Battling Crabgrass
In the journey to a healthy, weed-free, lawn, crabgrass can pose quite the treat. This weed gets its name from the way it stretches out from one central root (similar to how the legs of a crab sprawl out from its body) and maintains a profile low to the ground. Crabgrass is a warm season annual weed, but don’t let the word “annual” scare you. This weed CAN be prevented every spring!
Preventing Crabgrass
1. Pre-Emergent Herbicide
By having a quality pre-emerge applied, the odds of crabgrass are drastically reduced. To ensure your pre-emerge application is effective, it is best to have a licensed professional do the application. Pre-emerge must be applied not only in the correct amount, but also during the correct time of year. Crabgrass can still germinate despite using a quality pre-emergent, but usually only along the edges of: lawns, sidewalks, driveways and other impervious surfaces.
2. Maintaining A Thick Lawn
Ensuring that you have a lush, thick, lawn is one of the best defenses against crabgrass! If the grass in your lawn is thick, then sunlight will struggle to get to any crabgrass seeds which they would need in order to sprout.
Lawn Maintenance
How exactly do you achieve that thick lawn to choke out the crabgrass? The good news is, there are several steps you can take (based on what your lawn currently looks like) that will promote thicker grass in your lawn.
Reduce Compacted Soil: If you notice that your ground is pretty hard, odds are the soil is compacted. Compacted soil prevents water, air, and nutrients from getting to the roots of your grass. This leads to a thin lawn, and plenty of room for weeds to creep in. Compacted soil can be loosened by having your lawn aerated! You can rent an aerator and do it yourself, or you can hire someone to do the labor.
Increase Mowing Height: If you are cutting your grass too short, you are actually increasing your chances of weeds! To avoid this, make sure your lawn mower is set to a 3 – 3.5″ cutting height and the blades are sharp.
If you would like more information on our weed control program, please fill out a quote request form here or give the office a call at 901-494-9088.
