Weeds, Weeds, Weeds… :(

This has been one of the worst years I can recall for weeds. It seems like no matter what we spray or how much, there is a different weed popping up every week. The reason for this is pretty simple… Remember all the torrential downpours we’ve had this year? Really since last fall. What’s happening is that all the rain has pushed our pre-emergent down too far to be effective. This is letting weeds come in to yards which in the years past have been mostly weed-free.

We’ve had many customers that have been using us for years, call in to say “I’m not sure what’s wrong, but my lawn just doesn’t look as good this year as it has in the past.” Once, I explain the effect all the rain has had on the lawn treatments, they understand and it makes sense. The main culprit this year has been goosegrass. Usually it’s in just a few areas where the main turf is weak, but we’ve had some lawns that have been completely covered with it this year. You can tell goosegrass because the center of the plant is white or really light colored. It’s not deeply rooted but it grows much quicker than bermuda grass and it is very hard to kill. Usually to get good control of it, the product we use will “burn” your lawn. It’s nothing to be too concerned about, your lawn will return to normal within a couple of weeks.

I appreciate that our customers have been very understanding and patient with us as we work through this year, and hopefully we are getting the lawns cleaned up quick enough for everyone. If yours has a lot of weeds, just let us know and we will either do a service call for you if it’s been less than 5 weeks since your last treatment. Or we will do the next treatment for you. I also want to personally apologize if your lawn has not looked as good this year, and I want to reassure you that we are doing everything we can to clean them up as quickly as possible. We are also going to make some changes to the way we apply pre-emergents next year to hopefully combat this problem. One thing about the lawn business is that  every year throws something different at us. We make adjustments and then there will be something new a year or two down the road. You either love it or it will drive you crazy. We are always in pursuit of the perfect program to have perfect lawns, but something always changes.