Early Spring Lawn Care

We’re midway through Winter and winter solstice has come and gone. If your like me in the southern states, you’ve had enough of the drab dormant conditions and can’t wait for Spring and the temperatures to increase.

Spring is really only a season to define the time of year, what we need to be more focused on is the temperatures like the minimum and maximum temperatures or better still the soil temperatures.  Don’t be tempted to be so regimented in a calendar, its about being aware of these temperatures and when you see these increase you will need to start paying more attention to any activity on your lawn.  This activity will be seen in some situations as weed pressure, Adult beetle pressure, disease pressure and also managing your lawn coming from dormancy.

So be prepared with the relevant herbicides to tackle the broadleaf weeds and the grassy weeds to suit you lawn variety Post Emergent Herbicides Options . Monitor Beetle activity as they prepare to mate for the seasons first cycle, they are quite active late winter early spring so why not control them at this stage to reduce the eggs laid going into spring, a knock down insecticide that has Bifenthrin is a good example. Knockdown Insecticides.  You might also want to look at applying or prepare to apply a Systemic Insecticide that will continue to protect you from any eggs that do get laid and hatch to become larvae or grubs. Acelepryn GR.  This two pronged attack is common practice amongst the leading turf professionals.  Be vigilant with the appearance of your lawn, look out for any patches or blemishes to the finish of the lawn.  Signs of cobweb like growth and sliminess as the temps increase will often indicate disease or disease favourable conditions.  Disease often is hard to identify and more importantly the type of disease identified, being sure of a positive ID is very important for the appropriate treatment. Contact Us if you need help with any of this.

Fertiliser timing is very important with your recovery from dormancy,  we tend to recommend to hold off the granular fertiliser or continue the liquid program through until you see steady consistent growth.  Normally a program incorporating a quality liquid fertiliser through winter will experience lawn growing sooner than a lawn that hasn’t.  Steady consistent growth tells us that the soil temps are reached and are maintaining temperature to sustain growth.  It’s at this point that we then recommend applying a quality slow release granular fertiliser suitable for spring or summer with a portion of upfront nutrition to push some fresh growth.

These products will vary on your lawn, the height of cut and the type of response you are looking for.  A great value fertiliser for a longer lawn can be found here.  A lower cut lawn will require a smaller granule found here.  Or if a highly manicured finish is your target or you have a small patch of lawn that you want the best this might be what you are looking for.

Whatever your requirements and whatever the situation the friendly support of Lawn Addicts has your back.

Bring on Spring!!