2017 has started out nicely with some timely rainfalls to keep most of you from having to water your lawn. It has also helped us move closer to getting out of the drought we’ve been suffering from for the last few years. The winter storms are helping us replenish our water supplies but they’re also helping germinate all of those of those summer annual weeds in the soil. The good news is weeds are relatively easy to contain. There are some types such as annual bluegrass, crabgrass, and nutsedge that are a little more complicated but timing pre-emergent herbicide applications can save you a lot of headaches with weed control. In this blog I will go over various weeds and some ways to control them as well as discuss herbicide timing.

Weed control management is a function of several different factors but some of the things you can do to keep your lawn healthy are maintain the proper mowing height, don’t overwater your lawn, fertilize monthly, and aerate the turf when the soil becomes compacted. These items right here can be the difference between weeds slowly emerging in your lawn and taking over your lawn. A healthy lawn will push out weeds and keep them to a minimum. If you have very few weeds emerge during the year chemical application is unnecessary and weeds can be pulled by hand as they appear.

Crabgrass

Nutsedge

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Last week it was raining and in the low 60’s and this week we will be pushing the low 80’s. Everyone knows that the rain is great for our lawns but it is also great for producing weeds.

As we move through February it is important to think about your lawn from the previous year. Did you have weed issues? Were you constantly pulling spurge out of the lawn during the summer? Even if you didn’t have a bad case of this last year you should still think about putting down a pre-emergent herbicide. The window to apply these is from now until the end of February. If you miss the window and the seedlings have already germinated you can bet you will be on your hands and knees this summer pulling weeds out of your turf.

AutoStack Sod Harvester

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Over the last few weeks I have really tried to hammer down the importance of getting your lawn healthy by using the proper fertilizers and learning how to properly water your lawn.  Today I want to discuss some of our more prevalent weeds in the desert southwest for turfgrass and what can be done if you have them in your lawn.

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Many homeowners in older neighborhoods have seeded their lawns with common bermudagrass to fix areas or to establish new lawns.  Now they have realize they can’t seem to get rid of it when they want to.  This is one of the most difficult grasses to eradicate, but I am going to tell you a way that will save some of the pain and help reduce the problem.  Read the rest of this entry »

Our recent rain storms have been great to help move the salts through the soil, and provide our grass with the best kind of irrigation out there.  But it also means that we will start to see our weeds emerge from the ground. Not good if you want to have the best sodded lawn in California! Read the rest of this entry »