantime, here's a valuable resource to whet your appetite for spring.  Virtually anything you'd like to learn about your Southeastern PA lawn is on this page.  If we missed something, drop us a line.