What a crazy St. Louis Winter and start of Spring

Well, the mild winter and warm spring has lawns growing like crazy all over the St. Louis area.

Pre-emergent Fertilizer
This year we started with our pre emergent fertilizing towards the end of February. And it’s a good thing we did too. The weather was unusually warm throughout march. I think it was one of the warmest marches in history here in St. Louis. This caused crabgrass seeds to start germinating earlier than normal. Every thing this year is about three weeks ahead of schedule. So the pre emergent that normally has to be on the yard by early to mid April, needed to be down on the lawn in mid march.

Weed Control
The chick weed is everywhere this year. Chick weed is a cool season weed that thrives in the cooler temperatures. So our mind winter allowed this weed to thrive. Chickweed can be controlled by a broadleaf weed spray. Remember that broadleaf weeds typically don’t start thriving until mid April, so they will keep popping up even if you already sprayed them once. Two weed control applications might be necessary this year to control all of the broadleaf weeds.

Lawn Mowing
Remember that regular lawn mowing is the most important thing for your lawn. Don’t let your grass get so long where you are unable to cut it. This will cause damage to the grass and overall health of your lawn. Also don’t cut your lawn so low thinking that you wont have to cut it as often. This will damage the lawn and expose the soil to the sun and allow weeds to infiltrate the lawn.